The Gospel often shows us the confidence that the Apostles had with Jesus: they ask him about what they do not understand and about those things that are obscure to them. The Gospel of today's Mass reports one of these questions, which, especially at the end of the Lord's life, must have been frequent.
The Lord said to them: He who accepts my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him1. In the time of the Lord, it was a common belief among the Jews that when the Messiah came he would manifest himself to the whole world as King and Savior. The Apostles understood Jesus' words as referring to them, to those who were close to him, to those who loved him. Judas Thaddaeus - who understood the teaching well - asked him: Lord, what has happened that you are going to manifest yourself to us and not to the world?
In the Old Testament God had manifested himself on various occasions and in various ways, and had promised that he would dwell in the midst of his people3. But here the Lord refers to a very different presence: it is the presence in every person who loves him, who is in a state of grace. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode in him. It is the presence of the Trinity in the soul that has been reborn by grace! This will be one of the fundamental teachings for the Christian life, repeated by St. Paul: For you are temples of the living God, he says to the first Christians of Corinth.
St. John of the Cross, quoting this passage, comments: "What more do you want, O soul, and what more do you seek outside yourself, since within yourself you have your riches, your delights, your satisfaction (...), your Beloved, whom your soul desires and seeks? Rejoice and be glad in your inner recollection with him, for he is so close to you".
We must learn to treat God, who dwells in us, more and more and better. Our soul, by this divine presence, becomes a little heaven. How much good this consideration can do us! At the moment of Baptism, the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity came into our soul with the desire to remain more united to our existence than the most intimate of friends can be. This singular presence is lost only through mortal sin; but we Christians must not be content with not losing God: we must seek Him in ourselves in the midst of our occupations, when we walk down the street..., to thank Him, to ask Him for help, to make amends for the sins we commit every day.
Sometimes we think that God is far away, and he is closer, more attentive to our things than the best of friends. St. Augustine, when considering this ineffable closeness of God, exclaimed: "Late I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late I loved you; behold, you were within me and I was outside, and outside I was looking for you (...). You were with me, but I was not with you. Things kept me far from You which, if they were not in You, would not be. You called me clearly and broke my deafness; you shone, shone and cured my blindness".
But to speak with God, really present in the soul in grace, it is necessary to recollect the senses, which tend to be scattered and remain attached to things; to know ourselves as "temples of God" and always act accordingly; to surround with love, with a sonorous silence, that intimate presence of the Trinity in our soul.