On the way in Lent. To throw fire on earth

Reflections by Luigi Testa* On the sixth Friday of Lent

(In Jerusalem) When you finally arrive at the Holy Sepulcher, under the huge dome that was once open to heaven, you enter, the view gets used to the dark, and you still find yourself in the anchor of the tomb, the "chapel of the angel".

That Sunday morning, «entered the sepulcher, they saw a young man, sitting on the right, dressed in a white guise, and were afraid. But he said to them: "Don't be afraid!" "(Mk 16.5-6). From two circular openings on the walls, some light enters: they have been open because from there, on Easter day, the Holy Fire is reached out of the tomb and in an instant flashes, from hand in hand, of candle in the candle, throughout the basilica.

"I came to throw fire on Earth" (Lk 12:49) and now from it, it raises, from here runs, lights, burns, consumes, sets fire, "its vampes are a fire of fire, a divine flame" (CT 8,6): "Nothing escapes its heat" (Ps 18,7). And wherever he arrives, he brings the emphasis of that word: "Don't be afraid!".

The Sunday that does not end starts there, on the lips of a young man with an appearance like Folgore and the white dress like snow (Mt 28,3).

* Luigi Testa is the author of legal texts and writes in some national newspapers. "Via crucis of a gay boy"(Castelvecchi, 2024) is his first spiritual book, his other reflections are also published onGionata.org.