Today's Gospel invites us to focus our hopes in the very Jesus. John Paul II has, in this regard, written that «our salvation would not come from a formula, but from a Person and the certitude this Person instills into us: ‘I am here, in your midst!’».
God —who is Father too— has not gone back on us: «Christianism is a state of grace, it is the surprise of a God that, not satisfied by the creation of the world and of man, has decided to side by his creature» (John Paul II).
We find ourselves beginning Lent: let us not ignore the opportunity the Church is offering us: «Now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation» (2Cor 6:2). After looking at Our Lord Jesus Christ's suffering face during his Passion, shall we still dare asking for additional evidence of His Love? «For He had made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him» (2Cor 5:21). Even more: «He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not, along with him, also freely give us all things? (Rm 8:32). Do we still pretend more signs?
In Christ's bloodstained face «there is greater than Solomon (...); here, there is greater than Jonah» (Lk 11:31-32). This suffering face of the last hour, of the hour of the Cross is «a mystery within the mystery, in front of which human beings should prostate in worship». Indeed, «to return the face of the Father to men, Jesus had, not only to take on man's face, but to suffer the “face” of sin, too» (John Paul II). Do we want more signs?
«Behold, the man!» (Jn 19:5): herein lies the great sign. Let us watch it from the silence of the “desert” prayer: «What every Christian has to do at all times [to pray], he ought to do it now more carefully and more devotedly: we shall then abide by the apostolic institution of the forty days» (Saint Leo the Great, pope).