June

Among a group of young people, I often meet someone who tells me: “I cannot see or hear the living God, the Risen Lord of whom you speak”.  They say this with a hint of challenge, yet their faces reflect sadness and a desire, almost as if they are aware that they need to see, to touch, and to feel the living God, so that they can also be brought back to life.  I ask them: “Have you opened the door to Him?  Have you tried for just one moment to say: Lord, I need you!”
The door to our hearts has only one handle, one that can be opened only from the inside. When He knocks we are the only ones who can open it for Him.  He wants to come inside to make us happy, to fill us with joy.  And when He enters, it is like the coming of spring after a long winter: our hearts are opened with a beautiful smile.  I always say to young men that the first thing we must do when we wake up in the morning is to smile at our own lives.  We should be in love with that stupendous gift: life that has been given to us for a new day.  Then the sun can enter your heart, and from there everything is illuminated.  Why should we cry now?  The times of darkness, sadness, desperation, and fear are over: Jesus is risen and we are not alone.  He gives us the Holy Spirit, The Love with which the Father loves Him and with which He loves us.
We often ask ourselves: “Where is love? What is it?”
Love is a journey with many steps that involve our whole self: we must enter the path of love and start to walk in forgiveness, kindness, mercy, patience…
Love must begin with our minds, from clean, fresh thoughts; then our eyes must display hope, joy, positivism; our ears must listen in a new way; our mouths are for smiling and bringing courage for the gift of life, for living a peaceful silence that heals our instinctive reactions which speak more than many words… and then our whole life can learn a  new language made up of authentic, true, and gratuitous gestures.
How many saints had the courage to change: people with infinite interior violence, and at a certain moment they became very sweet, meek, quiet, because they let the Holy Spirit work in them.  By looking at them we can say that love exists, that the Holy Spirit is not a ghost but a living presence that really transforms us.
I have always thought of the Holy Spirit as a good and lively child, full of imagination and life that always invents many nice, new, and true things, one right after the other: this is Love.  In order to meet this child we must humble ourselves, make ourselves like children: this is why our young people offer to kneel down in prayer, to recognize ourselves as small and needy, to meet the Truth of Love.  Without that meeting we are not capable of authentic human gestures: not capable of smiling, crying, mercy, patience, peace, or kind gestures.
Let’s allow ourselves to be invaded by this light, this fire, this love, by His presence: The Holy Spirit is everything that we need.
He is the giver of gifts and He wants to give us extraordinary gifts.  He wants to transform our hearts and our pasts.  He wants to heal our deep wounds and give us peace within ourselves.
Let’s invoke Him with insistence: He, who has come down on Mary and the Apostles, let Him come down on us and make us new men and women, raised with Christ.

Print this page