"Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends". (John 15:13)

Today I have found Jesus again. Jesus came knocking on my door. Jesus came to me. And I that maybe did not believe that if I get lost he comes looking for me, because maybe I thought I was no one, was facing Him. Not only I felt His presence, but I also felt an internal peace, if you consider that during this week, we will commemorate His death and resurrection. And all that because of us!!

To me Jesus came in the form of a priest. A foreign one, who visited me from afar. I felt just like the Italians did when John Paul II was elected as pope back in 1978. A foreigner from a land that is far away. He came to lead the flock of people he was entrusted with. Christians and not. To many, Jesus was never so close to the humans as back then during his pontificate. There was never a leader that visited so many countries, in which millions gathered not in his name but in Christ's name. I felt just like that. A tiny piece of wood floating in the immensity of the ocean. An ocean of love. Of someone who seeks nothing but to love with love being immensity.

I looked in two blue shining eyes of a father that was just ordained 3 weeks ago, and here he was doing his first mission. The mission entrusted to him. He came to renew me, to show me God.

In the past 4 weeks God knocked twice on my door. And twice I let him in. Twice I spoke with him. For two times I had him a couple of centimetres away. But maybe I still don't understand his message. Maybe I still don't understand what he wants from me. Maybe I am still an explorer discovering Him. He first saved my mum’s life and today came to me. He was Fr.Giles.

God spoke.

God loved.

God always does.

Sometimes when we least expect to. Sometimes the normal routine for us becomes the unnatural moment in which God Himself becomes an explorer, looking for us. Once again God becomes a shepherd seeking his lost sheep.

And now ask yourself…Do I want to listen? Do I want to forgive? Do I want to forget what bad people might have done to me? Through his son's arms, he is opening His to tell us, that once again after 2000 years, he still waits, still needs to be listened to. He still breaths in each and every one of us. He might give us different tasks. Tasks that are normally difficult but are always achievable because he is always there. In us. He gave us though, the same air, so that we breathe in one, cause we are finally one. One with Him. Or that is how He wants us to be!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16)

So during this week, ask yourself before expecting an answer. Do not pretend not to hear when you are summoned. Believe, for if you won't you will one day be called and need to answer to all the whys asked. Repent for what you did and ask for forgiveness. Do not look to the outside of a person. See internally. What people do have to offer sometimes might not be visible to the naked eye. Some people are prisoners of their own body, and with us pointing fingers, their life will be more difficult and unbearable. Do not be the ones to be mentioned for the wrong deeds. Do not seek immortality and you will get it. For the ones that have the biggest slams are the ones that aim high without preparation. People that might think they are the ones that the world cannot stand without. Cannot move without. That the world cannot rotate within the orbit, if they cease to exist. And sometimes the Them becomes We and the we are Me and You.

We all want to point fingers to others, but we are never able to point them to ourselves. We want to find that one tiny hair in the pastry, like we say in Maltese, in what others say, what others do. Sometimes we even pretend that we are given the power to infiltrate their thoughts, command their feelings. Looking at the mirror sometimes is not enough!!

We need to see the internal US!! We need to feel where we are wrong but that, again, is not enough. We need not to use weeks like the current week or Christmas week or the New Year’s. Usually we use this excuse to feel empathy and switch to the kind hearted mode and then as soon as the next sun will rise, as soon as the people we were playing the cool with - are gone, we forget all the promises we made, all the steps we took and all the actions we did.

Yes, sometimes, the death of the Christ is just another excuse for us.

So I tell you, let this year be different. Do not limit yourself to any resolution in mid year. Un-limit yourself to the love of God.

Daily we can see that the long lists of people getting longer. Lists that fill up our minds, nowadays. Youngsters dying because of overdoses or drug abuse, families being destroyed, people diagnosed with cancer or any other terminal illnesses, disabled persons and old people not being taken care of, sometimes even left alone, others having accidents that happen because of negligence, wars, earthquakes, killings, hatred and so on so forth.

We are letting a piece of the tail of the devil ruining our lives and taking away the happiness that took years for us to build.

Do not let it be so. Be winners of the best victory you can ever triumph in. This year start and don't stop. Lift yourself up and walk. Take the hand of someone and fly. Love and live. Begin today what will one day be eternal - what you will live for, die with and resurrect by.

Give love and never stop. Redeem and forgive. Forget and start afresh. Where it seems to be impossible, use but do not abuse the love of God. Look at Christ's hands on the cross. At his head filled with thorns leaned to right. Christ that died for us. But then resurrected so that we can live in peace and into eternity. And to love, the same way he loved us...so much that his hands lay across and nailed to a rotten piece of wood to show us that.

Just because....

"Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends". (John 15:13)