"Jesus, I trust in you"

VATICAN - "AVE MARIA" by Mgr Luciano Alimandi -

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The act of faith " Jesus, I trust in you ", which permeates the spirituality of Divine Mercy and devotion to the Merciful Jesus spread by Saint Faustina Kowalska, should also animate our Christian life. A life is only truly Christian if its foundation and path is growing faith in the Lord Jesus. Trust in the Risen Lord sums up perfectly man's response to God's Revelation, fully achieved in Christ Jesus.
With regard to " Jesus, I trust in you ", following his venerated Predecessor, Benedict XVI said: " "Jesus, I trust in you": these words summarize the faith of the Christian, which is faith in the omnipotence of God's merciful Love. " (Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli nella Sunday of Divine Mercy, 15 April 2007).

Through the act of faith in Jesus, which can be expressed with " Jesus, I trust in you ", the believer in Christ sees and understands surrounding reality. He leaves nothing outside of it, including everything in it, so that faith in Jesus penetrates every fibre of being and acting, renewing everything, "from within".

This faith in Jesus is all-absorbing, because He is the Word of the Father, the God-Man who, is able to say to mankind: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me!" (Jn 14, 6).

"Omnia nobis est Christus", "Christ is everything to us "! Saint Ambrose describes perfectly the centrality which the Person of Jesus should have in the heart of every true disciple. For Ambrose, Jesus: " is not only everything now, he is the beginning of all, even of creation"! This we are taught by the Church, the faithful Bride of Christ.
The whole of the Word of God revealed in the Old and the New Testament, finds its centre and its fulfilment in Jesus of Nazareth, as the Gospel testify: " Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received -one gift replacing another, for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known. " (Jn 1, 16-18). Therefore when we approach the New Testament, which sheds light on the Old Testament and is illuminated by it, we approach the real Jesus, the Jesus of history, the Jesus of our faith, not a 'copy' , more or less faithful. The Evangelists are not the authors of the story of Jesus, nor are they the main actors, they are its witnesses and as such, became ministers, that is, servants of the Word.

This Word was not modified by them, but simply passed on and this was possible because the Holy Spirit, the Author of the Scriptures, inspired them (cfr. Conc. Vat. II, Dei Verbum, n. 11) and reminded them of everything, as Jesus foretold (cfr. Jn 14, 26). Saint Luke from the beginning makes quite clear the historic sources of his Gospel: " Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have reached their fulfilment among us, as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus, so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received" (Lk 1, 1-4).

Jesus' word wishes to illuminate our life, filling us with its light, guiding us along the right path; today, as yesterday, and for ever, it is the Word of eternal life, as Simon Peter affirmed, divinely inspired: "Lord to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life? and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.'" (Jn 6, 68).

As sons and daughters of the Church let us make our own the Holy Father's exhortation, and realise ever more clearly that to have faith, means to give oneself to Jesus without reserve. "The Word of God is similar to a ladder on which we can ascend and with Christ, also descend into the profundity of his love. It is a ladder to reach the Word in the words. 'I am yours. The word has a face, it is a person, Christ… On the path of the Word, entering into the mystery of his incarnation, of his being with us, we wish to possess his being, we wish to dispossess our existence, giving ourselves to the One who gave himself to us. 'I am yours. Let us pray to the Lord to teach us to say these words with our whole life. In this way we will be in the heart of the Word. In this way we will be saved" (Benedict XVI, meditation at the opening of the work of the Synod of Bishops, 6 October 2008).

(Agenzia Fides 8/10/2008)