Page 18 - Demo
P. 18
76. If we seek to delve more deeply into the mysterious working of the Spirit, we learn that hegroans within us, saying %u201cAbba!%u201d Indeed, %u201cthe proof that you are children is that God has sent theSpirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, %u2018Abba! Father!%u2019%u201d (Gal 4:6). For %u201cthe Spirit bears witness withour spirit that we are children of God%u201d (Rom 8:16). The Holy Spirit at work in Christ%u2019s human heartdraws him unceasingly to the Father. When the Spirit unites us to the sentiments of Christ throughgrace, he makes us sharers in the Son%u2019s relationship to the Father, whereby we receive %u201ca spirit ofadoption through which we cry out, %u2018Abba! Father!%u2019%u201d (Rom 8:15).77. Our relationship with the heart of Christ is thus changed, thanks to the prompting of the Spiritwho guides us to the Father, the source of life and the ultimate wellspring of grace. Christ does notexpect us simply to remain in him. His love is %u201cthe revelation of the Father%u2019s mercy%u201d,[64][4] and hisdesire is that, impelled by the Spirit welling up from his heart, we should ascend to the Father %u201cwithhim and in him%u201d. We give glory to the Father %u201cthrough%u201d Christ,[65][5] %u201cwith%u201d Christ,[66][6] and %u201cin%u201dChrist.[67][7] Saint John Paul II taught that, %u201cthe Saviour%u2019s heart invites us to return to the Father%u2019slove, which is the source of every authentic love%u201d.[68][8] This is precisely what the Holy Spirit, whocomes to us through the heart of Christ, seeks to nurture in our hearts. For this reason, the liturgy,through the enlivening work of the Spirit, always addresses the Father from the risen heart ofChrist.RECENT TEACHINGS OF THE MAGISTERIUM78. In numerous ways, Christ%u2019s heart has always been present in the history of Christianspirituality. In the Scriptures and in the early centuries of the Church%u2019s life, it appeared under theimage of the Lord%u2019s wounded side, as a fountain of grace and a summons to a deep and lovingencounter. In this same guise, it has reappeared in the writings of numerous saints, past andpresent. In recent centuries, this spirituality has gradually taken on the specific form of devotion tothe Sacred Heart of Jesus.79. A number of my Predecessors have spoken in various ways about the heart of Christ andexhorted us to unite ourselves to it. At the end of the nineteenth century, Leo XIII encouraged usto consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart, thus uniting our call to union with Christ and ourwonder before the magnificence of his infinite love.[69][9] Some thirty years later, Pius XIpresented this devotion as a %u201csumma%u201d of the experience of Christian faith.[70][0] Pius XII went onto declare that adoration of the Sacred Heart expresses in an outstanding way, as a sublimesynthesis, the worship we owe to Jesus Christ.[71][1]80. More recently, Saint John Paul II presented the growth of this devotion in recent centuries as aresponse to the rise of rigorist and disembodied forms of spirituality that neglected the richness ofthe Lord%u2019s mercy. At the same time, he saw it as a timely summons to resist attempts to create aworld that leaves no room for God. %u201cDevotion to the Sacred Heart, as it developed in Europe twocenturies ago, under the impulse of the mystical experiences of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque,18