I am the First and the Last and the Living One, I was dead, but now I am alive for ever and ever and I have power over death and  the Hades.’ (Rv 1, 17-18)

These words of Revelation have always impressed me because they express well what my soul senses as the essential of life: Jesus is the Lord. It is necessary for us to surrender to Him  and to surrender everything to Him, in order to be able to live a true life and be protected from evil.

«All things were created through him and for him.“ (Col 1, 16). I experienced and I am still experiencing every day that my existence and everything surrounding me, comes from the Heart of Christ and there it returns, in the never-ending flow of divine life which sustains the universe. That is why I believe that inevitably everything must return to Jesus because in Him everything is born. «For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible…He is the Beginning…“ (Col 1, 16-18). The cycle of life takes us back to the origin,  from dust man returns to dust; a Christian is born in Christ in order to return to Christ and through Him to the Father. I think that no one can really believe to be able to reach God without passing through Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I am convinced that the offer of our life should take us exactly to the awareness that we must completely belong to Jesus in order to gain access  to the Father’s life and be guided by the Holy Spirit who molds and purifies us. From here should spring our mission, the work entrusted to each and every one of us by God: believing in the One sent by the Father, Jesus Christ (Jn 6,29).

I personally wish that my life be a continuous “bringing everything together under Christ” (Eph. 1, 10), which in real terms means putting myself at Jesus’s complete disposal, allowing Him to rule my life, to guide my steps, there where He whishes and knows. I want to renounce doing it by myself; with the help of His grace I wish to detach from myself, from my human desires which often are just a source of disappointment. To be like Mary Most Holy, His handmade, and asking that His word may be fulfilled in me. Without Jesus my life, not only would not exist, but it would not have any sense, maybe it would not even be useful, because what could I do by myself?  We all need to be led to the Great Shepherd of the sheep, because all fullness abides in Him (Col 1,19) and “from his fullness we all  have received, grace upon grace” (John 1, 16). Without grace life ceases to be and becomes survival.

The Church indicates to us the Blessed Virgin Mary as model of every Christian for an authentic life of grace and donation. I can say that the Mother of God is the One I always feel besides me, who supports me in every moment and encourages me when I am tired. I believe that no one desires to bring us to Jesus and to place us at her Son’s feet more than Mary. I am convinced that Our Lady does not abandon anyone of us until we enter, in one way or another, in the heart of God. Besides, the Mother is the one who remains with us always, even when all the others have become tired and have left.

I know I cannot belong totally to Jesus, nor be ‘recapitulated’ in Him, if I am not willing to subject to Jesus my enemies as well. I am not just thinking about my external enemies, but above all I am thinking about the most insidious ones hidden inside me: fear, ambition, self-interest, servility, craftiness, etc. I must allow Jesus to dominate these enemies with His love, His mercy and His wisdom. The same applies for the external enemies: it is not up to me to make a judgment, because I am not just. Of me it is expected to offer to God also those who hate me, while remaining in His love, becoming myself, in turn, love and blessing for the just and the unjust. Thus I will be able to bring together under Christ also my enemies.

I would like to subject to Jesus even death, not only the physical one but any form of death: my fragility, my sinfulness, the humiliations and insults received, my lack of faith, hope and charity, and the failures of others. I want to donate, I want to give all this to my Lord so that I may become humble and therefore be a docile instrument in His hands. If I am humble death will no longer frighten me. If I have given everything to God, what else could the enemy of my soul steal from me?

I am aware that these beautiful intentions of mine could, in reality, just remain a theory because of my human  limitations. Then all is left for me to do  is “bring together under Christ” also my intentions, that is, laying them down at His feet, asking Him to fulfil them in me with the power of his Spirit. “For cut off from me you can do nothing“ (Jn 15, 5), the Master told us and I believe that each one of us can experiences the truth of these words every day.

To conclude, I seem to understand that everything that exists must be recapitulated in Jesus Christ, in fact in order to exist and become transformed in the new creation described in the Scriptures (Rv 21, 5). Everything we will be able to subject to Jesus Christ will become new and saint. Then our life will change because God will abide among us. «…He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away…It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. The victor will inherit these gifts: I will be his God and he will be my son» (Rev 21, 4-7).