This site presents 7 stages of love, of the relationship that unites us to God, to the source of life, to our neighbor. These stages appear in several passages of the Bible: in the days that describe God’s work, in the different moments of Jesus’ life, in the phrases of the Lord’s Prayer. Each stage will therefore feature the sections below:

The days that describe God’s work

The dome of Genesis. Basilica of San Marco, Venice (13th century). The work of the seven days is described in the mosaics of this dome. Each day illustrates a stage humanity has reached on its path to enlightenment. In this way, God leads humanity from darkness to light, making himself one of us in Jesus Christ, with the help of the angels and saints who guide and inspire our conduct. Every day, God’s work is represented by angels, God’s messengers to humanity. Their wings signify their presence in heaven, in the spiritual reality of the Kingdom of God, and at the same time their mission to bring the word of God to mankind, to guide us to the source of life. Each day will therefore have its own angel, and in the end seven angels will surround God’s presence and fulfill their mission to human beings.

The first chapter of the Bible tells us about God’s work, about the relationship between God and his creatures. Everything in creation manifests this relationship to the source of life as one of love. The elements of nature – light, water, trees, stars, animals – speak to us of a path, a relationship being built, a trust being built. Each of these elements represents a stage in our spiritual life. Light dispels our darkness, our doubts, our lack of trust, enabling us to see the face of our neighbor. Life-giving water, which makes the earth fertile, is what brings happiness and joy to our spirit, a lasting love. The trees whose roots draw on this source of life and love show us how, once our spirit has found this source of life and joy, it can grow from a small seed into a great tree, spreading its branches and offering help and shelter to a multitude of birds, regardless of where they come from, a spirit that welcomes and cares for its fellow man. Then, this spirit shines like the stars in the night, a landmark, a help in the darkness that can cloud our minds. Then a multitude of different animals will manifest the different attitudes of the spirit, which can soar towards heaven, or seek its happiness in fleeting earthly goods, or even profit from the misfortune of others. The animals of the seas, made fertile by the waters, or the great fish that feed on the smaller ones, the land animals that seek beautiful pastures and calm waters, or the predators on the prowl, are all images of human behavior, inspired by the Spirit of love, or seeking to preserve one’s life, even at the expense of one’s neighbor, having lost the way to happiness, the way of trust in God, in life. It is the discovery of the true source of happiness in the love and service of one’s neighbor that will orientate the human spirit, guide it towards eternal goods, inspire it with a conduct and attitude of peace, of harmony with its fellow human beings, so that all can live as members of the same body, whose joy of one becomes the joy of all, and the sorrow of one the sorrow of all. Each rejoices in the qualities and gifts of the other, which also enrich him. All this life of the spirit is described in the Bible in the language of nature, of the visible elements of creation, which are a manifestation of the Spirit of God who gives them life. Jesus too, like a good shepherd leading his sheep to beautiful pastures and quiet waters, uses this same language, speaking to us in parables and deeds that reveal to us the reality of the life-giving Spirit, the true life of love. Here’s the prophet Isaiah reporting God’s words to us, using the same figurative language to describe the reality of the Spirit. When human beings regain confidence in the gift of love received from God, in the superabundance of his love, then all creation will be reconciled, in harmony and peace with one another, so that the human attitudes represented by the conduct of animals will be transformed, all will be reconciled in and through the love of Christ, of God: “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down beside the kid, the calf and the young lion will be fed together, a little boy will lead them. The cow and the bear will have the same pasture, their young will have the same lodging. The lion, like the ox, will eat fodder. The infant will play on the cobra’s nest; the child will stretch out his hand over the viper’s hole. There will be no more evil or corruption on all my holy mountain; for the knowledge of the Lord will fill the land as the waters cover the bottom of the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9).
(For an in-depth study of the biblical text of the first chapter of the book of Genesis, see the article Genesis 1,1 – 2,3 The seven days, stages of love).

The stages of Jesus’ life and the days of the Holy Week

The Good Shepherd, mosaic from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy (5th century). Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, leading them to green pastures and still waters. Nourished and quenched by the life-giving spring of God’s love, they shine in the sky like a multitude of stars, the image of the saints whose example guides us in the darkness.

