Church of Jesus Christ of the Universe

By Mauro

2 April 2021

(Translated audio)

Today, we contemplate Jesus climbing Calvary. St. Francis told us in his message[1] that he would receive strength from the contemplation of Jesus climbing Calvary. He received strength because the love and knowledge of Jesus increased in him; he could see more and more the Pure Love that, on that day, forever overturned the history of all times: a Love that is so great that there will never be such a great love again. In that knowledge, in that Pure Love, St. Francis met the Father in the Holy Spirit.

On Good Friday there is no Holy Mass, but it is Jesus Himself who celebrates on His Body.

We can say that in the readings of these days we contemplate the renewal of the covenant; it is renewed through Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father. Yesterday we heard in the Gospel of John[2] that Jesus was glorified in the Last Supper because He was aware that He wholly belonged to the Father and that He had done all that the Father had asked of Him, all that He had heard from the Father. We have heard that the Father rejoiced and gave Him the grace to face the Cross, to fulfil the Easter passage, to accomplish redemption. Thus, Jesus lived obediently to the Father for thirty-three years, but He had to go through this passage to give fullness.

In these three days, since last night, we can feel how He is going through it alone. The apostles love Him but in a human way. Jesus says: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”[3]; weak in the sense that their love still had to pass through the filter of the Cross. Jesus immersed Himself alone in the Father, and we can say that He was obedient to death. He had taken on our human nature, but that human nature began to rebel against Him; He had to overcome His human nature. Creation also seemed to act against Him: think of the heat, the fever, all that He had to suffer, alone.

Only Mary Most Holy accompanied Him, but She accompanied Him by doing Her own path. She, too, was alone; She was the only one who believed in the resurrection; She was the only one who understood and contemplated that passage. She, too, had to overcome Her humanity – imagine the pain of a Mother who has to endure such a trial. She had to overcome it. So, when we say: “Jesus immersed Himself in the Father”, I add: “Mary also immersed Herself in the Father”. We may say that to overcome their humanity they necessarily stepped out of the human dimension. They contemplated the Father, stood before the Father, sought the Father; the Father who, at that time, somehow could not be reached. However, both of them remained faithful; they knew and they believed: that is faithfulness. They are the new Adam and the new Eve. Look, the new Covenant, the eternal one, was made at that time through Jesus and Mary’s faithfulness: the new Covenant in His Blood, yes, but Jesus stipulated that Covenant in His Blood together with a human creature: Mary Most Holy. It took the faithfulness to God of both Jesus and Mary, the faith that redeemed each one of us.

Jesus could not renew the covenant alone and had to do it together with someone, that is, with Mary Most Holy, as St. Joseph told us.[4] Both acted according to their originality, and we understand that when we listen to the Passion, but also because of what we know, since they acted according to their originality as man and woman: the male priesthood, the Last Supper, the Apostles, and the priesthood of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in Her uniqueness and identity. She was not whipped or scourged externally, but She felt everything in Her body. Even in this respect, they established the new Covenant, the new Adam and the new Eve. They are a new reality: Father and Mother in God.

Finally, I invite all of us to contemplate the Passion so that our knowledge and our love, as for St. Francis, may grow within us today. May our identity also become increasingly clear to each one of us, both as individuals and as a people; as Church. Above all, may it become increasingly clear that we are children of the Co-redemptrix, and therefore we, too, have to walk this path.

[1]  See Message o St. Francis of Assisi of 17 September 2012, “The Pure Love of God”, published on our website, https://towardsthenewcreation.com/

[2] See John 13,1-15

[3] See Mt 26,41

[4] See Message of St. Joseph of 18 March 2021, “Mary the New Woman”, published on our website.