Leafing through Luigi Testa's “Meditations towards Easter” with Martin Lintner
From father martin m. Lintner OSM*'s Afterword To the book"In Jerusalem you will be consoled. Meditations towards Easter” by Luigi Testa, published by La tent di Gionata in february 2026
The Song of Songs of the Old Testament tells the beauty of love between two people in love. Their desire to be together and merge into each other is expressed with imaginative and erotic images and metaphors.
Even if it lacks explicit religious references, it is an impressive testimony to the fact that the experience of human love, in which two lovers give of themselves to each other in the dynamic of free dedication and grateful acceptance, makes the original goodness of creation tangible and thus also becomes a sort of opening in which the reality of God bursts into the life of a couple, who savor the beauty of paradise lost.
Non sorprende quindi che questo testo biblico, che raccoglie un numero considerevole di canzoni d’amore e nuziali, nonostante la mancanza di riferimenti religiosi espliciti sia stato interpretato non solo come immagine dell’amore tra due amanti, ma anche dell’amore di Dio per il suo popolo.
Anche il misticismo, una corrente significativa nel Medioevo, si ricollega a questo canto.
A partire da san Bernardo di Chiaravalle fino alle monache mistiche del monastero di Helfta e molte altre, il Song of Songs funge da modello linguistico per esprimere la relazione con Cristo ed esternare una duplice esperienza: sentirsi amati da Cristo e allo stesso tempo desiderare di amarlo, cioè di essere un tutt’uno con Lui. Secondo Bernardo di Chiaravalle il fine ultimo della vita umana è l’unione sponsale dell’anima con Dio.
La mistica Matilde di Magdeburgo scrive che la sua anima si sente baciata da Cristo e confessa il proprio “mal d’amore” per Lui. Nella sua opera La luce fluente della Divinità arriva ad affermare il “mal d’amore” di Cristo per lei: «Signore, Tu sei sempre malato d’amore per me, mi hai incisa nella sacra piaga del Tuo cuore per non dimenticarmi mai».
In the mystical tradition the motif of the cross as a "bridal bed" often recurs, because Christ on the cross, through the free gift of his life, revealed his profound love not only for humanity as a whole, but also for every single human being. This allows us to enter into a very personal and intimate dialogue with the crucified Christ, without losing the universal meaning of the mystery of salvation in an individual interiority.
Whoever wants to be close to Christ at the height of his sacrifice of love places himself under the cross, where He, giving all of himself, offers himself until his last breath. The apostle Paul writes: "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me" (Gal 2:20).
In this regard, the pericope of the encounter of Mary Magdalene - one of the very few people who persevered under the cross - with the risen Christ on Easter morning is particularly touching and significant.
«On Easter morning, early in the morning, [Mary Magdalene] went to the tomb of Jesus to perform her last act of love: anointing his body with perfumed balm. As soon as he found the empty tomb, he desperately searched for the body.
When Jesus came to meet her as the Risen One, she did not recognize him at first, but did so only when Christ called her by name. The passage from John 20.11-18 is literally modeled on Song 3.1-4 of the Old Testament: there the woman who loves desperately seeks the one her soul loves. At night he finds no peace and sets out to look for him, until he finally finds him and takes him to his mother's room, which can be a symbol of intimate union.
On the contrary, however, Jesus withdrew from Mary when she wanted to embrace him: "Don't hold me back", he begged her. Instead, he sent her to his disciples to tell them that Jesus is alive. This may mean that Jesus does not give himself exclusively to one person, which is the meaning of sexual intimacy, but desires to be 'shared'.
He asks Mary Magdalene to share with others what she experienced in her encounter with him, that Is, to have been loved and healed, and thus acquire new perspectives on life, so that they too, through her testimony, can experience the love of jesus That heals and gives life." (MARTIN M. LINTNER, Beyond the prohibitions. Catholic sexual morality in the process of transformation, Ed. San Paolo 2025, 80s.)
The author Luigi Testa in his meditations (“In Jerusalem you will be consoled. Meditations towards Easter”) takes us to the place of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Christ, that is, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
He describes in a very suggestive way the impressions that this sacred place aroused in him. And anyone who has had the opportunity to visit it as a pilgrim will vividly remember the individual stages that the author travels through in this place so precious for the Christian faith: from the entrance into the Basilica to the climb to Calvary, continuing towards the Stone of Anointing, where Jesus was prepared for burial, and the tomb itself up to the exit towards the garden. In the end, the garden where Mary Magdalene met the Risen One is no longer a place in the Basilica.
To find him again, you have to go out and re-enter everyday life: it is there, and only there, that everyday life is transformed into a place of encounter with the living Christ. His presence is revealed to our eyes only through a look of love.
Luigi Testa's meditations not only lead us to the place of the salvific mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ, that is, precisely where God's ultimate sacrifice of love for each of us was consummated, but they draw in various ways on Song of Songs to express a passionate yearning and sincere love towards the Lord.
They often move along the thin border between their own inner world, which can be considered the most intimate sanctuary of every human being and needs to be protected from prying eyes, and the desire not to have to be ashamed as a "gay boy" (cf. LUIGI TESTA, Via Crucis of a gay boy, Castelvecchi, 2024) of an authentic love experienced on both a physical and spiritual level.
These reflections can help every reader to reflect on their own spirituality.
The profoundly human desire, which resides in the heart of every person of any gender identity, to be loved and to love, to be kissed and to kiss, to be caressed and to caress... is like an unquenchable thirst that pushes us to understand more deeply the ultimate meaning of the Paschal mystery as a revelation of divine love.
* P. Martin M. Lintner OSM he is full professor of Moral Theology and Spiritual Theology, and since 2024 he has been principal of the Academic Theological Study of Bressanone.
