Pilato, when introducing You to the people, said: Here it is the Man! He thought he knew You, but he did not know even a single bit of your Heart, whose tenderness and mercy You showed one hundred times in one hundred different ways.
Your Mother. Hanging from the Cross, You did not want to leave this world without giving her a second son who took care of her, and You told John: Here it is your mother.
The apostles. You lived day and night with them, treating them as true friends, standing their defects. You teached them with tireless patience. The mother of two of them requests You a position of privilege for her children and You replies her: "Honours have not been searched by my side, but sufferings". Also the others yearn for the first positions and You teach them: "It must be necessary to become small, to put oneself in the last place, to serve".
In the Cenacle, You put themselves on their guard: "You will be frightened and run away!". They protest. First and more, Peter, who would deny You soon three times. You forgive Peter and You tell him three times: Feed my sheeps.
Regarding the other apostles, your forgiveness shines mainly on John, chapter 21. They spend all the night on the boat. Before the sunrise, You, the Resurrected, are on the lake shore. And You become a cook, a servant, You light fire, cook and prepare roasted fish and bread for them.
The sinners. You are the shepherd who are looking for the lost sheep and is glad when finding it and he celebrates when he gives it back to the fold. You are that good father who, when the prodigal son comes back, jumps on his neck and embraces him for a long time. Scene repeated in all Gospel pages: You approach the sinners, You eat with them, You invite Yourself, if they do not dare to invite You. You seem - it is what I feel - to be more worried about the sufferings that the sin causes on sinners than the offense it can cause to God. By filling them with the hope of forgiveness, You seem to tell them: "You can' t even imagine the joy your conversion causes Me!"
Besides your heart, the practical intelligence shines on You.
You always aimed at the interior of the man. Pharisees had an emaciated face due to prolonged religious fasts and You declared: "I don' t like those faces. The hearts of these men are far from God. Impulses are born from the interior and, for that reason, the heart is used as a module to judge men. Bad thoughts went out from inside the human heart: trivialities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greeds, prides, vanities".
You hated useless words: Be your speaking: yes, yes, no, no; all that goes beyond this, comes from the evil. When you pray, don' t multiply your words.
You wanted real facts and moderation: If you fast, wash your face and put perfume on your head. When you make charity, don't let your left hand know what the right one does. To the leper when You ordered him: Do not say it to anybody. To the revived girl' s parents, You have emphatically ordered them not to go and announce the happened miracle with much ballyhoo. You used to say: I am not looking for my glory. My food is to make Father' s Will.
On the cross, before dying, you said: Everything is fulfilled. But you always make sure that things were not made in half. When the apostles suggested you: People are following us since a long time; let us send them at home so that they can eat, You replied: No, let us give them something to eat. When they finished eating bread and fish miraculously multiplied, you added: Pick the leftovers up; it is not right they go to waste.
You wanted to pay attention to the smaller details, when doing the good. When reviving Jairo' s daughter, You advised: Now, give her something to eat. People declared about You: He has done all the things well!
Albino Luciani (Pope John Paul I) from Letter to Jesus