MEDITATION OF THE DAY
Joining Jesus’ Family
Christians are truly that family about whom Jesus speaks…. We, and all those who want to do God’s will, are Jesus’ “mother” and “brothers and sisters.” That is why it is easy for us to meet one another and to love each other! May those Christians who pray, and who come to know Mary and to experience the love of the Eucharist, never be divided…. Because Jesus lives in us, what identifies us as Christians is our capacity to love and, above all, to forgive, to reconcile, and to trust in order to begin again.
We are joyful, for we encounter each other through faith in Jesus, the Bread of Life. When we’re struggling to live, to love, to help our neighbor, and to forgive ourselves and others, we have to remember that we are weak, precisely because we do not eat and nourish ourselves with the Bread of Life. We know the source of all strength: the Eucharist. That is why Jesus gave himself to us! When we’re struggling to be good, the interior alarm rings out, “Go reconcile yourself with the people around you; go to confession. Free yourself from your sin, and go receive nourishment from the Bread of Life.”…
Sitting before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, a new life begins. Another birth takes place: eternal life within us! We tell you all this from experience, for we contemplate these miracles each day. Resurrection truly exists! We experience it within us daily! We do not see Jesus with our eyes, but rather in the transformation of our lives, where Jesus loves to be and desires that we experience his love. Therefore, we see our own transformation day after day, through friendship, sharing our lives, working, playing, and suffering with him. Jesus shows himself to us in our transfiguration. This is the concrete experience of living before Jesus in the Eucharist! It is wonderful to know that I can be young at seventy years old! Even if my knees ache, it doesn’t matter. Hope in the power of love, and the strength to help everyone with great joy brings the dead back to life and makes seventy-year-olds become children again!
Mother Elvira Petrozzi
Mother Elvira is the foundress of Comunità Cenacolo, which welcomes the lost and desperate in seventy-one houses in twenty countries. [From Sparks of Light: From the Heart of Mother Elvira, Comunità Cenacolo, The Association of St. Lawrence. www.comunitacenacolo.it. Used with permission.]
