In the second phase we come out of our chamber in which we spent the period of preparation in order to meet Jesus. We meet Jesus where He is staying “« RABBI, WHERE ARE YOU STAYING?»” (John 1:38), in order to go with Him. In this period we are not occupied with ourselves, but rather we forget ourselves and occupy ourselves with Jesus, learning from Him and becoming His disciples. The Church has set up the signposts of the way. At the beginning we meet Jesus: “«WE HAVE FOUND THE MESSIAH»” (John 1:41); then we move on to the Sunday of the vision, in which is the firstfruits of the experience with Jesus; then the third Sunday of the Cross, where the covenant was sealed; then the fourth Sunday, the Sunday of the Ladder, where we receive a harsh shock from Jesus and from the world; the fifth Sunday, the Sunday of divine love; then Lazarus Saturday, the personal resurrection.
We note that the difference between the Sundays of the past period and this coming period is that what preceded speaks of humility, repentance, forgiveness, and return, but what is to come speaks of glory, light, ascent, and love. This phase is the period of the forty-day fast, and all the Sunday stations are stations by which we ascend with Jesus from one state to another. For after we have been prepared by repentance and forgiveness, we enter into a relationship in which Jesus is the friend and the way, in which He leads us to Himself. We pass through the stations from station to station in order to know Him more, to dive into Him, and to love Him more. It begins with the first station, the encounter with Jesus the Messiah: “«COME AND SEE.»” (John 1:46). Then the stations follow one after another, and we ascend from one state to another until we reach the personal resurrection of each one of us at the last station of this phase, the “station of Lazarus.”
This period is not for repentance; the time of repentance has ended. Now is the time of love, as though it were the period of betrothal between two spouses who have not yet been united, because the Great Week is the mystical wedding. The most essential work that we must have done is to abandon all our thoughts, our imaginings, and our conceptions about Jesus, to forget everything we have learned about Him from books and papers, and even what we have heard about Him in sermons, and to let ourselves be led along with Him, and to let Him fill us with what He has. This phase is not for repentance but for love and divine passion; it is the period of meeting the Beloved. We enter with Him into a relationship that transcends letters, and we exchange one desire for another, and love for love, in order to prepare ourselves to enter with Him into the secret bridal chamber through the union of the two spouses. Thus man closes his heart to love and opens it to passion, and we occupy ourselves with the remembrance of Jesus to the exclusion of all else, and we burn in it — with His face, with His voice, with His whisper, with all that is in Him. It is the period in which we burn without fire; it is the phase of union with God, and in it we are filled with Jesus, so that everything in us becomes a state of love.