Monday 5th week of Easter
"Jn 14:21-26"
"He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?"
This same question has been asked many times in history: Why does Jesus reveal Himself to only some people? Why am I a Christian and my neighbour is not? Why doesn't God manifest Himself to everyone? The Apostles had been chosen by Jesus to spend more time with Him. He taught them all they had to know and then, sent them to preach to the 'whole world'. And so, like the links of a chain, all the others depended on them.
God has created every human being to love Him and be happy. Everyone in the depths of their heart longs for happiness, goodness and beauty. They long for God. And God plans to meet everyone. However, why don't they find Him? Maybe because they are not in the habit of listening to their hearts for that longing. That's where you and I have work to do.
Have you ever swum in cold water and accidentally cut or bruised your skin without noticing it? Eventually, someone may have drawn your attention to it or you went out of the water and saw the blood but felt no pain. The reason is that cold numbs your skin's sensitivity. In the same way, the absence of God in the world, the coldness of the spiritual life, can have this effect in people's souls. They feel no longing for God because they feel nothing at all. The continuous rumble and racket, the ceaseless rush and activity, numbs their souls and makes them oblivious to the fact that their souls are bleeding for God, for true happiness.
When those people get out of the water, out of themselves, they get a bit warmer and gradually begin to feel the wound. Then they will want to go to the Doctor. The mission of Christians is, in the words of St JosemarÃa, to strive to 'raise the spiritual temperature' so that people will feel the loss of God and will want to search Him out. Mary, my Mother, may I raise the spiritual temperature around me, with my Christian life, to help everyone feel their need of God.
