Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!
Today's gospel (Jn 14:1-12) is taken from Jesus' speeches to the apostles at the Last Supper. Two expressions of Jesus are particularly striking. He said: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms ... I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
The first expression is a consoling promise: "I'm going to prepare a place for you". It is a fascinating perspective, a clear indication of a destination for all those who are uncertain about the meaning of their lives, for those who are disappointed by mortifying experiences, for those to whom the boundaries of this life must be narrowed. It's like when a traveler gets lost during the journey, he doesn't know how to orient himself anymore but he recovers new enthusiasm if someone shows him the way; like those who loiter in slippers and don't decide to move because they don't know a place that is worth the commitment of the journey, they immediately organize themselves if they are offered a suitable one: so for all those who are lost and indolent it is a good stimulus to know they have a purpose. And for those who have embarked on adventures to the spasm, when they realize they have been reckless but feel they have no alternative, it is a comfort to know that they can always change.
Therefore: for me, as for every other past human being present or future, there is a place that is already prepared, with my name written on it, so that I need not fear if someone faster or smarter comes to take it away from me: either I will occupy it, or it will remain empty.
But what is this place? Is it an inviting, desirable place? And won't it be too tiring to get there? Explicit or implicit, these are the questions of everyone, to which Peter, in the second reading (First Letter of Peter 2:4-9) answers, recalling first of all our dignity: "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light”. Jesus answers in a simpler way but with even more compelling words: "I will take you with me, that where I am you may also be". To be with Him forever: is there a better prospect? And if it also requires commitment, is it not worth it?
Commitment: which one? In which direction? How can we reach the place that has been prepared for us? Thomas asked Jesus these same questions and Jesus answered with the second basic expression of today's gospel: "I am the way, the truth and the life. To get to that place, to reach the only goal that can give meaning to our going year after year, day after day, Christ is the way: that is, we must adhere to Him, follow His footsteps, trust His travel directions. Because He is the only one who has always given the right directions; in the din of voices that rumble in and around us, among the many self-styled teachers who machine gun us with teachings through television screens or the press, it is necessary to distinguish "His" voice, because Christ is not one but "the" truth.
And in the face of the immense efforts of science which succeeds in giving only a few more days to our life, we must always remember: Jesus is the only one capable of breaking down the barrier of the earthly conclusion of our life; Christ is life, the true, total, endless life. He, in His immeasurable goodness, intends to communicate His Life to those who decide to accept it, following in His footsteps. " ..And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.."
On January 29, 1933, Luisa was thinking of the many truths that Jesus has manifested to her about the Divine Will, and many thoughts crowded her mind with surprises, with joys, with deep emotion, on these truths. They seemed to be descending from Heaven, all in order, to fill the earth, and their crafting was that of forming the way within themselves, to let us enter back into these truths; and they walled themselves up around the creatures so as not to let them go out. And Jesus, visiting her little soul, told her that each truth He manifested on His Divine Will was nothing other than a further approachment toward the creatures. As the Supreme Being spoke, so It took an additional step toward them, placed one more divine particle at their disposal, and laid new bonds of union and of love. God’s word is always a birth from Him; it is His Verbum that He puts on the way from Heaven to seek His longed-for creature; and His Sacrosanct Trinity, drawn by the power of the Word, because He is inseparable from Him, takes His steps along, and step by step He draws near, there where His word reaches.
When God decides to manifest a truth by means of His Word, since it is a part of Himself that He issues outside, His Supreme Being takes on an unusual appearance; a new joy invests Him, a communicative force of new beatitudes comes out of Him. The whole of Heaven, in seeing His unusual appearance, already realizes that He is about to issue a word of truth of Him, because the Three Divine Persons are the first to celebrate the truths that God issues; and then the whole of Heaven together with Him.
These are the gifts of the great King, who can move everything, invests everything; it is God’s word, which has the creative, vivifying, transforming virtue, and at times it knocks down, it crushes, it shatters everything, and upon the ruins it makes arise the virtue of His word, and there it forms the most beautiful things, the new creation, such works of magnificence as to astonish Heaven and earth. God’s Fiat, transformed into word of truth, possesses invincible virtue, unreachable power, unshakeable firmness of the good it wants to form in the power of the speaking Fiat.
When God puts out His truths, they act powerfully over His Divine Being, because if they come out, they want to give the life and the good that they possess; and at the same time they want to dispose the creatures to draw near the fount from which they sprang, to transform them into the good of the truth itself. Everything is in whether a new truth comes out of God; at the most, ages and centuries may pass, but this says nothing, because they are armed not only with power, but with invincible and divine patience, and they do not tire in waiting - they are untiring, they are inflexible: first they must give the good that they have, the life that they possess, and then, triumphant and victorious, they send back to Heaven the fruits that they have conquered. Therefore, we should be attentive in listening to God’s truths; first we should think where they come from, who it is that offers them to us, the good that they want to do to us, the steps of approachment on both sides. And neither should we to put them in doubt because we do not see in the world the effects, the good, the life that God’s truths possess. Time will do and tell everything; for now, let’s take on our part; our Jesus will take care of the rest.