The work of God described in the first chapter of the Bible also parallels the stages of Jesus’ life, and these are all summed up in the last week of his life, the week Christians have called Holy Week. In fact, according to the Christian faith, Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, which means that God’s work of leading his creatures to the greatest happiness, to the greatest love, a work that is accomplished invisibly in our minds, becomes visible through Jesus’ life, through his deeds. Jesus speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd, leading humanity to peace of mind, to a source of life and happiness. Christians therefore meditate on the stages of Jesus’ life, as the spiritual path that leads us to this harmony, to this peace of creation where love for one’s neighbor reigns. This is what Jesus calls the Kingdom of heaven, when love for all creatures reigns in our hearts, similar to the love Jesus showed for the multitude of men and women in this world. This Kingdom dwells in our hearts, inside us, when rivalries, divisions and hatred fail to win over our spirit. Throughout his life, Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom he came to establish within us, in our minds, and manifested it through his actions and miracles. What his coming and his miracles announce is finally realized in the last week of his life. The light he came to bring to mankind is himself showing us his love by accepting to offer his life as he enters Jerusalem. When he is crucified, he will be able to prove his love for everyone by offering forgiveness even to his enemies, to those who condemned him to death. Water and blood will flow from his pierced side, revealing the inexhaustible source of God’s love for his creatures. Human beings are thus invited to discover this source of life by also walking in the footsteps of love, letting themselves be inspired by the stages of Jesus’ life, meditating on how we too can follow in his footsteps. In this way, Christians have divided the year into periods that enable the faithful to follow Christ’s life and live it, each animated by the same spirit of love for their neighbor. These periods, which link the lives of Christians to the life of Jesus, are called liturgical times, i.e. the times that lead people to follow Jesus. The following periods, or liturgical seasons, are celebrated with particular intensity:
–Advent and Christmas, when we prepare to welcome the light that Jesus brings to our hearts, the presence of God in the life of every human being.
–Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus, inviting us to welcome the presence of God in each of his creatures. The word Epiphany indicates the manifestation of God’s presence in His creation.
– Lent, where we meditate on all the trials of life that Jesus also faced, and how his example and words can help us through them. The word Lent indicates the forty days preceding Easter, the time when Jesus prepares humanity to face these trials.
– Maundy Thursday is the fifth day of Holy Week, the last week of Jesus’ life. This is the Thursday when he gathered the apostles around the same table and washed their feet, as a sign of the forgiveness we must ask and offer our neighbor every day, having first drawn from the source of God’s love.
– Good Friday, when Jesus offers his life and forgiveness to mankind, also enables us to be reconciled with God and with our neighbor, to overcome our divisions and to experience this profound communion of love.
– Easter is the day of Jesus’ resurrection, the victory of love over evil and death. We too are invited to share in this victory, invited to gather at the same table with our brothers and sisters from all over the world, celebrating the bonds of brotherly love that unite us all, men and women of every language, people and religion: we all draw from the same source of life, and the same spirit of love can unite us in peace.
– The Ascension of Jesus into heaven is celebrated forty days after Easter. During these forty days, Jesus appeared to the disciples and explained to them the Word of God contained in the Scriptures, in the books of the Bible that reveal God’s work in our spirits and announce the coming of the Messiah, the Christ. This prepares humanity to seek and find the presence of God in every human being, in the bond of love that unites us to one another.
– Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Jesus’ death. It was then that the apostles were able to fully welcome God’s presence in their lives, overcome their fears and divisions, and go out to meet men and women of every origin, language and religion. Little by little, their faith grew, and Jesus prepared them, helping them to discover the profound joy and peace that springs forth in us like a fountain of life when we welcome God’s presence in our fellow man. Little by little, this love enflames hearts, spreads, and human beings become witnesses to this victory of love over evil, darkness and death.

