ADORATION IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD
Dear brothers and sisters of the Lord’s Jadino, peace to you!
We propose that you read this meditation, helped by a question with which Psalm 15 begins: Lord, who will dwell in your tent? Who will dwell on your holy mountain (cf. Ps 24; Is 33:1- 16). This question already implies an answer: no one can be in the presence of God; no one can contemplate him face to face.
Biblically, man's sinful condition cannot exist in the face of God's sublime holiness: this would in fact imply the annihilation of our nature (cf. Is 6, 3-5). The only possibility for man to remain in God's presence is for him to be "without blemish", that is, without guilt.
A fine promise we can find in the Book of Tobit. It is the time of assyrian exile and one experiences the tragedy of living far from the Temple of Jerusalem. Tobiah, moved by God, gives us a prayer of blessing and praise, in which it is announced that the Lord will again raise up his tent, that is, his Temple, from where he will show his love to every man, and will raise up –as promised – a new tent, where every man will be able to access the presence of God: «Jerusalem, holy city, He chastises you for the works of your children, but he will still have mercy on the children of the righteous. Give worthy praise to the Lord and bless the king of the ages; He will rebuild his tent in you with joy» (Tb 13, 6-11).
God is about to build a new tent, where he will welcome every person and every wretch as a guest. It is not, therefore, a meeting place for the blameless, since "the blameless", Jesus Christ, assuming all our sins, was the one who built the new tent, the place of encounter with the Lord: worship in the presence of God.
Behold the new tent, when He Himself was lifted up on Calvary from where, as He had announced, He manifested the glory of God: «When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I Am» (Jn 8:28). Behold, the name of “I Am” was that which the Lord revealed to Moses as a guarantee of the authenticity of the mission to which he had been sent (Ex 3:14), a new temple, a glorious manifestation of the mystery of God to which every man has access, as Jesus himself announces before his passion: «And I, when I am lifted up from the ground, will draw everyone to me» (Jn 12, 32).
Dearest brothers and sisters, in this time of Lent we meditate and contemplate the new temple built on Calvary, a manifestation of the mystery of God, where man can worship Him in spirit and truth. This is what Jesus announces to the Samaritan woman: «Believe me, woman, the hour comes when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father..., but the hour comes – and this is it – when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth» (Jn 4:21-24).
In every Holy Mass and in every Holy Hour, before the’ Eucharist exposed or present in the tabernacle, we pray for a continuous conversion of our own and that of all men and women, also in need of finding a way that leads and leads back to the true encounter with God. With these intentions we join the first worshipper in spirit and truth, namely Mary Most Holy. From Gethsemane we accompany the Lord in His passion and His journey to Calvary; at the foot of the Cross we meet this Mother-Woman and contemplate the mystery of God in the face of her Son, delivered for the salvation of humanity. Mary and John, supporting each other in grief, stared beyond the disfigured face of Jesus and, aiming at the infinite horizon of God, worshiped him. Contemplating the mystery with deep love, let us also live this worship in the presence of God.
Be blessed from the Garden of the Lord.
