Depth, that is the essence. Where there is depth, there is life. Where there is life, there is a human being. And where there is a human being, there is both joy and pain. From the depths, great fountains gush forth, and the higher they reach, the deeper is the subsoil from which they spring. Pain and joy come from the same depths. The depth reached by joy is also reached by pain. As much as one suffers, so does one rejoice, and vice versa.
Jesus experienced deep sorrow inasmuch as he had been a wellspring of joy. He was able to free us from pain because he had previously suffered pain and knew it from experience.
The Gospel is good news, a joyous proclamation.
The roots reach down in the depths, and when they are healthy and buried in moist soil, the loftiest tree tops form a canopy of fresh greenery. If the springs are deep and pure, all the water that gushes from them is purity and freshness.
This explains how the Gospel is a hymn to joy. Every-thing flows from Jesus’ human depths where dwells the loving Abba, God’s all accepting fatherhood. Because of that, his inner fountain is called joy, peace.
From it, overflow the words and attitudes of Jesus, and that spirit in which we always contemplate him, in a halo of trust and serenity. Similarly, from these same depths filled with the Father’s presence also sprang that filial obedience and that receptiveness for all the forsaken and the poor of humanity.
In Jesus’ personal relationship to God, we sense an infinite amount of tenderness and closeness. An ineffable melody resounds in those expressions that Jesus normally used: “Father of mine”, “my Father”. Something extremely special vibrates in those words, something that is particular and unique, filled with trust, security and joy.
Because of this, from Jesus’s heart sprang a message of happiness. We have the impression that God is like a universal womb that warmly envelops all of humanity. We feel that Jesus himself was surrounded by joy, as by a warm fire.
The complete newness and the unique character of the divine invocation Abba in Jesus’ prayers is that this invocation expresses the very essence of Jesus’ relationship to God.
Jesus spoke with God as a child speaks with his father, full of trust and confidence and, at the same time, respectful and disposed to obedience.
In the divine invocation Abba, the supreme mystery of Jesus’ mission is revealed. Jesus knew that he was authorized to communicate God’s revelation, because God had made himself known to him as Father.
Extracted from the book “From suffering to peace”, by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga
