Central Dossier
In the Year of the Father
I have approached this reflection with the idea of seeking an integration between the spiritual and the psycho-social dimension of the community life of the religious.
We shall concentrate on the community as being a reflection of the love of the Father and in that sense we shall look at the source which best mirrors that love; that is, at Christ Himself, who reveals the Father and His love to us. We shall refer above all to the Gospel of Matthew, which Cardinal Martini describes as the Gospel of the Father.
The question which inspires these reflections will be: What is this love of the Father?
To help us to study these themes deeply, and therefore to supply a solution to eventual difficulties, we suggest an important and fairly recent document (from 1994) released by the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life: "La vita fraterna in comunità" (VF) (Fraternal Life in Community). In the first paragraphs of this document there is a description of the religious community as a reality in transition; characterized therefore by hopes, but also by disappointments, above all after the Council. On the one hand, that is, one seeks new values or tries to revitalize old values, on the other hand one has the impression that many of these values are irremediably lost or neglected. It may be useful to recall here the main factors mentioned in the document which determined this situation of transition. The purpose is that of delineating the historical and cultural context in which the love of the Father wishes to manifest itself in this particular time of the history of humanity and of the Church, while postponing a deeper study of the themes touched upon until one has an opportunity to personally read the document. Consequently, we will cover the following themes:
1. A return to the Gospel and to the early inspiration of the Institutes.
2. The development of ecclesiology in Vatican II, by which the community is a reflection of the Church which, in its turn, is described as a space in which the Trinitarian communion dwells, as the place where the various charisms are developed to full advantage, and as both a sign and also an instrument of evangelization. "Fraternal communion is the beginning and the final end of the apostolate" (VF 2).
3. The development of canon law in order to draw attention to the spiritual element of ecclesial life; that is, to the charity which dwells in the hearts of believers and which alone can support the juridical and formal base of the Church itself and therefore of the religious community. This implies that every Institute is called to lead its communal life according to its own style and not on terms which are too rigid or too uniform.
4. On the social level the movements of political and social emancipation emerge, particularly in developing countries. This has led many local Churches to propose new styles of community presence in society (option for the poor, community insertion...), and to pay greater attention to dimensions such as inculturation or the coexistence of different cultures within the same community.
5. On the level of common thought, the claim for personal liberty and the contesting of authority emerges ever more strongly. That can lead to a weakening of the ideal of community life, which could possibly be considered, too hastily, as a useless conformity.
6. Another characteristic of ecclesial and social life is a renewed awareness of the identity, dignity and social role of the woman in society, in the Church and in the sphere of the consecrated life itself.
7. There is a real explosion of communications then, one which helps but does not coincide with the ideal of communion. However, it is from this that there derives a greater sense of social and apostolic responsibility, as well as the adoption of apostolic mobility, a not always positive influence on other values such as recollection, the style of relationships in religious houses, etc.
8. The influence of consumerism and hedonism is also very strong, and this weakens "the capacity of the community to resist evil". The salt, in other words, risks losing its savor.
9. There are therefore significant changes in the religious life as a whole; in particular:
- New areas of apostolate, smaller communities, a greater sensitivity to the growing, new poor;
- The tendency to exaggerate the importance of preparation for the carrying out of a certain role and of a competence which is mostly functional instead of the spiritual value of consecration;
- A new sensitivity, at time perhaps exaggerated, with regard to the quality of interpersonal relationships in the community, relationships which are felt to be more essential than the observance of the rules and formalities of living together.
- Governing structures which participate more in community life, characterized by drawing greater benefit from shared responsibility and subsidiary activities.
This, therefore, is the panorama of the most recent factors which affect the way in which the value of community life is perceived and lived. The value as such, nevertheless, has its source in the love of the Father. "Every perfect gift is from above" (Jas 1:17). This is a reflection of that love. It is not enough then to look at the human context which receives and expresses it. In some way it is necessary to identify a point of direct access to the source of this love; this point of access is the Heart of Christ. To contemplate something of this Heart therefore we return to the Gospel and, in particular, to the Sermon on the Mount in Chapter 5 of Matthew.
In Matthew 5 Jesus climbs the mount and sits down. He is presented as He who gives a new and solemn teaching. It is no longer the teaching of the old "law", but a new commandment which, all the same, does not abolish the old one. It is the commandment of love.
We can look at the little group of disciples who draw near to Jesus, compared to the rest of the crowd which stays a little distant, in the same way as we look at those who, in the sphere of the consecrated life, desire to draw closer around their Master and therefore among each other. We could entitle this evangelical picture: "Jesus and His Community on the Mount", thinking, in this way, of this long evangelical excerpt not only as the Sermon on the Mount but, in a certain sense, also as "the Community on the Mount", a community drawn towards the heights but all the same never truly separated from the crowd which also listens to the Master, amazed at the authority with which He spoke.
Matthew makes a point of the fact that Jesus "opens his mouth" and begins to speak. He seems to wish to underline the fact that the teaching on the mount communicates something that comes directly from Jesus Himself, from His Heart, from His most intimate personality; for the mouth speaks precisely from the fullness the heart. This makes the Sermon on the Mount the manifestation of the Heart of Christ and therefore the manifestation of the love of the Father which dwells in it.
The words of this discourse are the Heart of Christ given to the disciple who listens, and therefore also to the community of disciples which gathers tightly around Him. They are words which express a new way of thinking and acting, of living and of dying. A new way of loving. This revelation, this verbal communication of the Heart of Christ will find its fulfillment on the cross, where indeed all that was foretold by Jesus would be fulfilled. There Jesus will say "It is finished" (Jn 19:30).
Jesus therefore begins to show His Heart starting from the Beatitudes. They express interior attitudes which can manifest themselves precisely where man experiences a fragility, an insecurity, a weakness: poverty, weeping, humble sufferance, hunger for justice. They are attitudes which are not purely passive but rather motivational and procedural, because they make the heart ready to welcome the gift of a beatitude which does not depend on external circumstances, but which is pure grace. They are also attitudes which we might define as "of the community" or open to communion. They all imply an opening to the other, even to the persecutor, to the slanderers, to those who do evil.
It is from these directions, which mark the welcoming of a gift of God, that what Martini calls the "action of the heart" is born. In other words, a way of acting and loving which no longer expressed only good will or the observance of an external law, but a new inwardness, similar to that of Christ. You are salt, light, lamp, a city on a mountain, you exist in such a way that your works - the action of your heart - will lead men to glorify not you but the Father. Your works will be the reflection of the love of the Father. Also as a community. Can a city which is set upon a mountain, remain hidden? In this sense community life appears as the fulfillment of the first mission which Jesus entrusted to His disciples, before even that of evangelization, which came after the Resurrection. The first mandate which Jesus entrusted to His own was that of being salt, light, lamp, city. The first mandate is precisely "to be" not "to do". The first mission of the Christian, and therefore also of the Christian community, is that of reflecting the love of the Father.
Let us therefore go back to the question which inspired our reflection: What is this love of the Father like?
It is perfect..."So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48). It is total. Perfection is the absence of partial-ness, of fragmentary-ness. Luke's parallel of this extract from Matthew, speaks of mercy: Be merciful as your Father is merciful, Paul, in the first letter to the Corinthians, precisely notes that when that which is "perfect" has come, that which is only partial, childlike, will disappear. Perfect love, that is, takes the place of everything. It transfigures in itself that which is infantile or only of the body. It contradicts, therefore, what the heart normally "listens to". You understood that which was spoken...but I say to you. It is based on one Word of Jesus, a word which is the opposite of the many words which whisper in the heart of that old man. It is a word which contradicts what the "carnal" heart is used to understanding: "you have understood that which was", you are accustomed to thinking in a certain way, you have learned from the ancients a certain way of loving... But I tell you... It is only starting from listening to Christ that we can receive the love of the Father and become children, children of God. Jesus therefore, in the Sermon on the Mount, specifies the highest and most beautiful requirements of a heart which reflects the love of the Father, the perfection of love.
You have understood that it was said: "You shall not kill" (Mt 5:21). Jesus starts off from the commandment of life. He starts with the commandment concerning a thing which most people, even if they do not feel absolutely perfect about, feel at least tranquil about. This commandment is the criterion of the discernment of true love as compared to false love. True love is that which gives life. There is no greater love. So what does 'do not kill' mean? What does it mean to perfectly obey this commandment?
In the Scriptures, murder is Satan right from the very beginning, even though he has never taken anyone's physical life. Satan is the one who kills without wounding the body. There is, in fact, a way of killing the interior. In John 7:19-24 Jesus talks with the crowd, with all of them, in other words to all who were listening to Him. And He says: "Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?". The crowd is amazed as well as being irritated and replies: "You are possessed. Who is trying to kill you?". Jesus then illuminates those who are listening by telling them what they need to know about the fulfillment of this commandment not to kill. Because you are "angry with me because I made a whole person well on a sabbath". Therefore, the idea of murder is born from feelings of contempt due to the breaking of the law. It is born from just anger. Jesus is saying that every time you get angry (even if it is justified) you break the law which precisely says 'do not kill'. Anger, in fact, contempt, this is at the root of murder. Now, if you have the root you potentially have the bitter fruit of it, even without putting it into action. To kill means fulfilling the desire to hurt someone. To fight this desire one must get rid of that which is at the root: judgement and anger against one's neighbor.
This is why Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5:21ff) admonishes those who are listening: if you are angry with your brother you risk being liable to judgement; if you say he is stupid you will go before the Sanhedrin; if you say that your brother is crazy - that is if you simply say he has no worth - you risk being liable to Gehenna. There is, paradoxically, an increase of punishment as the seriousness of the sin diminishes. Jesus is saying something very important and concrete: love, that of the Father who is looking for room in our hearts, starts from little, and from that little it grows into perfection. For if you cannot put up with the insignificance of your brother how can you put up with the greater weight? That is a law of physics. Let the love of the Holy Spirit teach you to pay attention to those whom you would neglect. In this way you will become capable of treating well those whom you would be inclined to call stupid. In this way you will grow and will be capable of overcoming anger and you will obey the commandment which says 'you shall not kill'. Jesus is tracing here that which, later, Theresa of Lisieux would present as the little way of love.
Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount: if you bring your gift to the altar, and your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled, even if it is the other person who has done something against you. Do not put it off. Be active in seeking peace with everyone. The true sacrifice is the sacrifice of oneself, of one's rightness: it is the gift of oneself. One can understand the fulfillment of the commandment 'do not kill' only by looking at how Jesus offered the sacrifice to the Father, in other words, looking at the cross and in particular at the wound in His side. Jesus teaches us on the cross that in order not to kill, one must be ready to let oneself be killed. Loving means letting oneself be pierced by the sword, with wide open arms. The wound in Christ's side is the manifestation of His Heart, an incredibly beautiful and luminous manifestation. An incredible discovery: the discovery that in the Heart of Christ, humiliated, betrayed, abandoned and pierced, there is no hatred, there is no justified contempt, there is no revendication of the law, there is still and forever the capacity for giving: "and immediately blood [life] and water [forgiveness] flowed out" (cf. Jn 19:34). This is total love, perfect and fulfilled. The love which pours out all its blood, all its life. The separation between body and blood, emphasized in the elements of the Eucharist, is the memorial of this totality. All the blood was poured out. The Heart of Christ emptied itself. This is the perfection of His love.
On the cross Jesus renounces His capacity to take the life of those who are killing Him. He renounces His capacity to punish them, to have revenge on them, to defend Himself. On the cross He reveals to us that the only way to fulfill the commandment which says: 'do not take another's life' is to love that other person to the point of giving one's own life for him. If killing means taking the life of another and giving him death, loving means the opposite: that is, taking death upon oneself to give life to the other, one's own life. Every relationship which does not reach this type of love is one that inevitably takes the life of the other, even if only through distance, with silence, with disdain, etc. Therefore, if our communities are not givers of life they will inevitably become givers of death. There is no middle way. "He who finds in his own heart a trace of enmity towards someone, even for a slight offense, is completely extraneous to the love of God. Love of God and hatred towards even just one man are completely incompatible" (Maximus the Confessor, Centuries 1:15).
It is significant that the six antitheses, which Jesus presents in his Sermon on the Mount, begin and end with the teaching that regards love of one's enemy. They begin, in fact, with a negative commandment, the commandment to not kill, and they end with a positive commandment, the commandment to forgive: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy" (Mt 5:43). In other words this is not what was written materially in the law, but it is what we have "heard". What we have heard is the natural call to act according to justice: have regard towards those who are close to us and hate those who harm us. But what is the Heart of Christ like? What is the love of the Father like which inhabits it? "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust" (Mt 5:44,45).
Jesus is saying that natural life, that is water and sunshine, is given to everyone: to the just and to the unjust. But there is another life, a grace, a gift. If you love those who love you, what recompense, what grace will you have out of it? Sinners and publicans do the same thing. Living on a purely natural level the commandment to love does not distinguish you from pagans and sinners, meaning from those who have not known the love of the Father. There is a new way, a different way of living. There is the very life of God poured into the hearts of you who are His sons and daughters. There is the charity of Christ, the perfection of love: "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48).