These stages of love follow one another in the life of Jesus, according to the time of earthly life, but the spirit does not know these limits of time and space. What Jesus experienced in successive times gradually reveals to us an eternal reality: that of God’s love, always the same for all his creatures in every moment of their lives. In this way, Jesus had to introduce the disciples during his earthly life to the stages of life they would later experience, as they gradually understood and accepted what Jesus had prepared them for. And so it is that, after his resurrection, we too meditate on what this resurrection means and achieves in our lives. It enables us to get through the trials of this life, trusting in the divine presence that accompanies us and guides us with mercy. This is why, during Lent, we first meditate on the trials of Jesus’ life and of our own, and then, after his death and resurrection, we can welcome his eternal, resurrected presence within us, a presence that enables us to get through these trials and be victorious, sharing in Christ’s victory. But Jesus has already accomplished this passage before, which is why in this site the time of the Ascension is presented together with the time of Lent, and not after it. Lent shows us what Jesus went through in his trials, and Ascension shows us how we too can go through them with the help of his words, guided by his spirit. Lent begins forty days before Easter, Ascension comes forty days after Easter, after Jesus has given us the opportunity to be united with him, after he has proved his love for us and given us the chance to live it too.
The same goes for Pentecost, which is celebrated fifty days after Easter, but in this site is presented before Easter, since Pentecost is the moment when the disciples fully welcomed God’s love into their lives, when their trust in him led them to live the fullness of a filial relationship with God. It is their example of life, the example of life of every human being who is ready to offer his or her life to remain faithful to love, who is for others a reflection of this divine light that shines in the heart of each one of us. This light must therefore precede us, so that we too can find such confidence and welcome the fullness of the spirit, of God’s love. So, in the journey of individual faith, in the stages of love that each of us is called to experience, this step into trust is possible if others have experienced it before us, if Jesus experienced it first, thus revealing to us that God’s love precedes us. Then we’ll be able to welcome and understand how important it is to reconcile with God and our neighbor on Holy Thursday, to place our lives in God’s hands like Jesus did on Good Friday, accepting his forgiveness and offering it to our neighbor too. And then we can participate fully in death and resurrection, in the victory of light over darkness, of love over evil and death.
So, Ascension and Pentecost are presented here before Holy Thursday, because they invite us to a passage that we can only fully experience once we have understood and welcomed it, a passage that Jesus accomplished before us to guide us. This passage will be realized in us after his death and resurrection, after Jesus has made it possible by accomplishing it himself and thereby associating us with his own body. By giving us his body as food, he wanted to signify how much he was united to us, how much he was present to us every day of our lives, and how much we were united by his love, like wheat seeds that form a single dough, like members of the same body, which receives a single food, the life of Christ, the life of God, his love for us.

The relationship with God and with our neighbor

The tree of life cross, mosaic from the church of St. Clement, Rome (12th century). The scrolls of the tree of life depict scenes from our daily lives. This illustrates the bond of love that unites us to God, the vital link with the source of life, which sprang from the side of the crucified Christ. By offering his life for us, he revealed and proved his love, God’s love for all mankind, and the forgiveness offered to the multitude, to his own enemies. Christ is smiling alive, the cross is a tree of life, begetting all life through his love.

