I.
Son:
My Apostles, my disciples, my friends…
I have come to you in love, so lovingly,
and I have touched your hearts for the Father;
I have been touched by each of you, in tenderness.
I thank you for the way you have touched me,
for who you have been for me throughout these years;
and my Heart wells up with gratitude to my Father
for having entrusted you, beloved, unto me.
All that the Father gives will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
for this precisely is my Father’s will:
that I lose nothing that he gives to me,
but raise it up on the last of days.
You have come, my friends, and I have welcomed you,
and you in turn, though at times falteringly,
have welcomed and accepted me.
But now you have witnessed the Mystery,
the way that I have made all things new through Love.
And this, you see, this transforms you radically.
Love will hold you, little ones,
Love will carry you at every moment.
Only surrender to this Love as tiny children;
let it cradle you like a mother does her child.
I have come from the Father into the world,
I have walked among you, I have loved,
I have spoken, worked, suffered, and have died.
And I have been raised up from the grave,
conquering death through the purity of Life
and piercing the darkness by undimmed Light.
After this, my friends, I now return to my Father,
taking your nature, which I have wed to myself,
to be with me where I am in his eternal embrace.
Know that though I disappear from your sight
I am not leaving you behind—no, not in the least!
Rather, you will be hidden with me, beloved,
in the Father’s welcoming bosom, already in this life,
hidden in the Home that is already yours in faith,
and which awaits you in the fullness that will come
when the world has progressed to its consummation,
and I return again to take you completely to myself.
II.
You must understand that my going away
is not really a going away at all.
It is rather my entrance into the Mystery of God,
my Risen Body itself utterly glorified
in the eternal glory that is nothing but Our Love.
I enter, with my humanity—your humanity—
and with each of you, with every person,
into the space of open communication,
into the space of mutual self-giving, of intimacy,
that is the very eternal life of the Trinity.
And from this space, within this space,
my dearly beloved, I pour myself out within this world,
ceaselessly communicating myself in the silence,
sheltering you within the beating of my Heart.
Listen for me there, speaking to you and within you,
the Silent Word every sounding in your depths,
welling up within your inmost being.
There I reveal in you the truth of who you are,
who you are for the Father, the Spirit, and I:
you are precious, you are beloved,
you are gift from us and for us,
and are destined to be taken back, as gift,
into the shelter of our joyful, life-giving embrace.
Yes, beloved ones, know…
know who you are for us,
and who We are, so lovingly, for you.
Let yourself be loved by Us, who love you,
and love Us, who thirst to be loved by you.
And, my dearly beloved, my delight…
I will gather you to myself so lovingly,
as I have done until now throughout my life,
so that you may share in the life that is my own.
I gathered you, precious ones, at that Last Supper,
and I opened, in the very solitude of my Cross,
the space of most profound encounter and reciprocal communication,
blossoming in the intimacy that endures through all,
bursting forth, radiant in the light and joy of Resurrection…
This Paschal Mystery will endure, will be active,
in every moment of time and history until the end,
through the abiding Spirit of Our Love,
bearing through his presence, his closeness,
both me and the Father too, to dwell in you,
to make our home so lovingly in your hearts.
In this way I will re-create my life in human hearts,
and continue this redemptive work until the end of time:
for what has happened in this short span of my life
belongs not only to fading time, but to unfading eternity.
Yes, eternity penetrates and transforms time from within,
taking it up into the movement of the Trinity’s Love.
So listen, little ones… Listen, beloved…
for the heartbeat of Our life ceaselessly sounding,
in the rustling of the leaves in the breeze,
in the voice of a little, newborn child,
in the words spoken by every man and woman,
in the desires, the pain, the hope of every human heart.
Look, my dear ones… Look, beloved…
for the radiance of our Beauty, unveiling,
in the beauty of the sun rising over earth,
in the glistening waters of a river flowing free,
in the face of every person, in their beauty,
in the image and likeness given by us,
uniqueness impressed on every person, on every heart.
Let yourself be touched; let yourself be taken,
taken by Love completely:
to be gift from Love, freely flowing,
and gift given, freely, to Love again.
In every person, in every person,
in past, present, and future…
the Love of God is poured out, and active,
even if it is not felt, or seen, or grasped.
It is grasping you, little ones, with tenderness,
and seeking to open you to itself in simple trust,
so that you may receive the gift, and surrender,
and let yourself be carried…carried as a child…
into the perfect happiness of our eternal Embrace,
at the end which is no end, but is consummation:
the commencement of an Eternity of Joy.