28/03/2026
𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊; 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐉𝐄𝐒𝐔𝐒 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐉𝐄𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐌 AND 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄.
𝘛𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦: 𝘎𝘖𝘋 𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘚 𝘖𝘜𝘙 𝘏𝘐𝘚𝘛𝘖𝘙𝘠 𝘐𝘕 𝘑𝘌𝘚𝘜𝘚. 𝘑𝘌𝘚𝘜𝘚 𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘚 𝘑𝘌𝘙𝘜𝘚𝘈𝘓𝘌𝘔 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘞𝘐𝘓𝘓 𝘓𝘌𝘈𝘋 𝘜𝘚 𝘈𝘓𝘓 𝘉𝘈𝘊𝘒 𝘛𝘖 𝘏𝘐𝘔/𝘎𝘖𝘋.
Like our first parents, Adam and Eve, who were once expelled from the Garden, and the chosen People of Israel who wandered amidst the desert/wilderness, we often see ourselves in those disciples on the road to Emmaus—moving forward, yet in the wrong direction, unaware that we’ve lost sight of what truly matters - the covenantal promise and saving plan of God.
Even though our first parents, Adam and Eve, the House of Israel, and indeed the whole human family across generations - including ours today - have repeatedly fallen short, God has acted decisively in Jesus Christ to restore what has failed and what was lost. Through Christ’s redemptive ministry by way of the total obedience to His Abba/Father that resulted, culminated, and reached up to His brutal suffering and death on the shameful-for-the-Jews Cross, and the immediate, accompanying presence of the Holy Spirit, God is making all things new, bringing creation back toward its original goodness and intended design from the very beginning (Genesis 1–2; Revelation 21:5).
As scripture affirms, where sin multiplied, grew, and widened through human disobedience, God's grace has abounded all the more (Romans 5:20). The long history thus of human failure, shown through a series of rebellions, unfaithfulness, and broken covenants, did not nullify God’s covenant. Instead, it has revealed the immensity of His steadfast love (hesed) and unparalleled faithfulness. As Scripture says, “if we are faithless, God remains faithful” (2 Timothy 2:13).
In Jesus, the new Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45), God begins a new creation, restoring humanity and reconciling all things to Himself (Colossians 1:19–20). Through the Holy Spirit, this renewal is not only future but already at work within us, converting human hearts and restoring fractured relationships with God (Ezekiel 36:26–27; John 14:26).
Thus, God’s faithfulness far exceeded the long-recorded human transgressions, infidelity, and long litany of breakaways from God’s enduring covenantal promise, plan, and fidelity. His covenantal love endures beyond every human failure, ensuring that what was beautifully created by Him in the beginning [everything was ‘good’] will not end in catastrophe but in beauty in which its fullness and perfection are in Christ, no matter how often we try to destroy it through the misuse of our free will God has given us.
The salvific plan/restoration of God is manifested not in punishment, but through a family. God called Abraham not only as an individual but also as the father of a covenant people. From him, Abraham, would come a family through whom all nations would be blessed - a gradual, catechetic, and collegial form of restoration of what was broken in the first family of humanity. God certainly could have restored all things new in just the blink of an eye, like a divine magician. But God redeems, saves, and restores not in a Superhero way, shape, or form. God saves and deals with the human family not from a distance. He personally entered our wilderness and desert-like history in and through His Son, Jesus, who was born like us, dwelt among us, and identified Himself with us as a human family – a family that is not ego-driven and self-referential, but obedient and faithful to God, the Father of all. Hence, what was shattered in the first family is slowly restored in this new family of faith—until it finds its fulfillment in Christ, who gathers us all back into one household of God—the Church—through our Baptism in Christ, becoming His body on earth.
The fidelity of God reaches its fullness in Christ, who became obedient to Him until the end, who has gathered and restores us now into a new communion: the Church. Through Baptism, we are no longer scattered and orphaned, but reborn as children of the Father, united as one body, one heart, one soul, one mind - the Mystical Body of Christ - and formed into a true family of God. Now, what was lost in Eden and eventually expelled, what was enslaved in Egypt, and exiled in Babylon, is not only emancipated but above all transformed. We become, in Christ, brothers and sisters, sharing one life, one mission, one destiny – to be completely united in the perfect embrace of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet God, through the Church, His Son’s mystical body on earth, never deserts us, His people, despite our efforts to depart, separate, and divorce from that covenantal tenderness of our Father. God’s mercy never grows old; the 40 years of wandering in the desert are but like yesterday to Him, for God’s faithfulness is far broader than that of Israel’s 40-year exile. God thus persistently enters into our own deserts in Jesus and through the Church, seeking us out where we are and patiently calling us out. Through His redeeming grace, we are invited to walk with Him closer again until we are led back to the tropical paradise - the fullness of life He has prepared for all of us.
As Redemptorists, we boldly follow the One Redeemer and participate faithfully in Jesus’ One Redeeming Work. Our lives profess and echo Psalm 130: COPIOSA APUD EUM REDEMPTIO [With Him/God, there is mercy and fullness of redemption/life]. Like St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, we seek out the least, the lost, the last - the poor, deprived, and oppressed. We, who were once wounded like Jesus [the mark of wound visibly appeared in His hands even after the resurrection], after having redeemed, renewed, and transformed by Jesus, the Redeemer, became instruments ourselves of God’s continuing work of salvation in the world. There is only one Redeemer, Jesus Christ. And yet as baptized and His body here-and-now, we are compelled to personify Him and not turn our back to our own-personal Jerusalem, for He is ever with us - the Emmanuel. We enter the gates of our own Jerusalem with total surrender and trust in the plan of God for us. We should not be afraid of the cross because the way of the Cross is the Way of God, and in that same cross, Jesus fully expressed His total obedience and trust in God and henceforth become the means of our redemption.
Lastly, the history of our salvation is the story of God’s faithfulness, fidelity, and, beyond all telling love, as He rebuilds His family gradually until all are gathered home in Him. Everything started beautifully and ended also beautifully.
![“𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐇𝐢𝐦 [𝐆𝐨𝐝] 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 [𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞].” 𝙿𝚜𝚊𝚕𝚖 𝟷𝟹𝟶](https://img4.prayers1.com/775/288/919261907752882.jpg)