Following in Jesus’ footsteps, we too go through several stages in our lives, in our relationship with God and with our neighbor, in our relationship with life. The relationship with life is central to Jesus, who said: “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it. And he who loses his life will keep it” (Luke 17:33) and “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Indeed, before addressing the believer, Jesus addresses humanity, which has yet to discover faith. Before talking about God, Jesus, like a teacher, is going to make us reflect on our relationship with life. First and foremost, he wants us to understand where our true source of happiness lies: in loving our neighbor. The early Christians, too, before talking about God, before sharing their experience of God, invited those who wanted to discover him to experience gratuitous love, service to others, the gift of their own lives. It’s only after taking this step of faith that we can discover what our thoughts cannot conceive, what goes beyond our imagination and calculations. Indeed, if we think of sharing, of giving, of serving our neighbor, we risk thinking of loss, of lack. If I deprive myself in order to give to another, I’m going to lose for myself. That’s human calculation. But we must also take into account the spiritual dimension of the human being, and not just what is material. Indeed, the gesture of gratuitous love, which expects nothing in return because the reward is to see the happiness of one’s neighbor, gives access to a much greater joy than the acquisition of a material good. I deprive myself of something, I make an effort for the other, I put myself at his service, I offer my life for him, and then a communion in spirit with our neighbor is created. Feeling loved fills us with love, and this love creates a deep and mysterious communion with our fellow man, a communion that is the very mystery of divine life, a source of peace and profound joy. God, who is a relationship of love, becomes accessible to us, just as when a bond of love unites two beings, the joy of one becomes the joy of the other, and the sorrow of one becomes the sorrow of the other. This bond cannot be artificially constructed or provoked, it’s beyond our imagination: it’s the experience of God’s presence in our midst, he who unites us through love, friendship, he who is love. Let’s take the example of a couple who have experienced a marvellous, magical moment, in which both have deeply experienced the joy of being together, one for the other. In this exchange of love, each was transported into the other, each was fulfilled by the presence of the other, in which they were absorbed without thinking of themselves, without perceiving themselves. It’s only when we become aware of ourselves that this magic is interrupted, when we come back to ourselves and seem to lose the link to the other in which we were completely absorbed, transported. This is described several times in the Bible, at moments when those who experience the bliss of divine presence only realize it afterwards. Among the prophets, Moses and Elijah had the experience of being in God’s presence, of being face to face with him. In the case of Moses, the Book of Exodus tells us that, after Moses insisted on seeing God’s face, God finally gave in, letting him know nonetheless that no one can see God without dying. So God told him to hide in the hollow of the rock and that he would be passed by, which he did, but the Bible tells us that Moses saw him only afterwards, or that he saw God from behind, i.e. after he had passed by. Indeed, Jesus too answers those who want to see the Father: “follow me”. This means that we must first enter into a relationship of trust, of abandonment, that we must follow God, let ourselves be guided, in order to enter into the filial relationship. Once in this fully trusting relationship, we enter into the relationship of gratuitous love, we discover that all that belongs to the Father is ours, we enter into the mystery of God’s love, which is a Trinitarian relationship, we participate in the same relationship Jesus has with his Father, we become his sons and the spirit of love, God’s Holy Spirit, dwells within us. “You have received a Spirit who makes you sons; and it is in him that we cry out “Abba”, that is to say: Father! So it is the Holy Spirit himself who testifies to our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans 8:15-16). If we can call God Father, it’s because the spirit of filial love is already within us. Jesus, on the cross, said: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46) and, in so doing, he shows us the ultimate step, that of full trust in the life God gives us. Jesus also said: “He who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27) It ‘ s important to understand this expression: renouncing oneself doesn’t mean renouncing everything that gives us pleasure, but trusting in God, in the life that will bring us even greater happiness than we can imagine, than our mind can conceive. We think we know what it takes to love perfectly. But, God often tells us in the Bible: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” (Isaiah 55:8) For love is God, and God’s love is capable of loving every human being, even his enemies; God’s love is greater than we can conceive. Jesus says: “If our heart accuses us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” (1 John 3:20). So how do we go about discovering the love we can’t conceive? How do we listen to God’s voice leading us? how do we follow him? By giving up our plans and responding to what life, to what our neighbor asks of us every day as a gesture of love. Today, someone asks us for patience because he or she has a hostile, demanding attitude towards us. At another time, a child is demanding that we take care of him because he can’t manage on his own. At another time, the person we love seems not to understand us, to upset our plans, not to accept our absences, our interests, who we are? How far are we prepared to go? Will we give up on ourselves, on our plans? Will we be ready to lose ourselves? Will we be ready to go to the end of love, to listen to the end? It’s hard to understand in advance, hard to calculate what we’re going to lose or gain.

Let’s look again at the example of the prophet Elijah, who also wanted to see God, and God consented to his request: “The Lord said: “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord and behold, the Lord passes by and there was a strong and mighty wind that split the mountains and broke the rocks before the Lord, the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after that earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in that fire; and after that fire, a voice, a subtle whisper. As soon as he heard it, Elijah covered his face with his cloak, went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” (1 Kings 19:11-13). Behold, God was not where the prophet expected him to be, we had to leave what we imagine of God, leave our own plans and trust, in this abandonment where we confidently place our lives in God’s hands, is his presence, it’s there we see his face for God is love. A light, subtle whisper that guides us, leads us without imposing, without commanding. We let ourselves be loved by him, led by life towards the greatest love, we no longer think of ourselves but contemplate the face of our neighbor and his happiness will become our happiness, we will be absorbed by him, carried away and we will become one, his joy will become my joy and his sorrow will become my sorrow, he will be in me and I in him. This is the language of the loving couple, this is the language of the Bible, this is how God addresses humanity, his bride, whom he leads to himself, whom he invites, whom he prepares for the encounter. “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you”. (John 14:20).