To contemplate the quality of this love of the Father even more deeply let us look at the Gospel of Matthew and see how this is expressed in the sphere of the ecclesial community. We refer above all to chapter 18. Here the ecclesial experience, therefore that of community life, is characterized by attention to the individual and to the small.
While the disciples are worried about which of them will be the greatest, Jesus reminds them of the fact that they are rather called to become like children. We are not going to go deeply into this discourse but it is useful to at least emphasize its meaning in so far as it concerns the value of community life. In this environment the attitude of childlike spirituality, which Jesus demands, involves two fundamental precepts.
1. The first is in a negative sense, that is, not to offend the moral sense of the small. The implication of this is that the measure of one's own commitment and one's own responsibility in community life is established by the requirements of the other, and particularly of the weakest. I am therefore called to remove from myself not so much anything that may provoke offense or disapproval in a saint, in a spiritually mature person, in a balanced person, but rather in those who have little faith, in those who are weak, in those who are simple. When parents modify their way of speaking or acting in order not to give their little children a bad example, inadvertently they put this evangelical attitude into practice. In practice that means that when I am faced with someone who is smaller than I in faith, I will not try to find out in what way I can be better than him, but rather where I might be an obstacle to him or cause him harm. This is the only useful encounter to have with others
2. The second precept is in the positive sense. It is not enough to remove evil by keeping watch over one's capacity to offend. The attitude of childlike spirituality in community life involves the solicitous care of the smallest. Perhaps one can better understand what this consists of by reflecting on its opposite, meaning on despising someone. Jesus says clearly that we should not despise anyone. The angels of heaven which are closest to God, in fact, are those which are most attentive to the little ones. It is to them, precisely to them, that the care of the little ones is entrusted. Therefore, to be a reflection of the love of the Father in the environment of community life means living one's life always being attentive to the individual and to the little ones. Just like the angels of heaven. The more one loves, the more one is capable of this humble care.
Jesus follows up this teaching, always in chapter 18 of Matthew (vv. 10-14), with the parable of the lost sheep. God, Jesus tells them, does not want anyone to be lost not even one of these little ones (v. 14). Not even one single sheep. The Christian community becomes a reflection of the Father's saving will and, therefore, of His love, it goes out to the sinner and has this same attitude of searching.
A confirmation of this is the practice of fraternal admonishment described in vv. 21-22. Its purpose is not that of obtaining justice but that of gaining a brother. In other words, the central point of His care, when He is correcting the sinner, is moved aside, indeed it is turned upside down. It is centered not on the rightness of the person who is just, but on the need of the one who has done wrong. If the other is considered a pagan or a sinner this means that he must be treated like the lost sheep: someone that you must find.
Jesus continues His teaching for the community of His disciples by speaking of a mysterious correspondence between heaven and earth: the Church is called to adopt criteria, in loosing and in binding, which are the reflection of those of heaven, of those of the heart of the Father.
And what is this criterion of loosing or binding? This is made explicit by the interaction between Jesus and Peter concerning forgiveness. The criterion described by Jesus staggers even the good will of Peter, who was suggesting a solution which was even more elastic than that normally recommended by the rabbis: to pardon, that is, up to 7 times, where the rabbis had suggested only 3 times. "Jesus answered, 'I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times'" (Mt. 18:22).
There follows the example of the Kingdom of God which is likened to a king who decided to settle his accounts; who decided, that is, who to loose and who to bind. This king's criterion is paradoxical. He forgives an enormous, truly outrageous debt on the part of one debtor. But this man who had had his debt forgiven is incapable of pardoning his own servant. The example which explains forgiveness in the Kingdom of Heaven, must therefore be constantly understood as a discourse on brotherly admonishment and forgiveness in the Christian community. We need only emphasize a few illuminating aspects of this parable. What kind of master is this who allows the accumulation of such an enormous debt as 10,000 talents? What kind of servant is the man who, before the disproportionate size of his debt, continues to promise that he will pay everything back to his master? And why is this servant who has been pardoned incapable of forgiving in turn? Basically he believes that he will be able to pay back, that he will be able to become a just man again in the eyes of God. The promise of eternal life is the forgiving of an immense debt. In essence, as long as a person believes that he will be able to "repay" the gift of God or be able to love "enough", he does not know the charity of the Heart of Christ. The master will be forced to "bind" the servant who does not have mercy. The debt to pay, however, is no longer the one of before, but his own egoism, his own hardness of heart.
