Jesus reveals Father's Love
In the New Testament we read an extraordinary and sublime announce: God's Love for humanity is offered by the donation of his Son: Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the full revelation of Father'love. He reveals this realty by his person and action. Infact "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3,16).
…Jesus is the donation of God's love: in him the Father reveals perfectly the palpitation of his heart for a world immersed in the sin" (S.A. Panimolle, l'Amore, in Nuovo Dizionario di Teologia Biblica, ed. Paoline, p.60). This is a theme explicity affirmed in S. Paul's epistles: "God shows his love to us because, while we was sinners, Christ was died for us"(Rm 5,8), so the epistle to the christians of Rome, in which we read another idea expresses this God's love for humanity: "He who haven't saved his own Son, but has given him for us, how won't donate every thing together him?" (Rm 8,32).
In his first letter, the evangelist John emphasizes clearly a very important theme of his Gospel: Father's love for man realizes itself in sending of the Son and in his "giving" to the death: "In this, is shown God's love for us: God has sent his only Son for the world, so that we would have life by Him.
Christ shows Father's love perfectly. His feeling is divine and human at the same time. He loves his friends and the first disciples compose his spiritual family. He confides his feelings in a solemn and crucial time of his life:
"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (Jn. 15, 13-15).
Jesus has an extraordinary friendship with Lazarus' family at Bethany, and when Lazarus becomes ill seriously, Martha and Mary send to Jesus saying: "Lord, he whom you love is ill!"(Jn. 11,3). Even if he knows that his return to the Judaea can be dangerous for him, Jesus decides to go to Bethany. A choice don't accepted by the apostles. In fact when Jesus says them: "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him" (Jn 11, 14 s.), Thomas says ironically: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (Jn 11,16).
When Jesus arrives to Bethany, he meets Martha and Mary, remaining touched profoundly. And while he goes to the tomb, he weeps (Cfr. Jn 11,35) so the Jews says: "See how he loved him" (v.36).
After the last dinner, In the dramatic hours that precede his capture, Jesus can take shelter to Bethany which is to the east of the mount of Olives. On the contrary, knowing the danger to whom can involve Lazarus and his sisters, Jesus prefers to take shelter into the Gethsemane, waiting there his persecutors.
"Jesus is the Saviour of all men (Jn 4,42) "consequently he doesn't exclude nobody by his heart; Indeed poor men and sinners are privileged receivers of his divine Love…
[…] Jesus is the divine doctor, come to cure humanity wounded by sin, therefore to be able to effect his mission, that is to cure and save sinners, he has to love them, he has to care for them, he has to visit them and live with them" (S.A. Panimolle, l'Amore, in Nuovo Dizionario di Teologia Biblica, ed. Paoline, p.60).
John enounces solemnly in his letter: "God is love" (1Jn 4, 8) . It means that the same "to be" of God is Love. Sending in the plenitude of the times his only Son and the Holy Spirit, God reveals his deeper secret: He is himself, eternal exchange of Love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and has destined ourselves to take part to his Trinitarian loving plan " (C.C.C. pag. 74).
TO THE DISCOVERY OF JESUS OF NAZARETH