So, when Jesus’ disciples experienced moments of happiness and communion with him, the Gospel tells us that they only realized it afterwards: they had let themselves be transported by him, in him, contemplating him and feeling loved. So when Jesus led three of his disciples to Mount Tabor, before entering Jerusalem and being arrested, he wanted to give them a glimpse of this eternal life and happiness, so that after his death, this light could enlighten, guide and strengthen them. “Jesus took Peter, John and James with him, and went up the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the look on his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Behold, two men were talking with him: they were Moses and Elijah, who had appeared in glory. They spoke of his departure, which was about to take place in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but staying awake, they saw the glory of Jesus, and the two men at his side. The latter were moving away from him, when Peter said to Jesus: “Master, it is good that we are here! Let’s make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He didn’t know what he was saying. Peter had hardly finished speaking, when a cloud appeared and covered them with its shadow; they were terrified when they entered it. And out of the cloud came a voice, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen: listen to him!” And while the voice was being heard, there was only Jesus, alone.” (Luke 9:28-36).
At first, the apostles are carried away by this divine vision, they perceive and feel God’s love, they are absorbed in this happiness, St Peter no longer knows what he is saying. But the cloud and the voice from heaven bring them back to themselves, they realize they are in the presence of God, they feel how small they are in the face of the immensity of his love, they are seized with great fear. Jesus, however, does not leave them in this fear; he comes to their aid, comforts them and lifts them up. The moment when they perceived God’s presence and love has passed, so they realize what they have experienced, but now they see only Jesus alone.

Think again of a couple in love who have experienced a moment of great happiness when they were transported into each other, and who would like to recreate the conditions of that magical, transcendent moment. They can rebuild everything, go back to the same place, the same time, say the same things to each other, but if they’re focused on themselves, they won’t be able to relive that moment of happiness. However, this moment is a window on eternity, on the reality of the spirit that makes the two of us one, that creates a communion between us and our neighbor, that makes it possible for the happiness of one to be the happiness of the other. Saint Paul tells us: ” Let us make a comparison: the body is one, yet it has many members; and all the members, though many, are one body. So it is with Christ… He willed that there should be no division in the body, but that the different members should all care for one another. If one member suffers, all the members share his suffering; if one member is honored, all share his joy. Now you are the body of Christ, and each in his own way is a member of that body.” (1 Corinthians 12:12.25-27).

The same is true of another episode in the Gospel, when, after the death of Jesus, the disciples were returning to their home, to their village, all sad, but on the way they came across a passer-by who called out to them, asking them why they were sad. He takes an interest in them, wants to help them in their distress, comes to their aid, comforts them. And then he begins to explain God’s word to them, making them understand how, in Jesus’ death, all God’s love for mankind was expressed and realized. Then, little by little, they understood how God’s plan was being realized, how everything the prophets had foretold for centuries was coming true. They had rediscovered happiness, and even more, they had entered into communion with their fellow man, becoming one with him. A bond had been created between them, a friendship. And so, they decided to invite him to their home, and once at table, the guest took the bread, blessed it and said: “This is my body”, then suddenly they realized that the risen Jesus was there, in their midst, and at that moment Jesus disappeared from their sight. He had shown them the way to find him, to see the face of God in welcoming their neighbor. “Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:31-32). They had been in God’s presence, they felt loved, they experienced his love, they were transported in him, they absorbed his words, they no longer saw themselves. Only then do they realize the mystery of that moment.

And yet, these moments are not far from us, they are accessible to us in our daily lives, when we are close to our neighbor, when we visit a sick person for example, the sorrows, the suffering remain, but the deeper peace of the bond of love, of feeling loved, of loving, are there, springing up in us, but we only see it afterwards. It was good to be together, to be united, in the same love, in friendship.

