Jesus goes out to encounter people

• • • Christ, the one who was sent, the Apostle of the Father, goes out to meet humanity to make his Kingdom present in our hearts and in the world. Christ, Love Incarnate, is the presence of the Kingdom in this world. He is a living encounter between God and man.
    • In his hidden life, he meets people in their ordinary lives, in their work, in human relationships, in obedience to his parents, and in obedience to his Father.
    • In his public life, he is present wherever the people of his time are found: on the streets, at wedding banquets, on the shores of the lake, in the tax offices, and at the well.
    • He also meets people in their deepest experiences: in the death of a loved one, in the joy and beauty of friendship, in celebrations, in apostolic fatigue, in the darkness of trial, in physical suffering, in illness and pain, in rejected love.
    • In a very special way, in the encounter between God and man in prayer, he introduces them to his Father.
    • All of these human realities touched by Christ become realities of the Kingdom: the Kingdom that he comes to announce and make present; the Kingdom that conquers the kingdom of darkness by the power of love.

He reveals the love of his heart

• • • Christ, revealing the love that burns in his Heart, invites us to open our own hearts to receive him. He invites us to love him and what he loves. He invites us to let him love us.
    • From the beginning of his preaching to the moment of his death on the cross and in the Resurrection, Christ lets us see the immense love he has for his Father, from whom he came and to whom he returns. A Father from whom he receives and to whom he gives the Spirit. A close and loving Father whom he refers to as “Abba.” A father who is also our father.
    • He loves Mary as a son loves his mother and associates her with his whole life, with his redemptive work and, at the foot of the cross, gives her as Mother to the nascent Church.
    • He loves his brothers and sisters passionately. He loves them to the extreme, to the point of giving his life. Just as he is loved by the Father, so he loves them.
    • Christ loves with a personal love, capable of establishing deep relationships. A faithful love for his friends. A love that is moved by children, that feels compassion for those who suffer and rejoices with those who rejoice.
    • A love that thirsts to be loved and is not ashamed to acknowledge it. It expresses it at the well and it expresses it on the cross. A love that touches and allows itself to be touched. It makes itself vulnerable.
    • A love that forgives, heals and consoles. A love that raises and restores dignity. A love that resurrects, that gives life in abundance. A love that definitively conquers sin and death, a love that makes all things new.
    • A priestly love that offers itself for its brothers and sisters: for both friend and enemy; for those who recognize and welcome it, as well as for those who deny and reject it.
    • A love that burns to make present the Kingdom of its Father and teaches us to ask for this in the prayer of the Our Father.
    • With each word and each gesture, it reveals its love for me.

He gathers people together

• • • The love that burns in the heart of Christ is a love that brings us together in communion, invites us to remain in Him. A love that makes us brothers in Him.
    • At the beginning his public life, Jesus calls twelve men. He goes out to meet each one where their ordinary life takes place. He calls them to be with Him, makes known to them the mysteries of the Kingdom, the love that burns in his heart, brings them together in community and makes them share in his mission. Calling disciples to form a community for the mission is not something optional, it is a founding act of the Kingdom. By gathering them together, Christ reveals a greater mystery, the mystery of the reestablished communion that is the Church, his body and the beginning of his Kingdom on earth. United around Him and united in the mission.
    • In community they receive from the Lord the gift of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The community of the twelve, gathered in prayer with Mary, receive the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. In community they meet the Risen Lord, both in the Upper Room and on the shore of the lake.
    • The community that follows the Lord is not limited to the Twelve. How many pious and courageous women accompany him on his journeys, especially on the most painful one: the one that leads him to Calvary. There are also families gathered around him, like the family of Bethany. The 72 disciples, sent on a mission, return to meet Jesus to share the joy of the experience of announcing the Kingdom.
    • The community called by Jesus is formed in daily contact with him, by sharing life with their Master and Lord. They accompany him on the roads he travels, in the homes he visits, in the boat that so often crosses the lake of Galilee. They learn from him how to love one another and to pray together to the Father.
    • The apostles will reproduce this way of acting of their Master. Sent throughout the world to preach the Kingdom, they will form communities of believers who break the Eucharistic Bread, share food and goods, and care for the needs of all. Together they praise the Lord and proclaim him with their lives.

He forms them as apostles, Christian leaders

• • • The formation of the apostles takes place in personal contact with Jesus Christ. We can say that the life they share with him is where He shapes them: he teaches them to see, think, feel, act, and love as he does. In personal contact, he reveals to them the love of his heart and they learn to love what he loves.
    • In everyday events, he leads them to discover the presence and plan of God for all people, his brothers and sisters. A plan of redemptive love, a plan of encounter with man to restore him to his dignity as beloved children of the Father.
    • He proclaims the Kingdom to them, its characteristics and demands, and he calls them to conversion. He teaches them to recognize the presence or absence of the Kingdom in different realities:
      • • The presence of the Kingdom in the faith of many people (the woman with the hemorrhage, the centurion, the Canaanite woman), in generosity (of the widow of the Temple), in repentance and desire for conversion (Zacchaeus), in thirst and searching (the Samaritan woman, Nicodemus), etc.
        • The absence of the Kingdom in hypocrisy and lack of truth (some customs of the Pharisees), in a lack of forgiveness, in violence, in betrayal, and in lack of hope.
    • He explains to them the meaning of the parables and introduces them to the mysteries that he has come to reveal. He teaches them that there are demons that only come out with prayer and sacrifice.
    • He teaches them what it means to be a King according to the criteria of his Father’s Kingdom. With his own life, he shows them that true leadership consists in bearing witness to the truth, in serving one’s brothers, in freely submitting to the will of the Father, and in giving one’s life for love.
    • He forms them to live in the reality of the world like yeast in dough, but without submitting to the criteria of the world: his Kingdom is not of this world.

He sends his apostles out to collaborate in the evangelization of people and society

• The mission begins with the Trinity: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The Father sends Christ to redeem man.
• Christ, in turn, sends his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” They share in Christ’s redemptive mission: he sends them to “proclaim the Good News to all creation.”
• The missionary mandate Jesus gives occurs at the moment of his Ascension, but also during his public ministry Christ sends the apostles on a mission: to heal, to expel demons, to feed the multitudes, to prepare the Passover meal.
• He sends them out with very clear directions: do not carry a purse, shoes or a bag; announce peace upon arriving at a house, stay there and accept whatever they offer you to eat and drink.
• Upon returning from his mission, he advises them not to rejoice that the demons submit to them, but to know that their names are inscribed in heaven.

He continues to accompany his apostles

• Jesus goes out to meet people and walks with them both on the external journeys between one village and another, and on their interior journeys.
• The dialogue with the Samaritan woman at the well shows us how he, throughout the conversation, accompanies people in an interior process. He walks with the discouraged disciples on the path that goes up from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and also on the path of the Scriptures, explaining to them how they foretell what has just happened.
• He accompanies Peter on his journey of configuration with him. He calls him, climbs into his boat, invites him to “put out into the deep.” He gradually reveals to him his own identity as the Son of God, and the mystery of Redemption: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven”; “Now you do not understand what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
• At the same time, He reveals to him his identity and his mission.
• At the moment of the Ascension, he promises to accompany them always: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
• At the Last Supper, he promises to send his Spirit – the great companion – who “will teach them all things and will remind you of all that I have said to you.” They receive him at Pentecost, and he assists them in their evangelizing activity throughout the Acts of the Apostles.