The Only One Who Makes Us Well

As Jesus said: anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.  In this way, he underscores the paradoxical nature of this law: happiness through sacrifice.  And the more one accepts this, the more one experiences a greater completeness already in this world.  Jesus calls it peace….

In his Letter to the Romans, the cry with which Saint Paul ends his observations is the same human cry to which Jesus Christ is the answer: What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? (Rm 7:24)   This cry is the only starting point which enables a man to take the proposal of Christ into serious consideration.  If a man cares nothing for this question, how can he understand the answer?  To be myself, I need someone else: Cut off from me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5).  Jesus taught us that whoever accepts his message of salvation cannot avoid facing himself with sincerity, cannot avoid being realistic in his consideration of man.  Alone, we cannot be ourselves.  No one can come to the Father except through me (Jn 14:6).  This is the same as saying, one more time, that man cannot realise himself unless he accepts the love of Another — Another who has a precise name, who independently of your will died for you: A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13).  He said this of himself: I am the resurrection.  If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live (Jn 11:25).

This redemption is not accomplished automatically.  It is essential to accept the help Jesus Christ offered to us and to collaborate actively with him.  This happens in a love that is free....  Jesus Christ is the one who will continually give man back the power to choose well — to be free: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free.