By José Gustavo Cerros Rodríguez, LC
As a Legionary of Christ and member of Regnum Christi, there is one thing that is clear to me: our hearts burn at the figure of Jesus, Apostle of the Kingdom.
During the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves (cf. Mark 6:35-44), Jesus sends his apostles to do things they could never have imagined doing, in fact, neither they nor anyone else, neither two thousand years ago nor now. The immense work of Jesus’ love is unmatched. Without a doubt, Jesus’ greatest teaching to his apostles before this evening that falls is that love knows no limits because what are five loaves and two fish for more than five thousand men, not counting women and children? Jesus performs the miracle. The apostles distribute it.
Immediately after, Jesus compelled his apostles to get into the boat and go ahead to Bethsaida (cf. Mark 6:45), for he would stay behind to dismiss the people. He compelled them. And after dismissing everyone, he went up the mountain to pray.
These brief verses express our spirituality. Obviously, now with the certainty that in previous verses we saw Jesus the Apostle act, that Man who, having gone out to meet them, showed his love, gathered them, and then sent them to preach (cf. Mark 3-13 and Mark 6:30-32), now guides them through the Trinitarian mystery that is a constant overflow of love.
This is key to our life as Regnum Christi: to be overflowing in love.
But what most comes to mind about Jesus the Apostle is his trust in the Father and that, with his gaze fixed on heaven, he speaks and things happen.
It was a very late hour. The apostles also feel hungry. They had arrived at this deserted place intending to rest, to eat something, to talk with Jesus. Not to continue attending to Jesus’ fans. Yet, there they were.
Jesus knew he had brought them to rest. But Providence had arranged something else.
Jesus preaches, loves them. The apostles also want to imitate him, but they are hungry and so is the crowd. Because even this matter of feeding by fulfilling the Father’s will is a mystery to them.
The greatness of these lines is that they reveal to us that Jesus evangelizing is actually praying to the Father. And, praying on the mountain, it is when he is truly evangelizing the world.
And, the Jesus the Apostle, who attracts us so much, is this one: the one who, kneeling before his Father, evangelizes and, with a smile before his neighbor, prays.
Within us, as Regnum Christi, we feel the need for the same. To contemplate God, evangelize, and evangelize the world, contemplating God. All this strength to love, to be the difference, is born from contemplation on the mountain, in solitude, in the intimacy that face-to-face we have with our Friend, with Jesus (cf. CLC 12; RFARC 9).
