There are many ways to go to the Encounter: You may go to the Encounter with a friend, an enemy, or death. The sailor goes out to encounter the sea. Nicodemus went at night to meet with the Master. The Psalmist goes out, also at night, to encounter the Beloved.
The Gospel tells us that: “a multitude after hearing that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took palms and went to encounter Him”. Later, Jesus in Gethsemane, again at night, went to encounter Judas and his cohorts.
I know well Lord, that since You came into this world, You are the destination where steps of the sons of men end. You are the inevitable end because it is You who is the end of my steps and as the day ends in the night so will I end in You.
I was born and was sent to You with all the weight of my being and with all the strength of Your grace. I do not know with which face I will find You or under what appearance.
But in this moment You and I are face to face. And I feel Your sweet and powerful look through my half-closed eyes. And the fortune of my life is played out at this moment, but because I come to Your encounter, You also come to my encounter; but not like a triumphant king or like a strict master who will ask for interest payments and wants to reap where he has not sown. No.
No, the One coming to me is not the master to be served, or the king to be obeyed. It is Christ invested with full powers of His infinite work as Redeemer who quietly asks for cooperation, for a love sacrifice. A Redeemer who suffers and gets weary and who begins each day His unfinished work.
It is Jesus the one who is talking and asking us to try hard. He is not promising me a final triumph because nothing is finished; the work is immense and perpetually open. One must live in faith, with no salary, without glancing at the splendor of victory.
In the pathway of life, Jesus has taken upon Himself to instill in us the desire. It is useless to elude the answer; more useless even to walk by His side as if one has not heard anything. One must respond decisively: I am willing to follow You everywhere and forever.
To go to His Encounter, first one must “go out”, that is, detach yourself and leave aside activities, duties, studies… Afterwards, let go of stress, quiet the nerves, silence the clamors, be still, in peace…….and enter into the world of Faith.
There is the issue of the interlocutor. There are some who because of prayer habits or their own psychology communicate admirably well with Jesus. Others enter easily in intimacy with the Father. Others go into the presence of Simply God, with no face, form, nor place. He is not inside me, He is immanent to me. He is not outside of me but is transcendent to me. In truth, one does not go out “to encounter Him” but simply “remain in” Him, who surrounds me, pervades me, loves me: I am in Him, with Him, and for Him.
Each morning I will bring to His encounter gifts and presents; many answers to the previous day’s question: “What would Jesus do in my place?” such as overcoming difficulties and limitations, acts of infinite patience, the sweetness of Jesus face, many silences……
There, I will visualize the moments of the day where I will try to be a living photograph of Jesus. I know which persons I will encounter that day and I know which ones I “dislike”; I will face them with the sweetness of Jesus.
Extracted from the Circular Letter No. 19, by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga
