We need to recognize the moment in which "we have been visited, we are
visited and we will be visited to open the door to Jesus" and answer the
'' crazy love of God for His people." This was the grace that Pope Francis prayed for at Mass this morning in Santa Marta, inspired by the Gospel passage that tells of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, which did not recognize the time of her visitation from God.
Jesus weeps because he remembers the story of "his people." On the one hand this “immeasurable love of God” and on the other "the selfish response of the people, discouraged, adulterous, idolatrous": a "crazy love of God for His people," said Francis, "would seem blasphemous but it is not. "In fact, Jesus remembers footsteps of the prophets, such as Hosea and Jeremiah, when they express God's love for Israel.
Also in the day's Gospel, Jesus complains: "because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." "That 's what pains Jesus Christ, this story of infidelity, this story of failing to recognize God’s caresses, the love of God, a God of love who is searching for you, to see whether you are happy. Jesus saw in that moment what awaited him as the Son. And he wept ... 'For this people did not recognize the time when it was visited'. This drama is not just something that happened in history and ended with Jesus. It is an everyday drama. It is even my drama. Can any of us say: 'I know and recognize the time in which I have been visited? Does God visit me? ' ".
In this regard, the Pope recalled that the day before yesterday the liturgy reflected on three moments of God's visit: to correct, to enter into dialogue, and "to invite people into our home." When God wants to correct, he invites us to change our lives. When he wants to talk to us he says: "I knock on the door and call. Open to me!". And Zacchaeus, to get invited to his house, he tells him to come down. We must therefore ask how our hearts are, to "examine our conscience, to ask whether" I listen to the words of Jesus "when he knocks" on my door" and says: ”Correct yourself! ".
Everyone in fact runs a risk. "Each of us can fall into the same sin of the people of Israel, the same sin of Jerusalem, not recognizing the time in which we have been visited. And every day the Lord visits us, every day He is knocking at our door. But we must learn to recognize this, to not end up in that most painful situation: 'The more I loved them, as I called them, the more they went from me'. 'But I am sure of my things. I go to Mass, I'm sure ... '. Every day examine our conscience. Ha the Lord visited me today? Have I heard some call, some inspiration to follow him more closely, to do a work of charity, to pray a little 'more? I do not know, so many things to which the Lord invites us every day to meet with us. "
It is central, therefore, to recognize when we are "visited" by Jesus to open ourselves to love. "Jesus wept not only for Jerusalem, but for all of us. He gives his life, so we may recognize his visit. St. Augustine had some very strong words on this: 'I am afraid of God, of Jesus, when he passes!'. But why are you afraid? 'I'm afraid I will not recognize Him!'. If you're not careful with your heart, you'll never know if Jesus is visiting you or not. May the Lord give us all of us the grace to recognize the time that we have been visited, we are being visited and we will be visited to open the door to Jesus and so ensure that our heart is enlarged in love and to serve the Lord Jesus in love. "