Location: Travis Park
As you stand here today, ready to walk, who do you follow? Who do we follow? Are we simply a crowd, flowing like a mudslide? Or are we a people, with a shared identity and sense of purpose? When Jesus sees you, what does He see? Today, everything revolves around Jesus, on the cross, at the center of our lives.
From the moment of the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple, Simeon said to Mary, his mother: “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Lk 2:34-35). Before the merciful gaze of Jesus – who walks towards the total surrender of Himself to save us – we cannot remain indifferent. His docility to the Father’s will contradicts our vanity, our greed, our selfishness.
He contradicts our sin and reveals our thoughts. Do we have the courage to hold his gaze? Or would we rather hide in the crowd, faking anonymity before Him?
Jesus wishes to save us and transform our lives. As we encounter Jesus and experience his immense love for us, our indifference is fatally wounded. If we allow his merciful gaze to pierce our hearts, He may allow us into his heart to experience his same feelings. He wants to save us from the anonymity of the crowds who accuse him, and turn us into living members of God’s Holy People. The ultimate instrument of death is turned by Jesus into the instrument for our salvation. He embraces and carries his cross, as he embraces and carries us, on our way to share his life after the Resurrection. Our sins become the instrument for God to reveal the dimension of his mercy.
Jesus destroys all sin and promises us eternal life.
God cares to such a degree about human suffering, that he became man to reveal the depths of his heart to us through the cross. There is no suffering which does not fit in the cross of Christ. As Pope Francis has said, “The Cross is the greatest sign of the greatest love, the love with which Jesus wants to embrace our lives.” The cross of Christ is the historical demonstration that God is love.
What does Jesus see when he looks at you with pure love, even though you do not love yourself nearly as much as he loves you? Let us allow our hearts to merge with the heart of Jesus, so that the fruit of God’s mercy for us may be our mercy for our everyone around us. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to allow us to see through the eyes of Jesus.
May the gaze of Jesus help us overcome the gregarious instinct of crowds to become fully aware of our identity as God’s People. We have been made children of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, by the merits of his cross.
