Divo Barsotti
My dear brothers, what the Lord has told us is an immense thing. He did not say it only to me, he did not even say it only to those in the community who have made religious vows, he also said it to all of you who do not even think about making vows. Whether you make vows or not, the fact remains that you were created by him; to make them or not to make them does not detract from the fact that your journey has a single goal beyond death, beyond this short period of time that the Lord has given us to be able to welcome him as he has chosen us. Because this is the reason for our life: he has chosen us from eternity.
God’s choice must be confirmed by our choice. Remember the last words that Jesus said before going up to heaven, according to the Gospel of St. John “Simon of John, do you love me more than these?” They are his last words. The whole life of Jesus is the key to obtaining our answer. May your life be a response of love to his infinite love! A response that passes through that journey of life that the Lord wanted for each of you: marriage, profession … But always an answer to him alone, because if you do not answer to God, your life amounts to nothing. With death, there remains only God. In God is everything, but only in God. And if you have not chosen God, your whole life will sink into nothingness, into emptiness. It is hell. There is nothing left. Those who have land will no longer be able to administer it, those who have buildings no longer know what to do with them, those who have wealth can no longer use it. When death comes and God has been chosen, God is eternal, and he remains; but if God has not been chosen, even the greatest things that we have possessed here below will be taken away from us forever. Not only earthly goods, but also the greatest goods, which are the people we love. If we do not choose God, even children will be taken away from us forever; if we do not choose God, the person who could be our bride or our bridegroom will be taken away from us forever.
This is why our journey, although different for each one, has only one goal: the Lord. If he has chosen us, we too must choose him; here is our answer. This is why Saint Paul says in the Letter to the Colossians: “He has already transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.” Through the sacrament of the Eucharist, we tend to contemplate his face, we want to rest in him. Through our choice of God, nothing is taken away from us. If we do not choose God, everything is taken away from us; if we choose God, everything is given to us. This is because creation does not make a deal with God. Creation is part of God. So also the people we love, we will find them in God, but without him, we will have lost everything.
Here, then, is what is imposed with the consecration we have made. I told you that living in marriage or outside marriage is secondary because in both cases the journey always ends in the possession of God. And in God we will also possess everything that we seemed to have renounced. In reality, whoever wants to possess God renounces nothing because in God we are given the possession of everything. And if tomorrow I possess God, in God I possess everything.
(From “Che Dio vi parli”, Chorabooks 2016, translated by Aurelio Porfiri. Image: kalhh at pixabay.com)
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