PRAYING “LA PAROLA DEL PADRE”
A profound and intimate knowledge of Christ
Scripture reading (Mt 16:14–19)
And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Eli′jah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death[e] shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Confortian response
Parola del Padre 50, April–June 1924
“We must acquire a deeper knowledge of Christ than what is asked of the ordinary members of the faithful because we are bound to follow him more closely, and our fidelity and love will also depend on how well we know him. We must also possess a more intimate knowledge of Christ because we are destined to make him known and loved by others. The non-believers, to whom we will be sent one day, will say to us as they once said to the Apostles: ‘we wish to see Jesus’ (Jn 12:21b).
Personal reflection
Bishop Conforti says that “we must not be satisfied with a superficial knowledge of Jesus”, but that “we must possess a more intimate knowledge of him because we are destined to make him known and loved by others”.
He wants us to see Jesus as a living person, a “center of interest that penetrates and influences our life in every way. Jesus, a living person who is loved and experienced in the same way as by John who, many years after the Ascension, wrote to his Christians: “That which has existed since the beginning, that we have heard, and we have seen with our own eyes; that we have watched and touched with our hands: the Word, who is life” (1Jn 1:2). Like Mary Magdalene, we must sit down at his feet and listen to his words of life.
Bishop Conforti advises us “to withdraw from human conversation to listen to the words that Jesus speaks to the heart”.
We must set aside some time, apart from the time we dedicate to the liturgy, meditation and the Divine Office, for intimate conversation with Jesus. “You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’” (Mk 6:31).
In order to know Jesus personally, we must study his gestures and his way of doing things. We will discover him as a humble and meek man, who is patient with the apostles, preaches with great simplicity, withdraws alone “long before dawn, to a lonely place” (Mk 1:35), who cries over Jerusalem and is moved at the sight of the crowds (Fr. Amato Danigno).