108th Meditation on God the Father
Our Father loves to be close to us. This is how He expresses it in the Message to Mother Eugenia:
“Realize then, o men, that for all eternity I have had but one desire, to make Myself known to men and be loved by them. I wish to stay for ever with them!” (Father’s Message to Sister Eugenia Ravasio).
Since the fall into sin, when we lost the familiar and trusting relationship with God, the Father has not ceased to seek us. His longing resounds in the first words He addressed to Adam after he succumbed to temptation: “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9). Again and again He repeats this question, which we could understand as, “Do you no longer know me? Do you not know that I seek you?”
In Old Testament times, God dwelt in the midst of His people through the Ark of the Covenant:
“Why did I command Moses to build a tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, if not to come and dwell, as a Father, a brother, a close friend, with My creatures, men?” (Father’s message to Sr. Eugenia Ravasio).
With the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Father also came to be in the midst of us.
Philip asks Jesus to “show us the Father” (Jn 14:8), and Jesus replies: “Whoever sees me sees the Father” (v. 9). Thus the Lord makes His disciples understand how close the Father has come to us in the Person of His Son, “to seek out and save what was lost” (Lk 19:10), to lead us back home and to grant us eternal life.
Day after day God seeks us out and comes to meet us. He always speaks to us and lets us understand how much He loves us: in His Word, in the holy sacraments, by putting His dwelling place in our hearts, and in so many other ways that His love manifests itself to us…