Similarly, in our relationship with God, we have to go through stages, sacred moments, where we address him, where we enter into a relationship with him, a dialogue with him. The word “sacred” indicates that God is present, and there are moments in our lives when we live out these sacred moments, expressing our bond with God. In the sacrament of Baptism, we welcome life as a gift from God, this life is offered to us in all of creation, in our fellow human beings, at which point all life becomes sacred, and we express our faith: we believe that every human being is our brother, our sister, and we aspire to love them, to respect the presence of divine life in them. And so on into the other stages of faith, the stages that Jesus himself lived through. The word faith, comes from the Latin fides, to have faith in someone means to trust them, faith means trust, to rely on someone. In this section, which describes the stages of our relationship with God and our relationship with our neighbor, we describe the stages of our faith, i.e. the extent to which we have faith, we trust life, God and our neighbor. We’ll be talking about our role in life (the theme of anointing), re-establishing the bond of love with God and our neighbor (the theme of reconciliation), offering our lives for one another, the offering of life that God makes to us in Jesus (the theme of marriage, the exchange of love, union).

Phrases of the Lord’s Prayer

The Trinity and Christ, mosaic from the baptistery of Albenga, Italy (6th century). At the center of this mosaic is the sign known as the “Christogram”, i.e. the first two letters of the word Khristos, Christ in the form of a cross. The cross is inscribed within three concentric circles of varying shades of color. They indicate the mystery of the Trinity. One God, one love in the exchange between Father and Son. Creation is the work of the entire Trinity, and in the branches of the cross in each circle are inscribed the letters that are the first and last of the Greek alphabet: alpha and omega. In other words, God’s eternity is there before and after creation, and it’s Jesus himself who says this, for through him the work of the Trinity has been manifested to the world. The stars in the sky each have eight points, because ancient baptisteries celebrated the number eight, because through baptism we enter into eternal life, into a filial relationship with God. And this was manifested in the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday, which is called the “eighth” day because it celebrates the eternal spiritual reality that unites us with God.

The sacred moments of our lives, the moments when we can live out our union with God and our neighbor, can also be summed up in the words that Jesus passed on to the apostles, the words of the Lord’s Prayer. In these words we find all the stages of our lives. These words express our relationship with God and our neighbor, they are the expression of our faith, of the trust we place in life, in God, in our neighbor. For Jesus tells us: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Life, true life, which is the bond of love that unites us to God and our neighbor. The truth of everything we experience in our spirit, that is, the profound truth of every moment of our lives, where in our spirit we experience openness to life, to our neighbor, to our relationship with God. This is the place of our communion, of our union with others. The path, because achieving full trust in life or in God or in our neighbor, is the goal of our life’s journey. Jesus lived them for us, to show us the way by his example, and life presents them to us, to be taken each day. Each day a new step towards trust, love, acceptance, listening to what life has to say to us through our fellow man, through the most varied circumstances. through the opportunities to live love and discover our fellow man.
When we can live each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer to the full, we will follow Jesus and see his face, for his face is love, and we will live this love, we will have put it into practice.

So it’s a question of living what the words“Our Father” imply. It means that every human being is our brother or sister. It’s about living out the brotherly bond that unites us to one another, in the name of the life we receive from a single source, the source of divine love.
It’s a question of“sanctifying his name” through our actions, our acts of generosity, of justice, then men will give glory to God, or believe in love, that this gratuitous love exists because they will have seen it, they will have received it, they will have experienced it.
To“do his will on earth as it is in heaven“, then his“reign will come“, means that when we love one another, without excluding anyone in this world, when our heart is ready to welcome every human being as our own brother or sister, then the life of the Kingdom is within us, it’s the presence of Jesus’ love that lives within us. The reign of God, the Kingdom of heaven, has come to us, manifested itself to us in the love of Jesus.
Then we can feed on the“bread” of God’s word, God’s presence, the bread he gives us when we sit at the same table with people of every language, people and nation and receive this bread that Jesus has left us, this bread that brings us together like wheat grains in a single dough, this bread that makes us members of Chris’ body, this bread that enables us to receive life as a gift from God, the gift of God in Jesus Christ.
This bread, like real food, will make us grow in love, strengthen us. So we can assimilate the divine life as we assimilate food, to become one with him, to live his very life. Then we can also“forgive those who trespass against us as God has forgiven us“.
So, by asking God never to“let us enter into the temptation” of being separated from him, of denying love as the source of all life, having offered to the world a love and forgiveness as great as his, we will be “delivered from evil”, victors over the death that separates us from the vital link, when our bond of love to life, to God, to our neighbor, is broken. Then we will be victorious over death, and even if our bodies were to die, Jesus will be able to say: He is not dead, he rests, he is alive, in God, in the love of his neighbor.