Hajja Salesjana

I have forgotten myself in order to better attach myself to the Cross.” 11 In the Salesian view of Trinitarian love, it appears that it is the role of “the Spirit of Love, uniter of hearts” to draw us into communion with God and each other. 12 The vision is almost Balthasarian in its expression, as through the mediation of the Heart of Christ our hearts are returned together to the Father: “For my work must be perfected in you and it will be brought to term only when my Heart beats in yours, only when all hearts, now submissive and docile, beat for the Father together in my Heart.” 13 It is in the sacraments, in particular, that we are graced with this encounter with the heart of Christ who draws us into unity. However, “without a prayer life, the sacraments would have a limited effect. The sacraments confer grace but their effects are stunted because they do not find ‘good soil’ in which to take root.”14Like prayer, the sacraments, from a Salesian perspective, are to be understood in terms of an interaction of hearts. Influenced by Génébrard, the sacraments are not to be understood merely as external rites devoid of all warmth and feeling. On the contrary, as Pocetto points out, St Francis “conceives of them as the dynamic and affectionate actions of Christ in his Church. He compares them to a loving embrace that Christ gives to his spouse when interpreting verse 2:6 of the Canticle : his left arm is under my head and his right embraces me.” 15 If we return to our mantra of ‘I love you too,’ we could understand baptism as God pouring his love into our hearts. Through the gift of the Spirit, God is not only saying ‘I love you,’ but sharing his very life, his love, his Spirit with us, so that we can participate in his Son’s life and become his beloved child. So baptism is God saying ‘I love you’, and also our response, it is our acknowledgment of what God is doing. In short, by receiving the gift of baptism we are responding to God, saying, ‘I love you too’. Is it not the same with the Eucharist? In this most blessed Sacrament Christ not only says ‘I love you’, but shows the depth of this love by giving himself to us as our spiritual nourishment. He enters into communion with us and invites us to respond with our ‘amen.’ By so doing, are we not also saying “I love you too”? Just as God gives Himself to us, so too, we give ourselves to God. As St John Paul II reminds us, ‘we can say not only that each of us receives Christ , but also that Christ receives each of us . He enters into friendship with us: “You are my friends” (Jn 15:14). 16 Yet again, in the sacrament of Reconciliation, the Lord washes us clean, reconciles us with his Father, and brings us into the Father’s embrace, saying, “I love you”. Our response in confession is to accept this forgiving love, saying ‘I love you too.’ It is a recognition of our dependency on God’s grace to be faithful, always remembering that we are saying this from the position of being embraced by the Father. Let us conclude our exploration with the irenic words of St Francis who recapitulates Photo by Patty Brito on Unsplash 12 Ottubru - Diċembru 2022 hajja