"If my sins in some way, when compared to those of the others, seem smaller, less serious, then that means that I have not truly acknowledged my sin. Only he who lives by the pardon of his sins in Jesus Christ can experience true humility... That man will not have to take much account of his own plans and his own intentions and will know that it is a good thing if his desires are thwarted in meeting with his neighbor... Service to one's brother consists of bearing his burden. By bearing the burden of the other you will have fulfilled the law of Christ. Only if the other is a burden is he truly a brother and not an object to be dominated (Bonhoeffer, Community Life). That is the way the Father loves: carrying the burden of the lost sheep, not dominating over him.
The document VF quotes various extracts from Scripture which express this attitude of reciprocal love, in the various contexts and dimensions in which the characteristic is that of "bearing" the other, of giving oneself fully and freely: "love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor" (Rom 12:10); "welcome one another" (Rom 15:7); "admonish one another" (Rom 15:14); "serve one another" (Gal 5:13); "encourage one another" (1 Thes 5:13); "bear one another through love" (Eph 4:2); "forgive one another" (Eph 4:32); be subordinate to one another" (Eph 5:21).
Thus, then, is the love of the Father, which waits to be reflected in our lives and in our communities.
When one speaks of community as a reflection of the love of the Father, it is important to emphasize the fact that its theological character is what distinguishes it from a community which reflects and fulfills a simple psychological or mental communion. Bonhoeffer, with regard to this, expresses himself as follows: "In the mentally oriented community there reigns a deep, basic and intellectual desire for immediate contact with the other, just as in the flesh there lives the desire for immediate union with the other". In the case of spiritual communion, on the other hand, the contact with the other is sought through the mediation of Christ. This is, in fact, the communion of those who see themselves first and foremost in Christ and it is only through Him that they see themselves as brothers and sisters.
This primacy of the relationship with Christ implies "hatred" of the other in the evangelical sense; in the sense, that is, of a radical cutting of those bonds which are only of the flesh and which can impede or limit evangelical liberty.
Spiritual love lives on the Word of Christ. If the Word tells me to live in communion with the other for love, I will do it. If that same Word orders me to interrupt such a communion, I will equally do it.
The Vita Fraterna (Fraternal Life) document does not fail to point out the ambiguity of a community based only on psychological affinity. The community cannot be chosen. My brother and my sister are given to me in the faith of God, indeed they are entrusted to me. I do not choose the community in which to live, nor do I refuse the brother which is entrusted to it: "Elective homogeneity weakens apostolic mobility, it makes the spiritual reality of the community lose strength and empties out its power of witness" (cf. VF 41).
"May the Heart of Christ be the center of communication between me and you" (Comboni). Only to the extent that the other is not reached directly, starting from my or from the other's wishes or needs, but through the mediation of Christ, of His Heart, which means of those attitudes which He reveals on the Sermon on the Mount as an expression of the perfection of the Father, do our relationships become authentic and inspired by charity.
The distinction between intellectual love and spiritual love is not easily recognizable, for behind a loving attitude there may be either a human value or a need. All of us naturally want to love and all of us are convinced that we love freely and that we wish to give ourselves. In fact that is not so: "I loved love, but I did not know how to love" (Augustine).
An entirely carnal person can make great sacrifices for love of the other, to the point of distributing all his goods to the poor or giving his body to be burned in the flames; but this love is not necessarily the charity of Christ: "Everyone in fact desires good and with their words and actions incline to something which is good, but precisely because of a false appearance of good, many are deceived"(Imitation of Christ).
It is important to pause for a moment on this point, even if the things that have been said may sound a little persistent, or perhaps provocative. Human sciences, above all psychology, confirm that the human person never acts simply out of a good intention. There are external and internal conditionings. Behind an apparently good behavior, or even within a good and more or less loving intention, there may be the expression of a desire to fulfill a need which is totally opposed to love. A need which is in reality only psychological or social. It is not a question of denying the value of natural and psychological love, but of learning to recognize the right order of values and, starting from that recognition, of learning to make a humble and patient, but also extremely liberating, discernment between intellectual and spiritual love.
Here is how Bonhoeffer distinguishes these two types of love which are similar in outward behavior but totally different in interior motivation: "Intellectual love wishes to possess, to control. Spiritual love lives in the clarity and in the orderly service of truth. Intellectual love binds, produces servitude and rigidity; spiritual love bears fruit which grow in the open air, under the rain, in the storm, in the sun... as is pleasing to God".
In this way the main differences between intellectual love and spiritual love may be described in more detail, remembering once again that the two modes of loving are not necessarily in opposition to each other. They can integrate, but in the sense that the intellectual love becomes transfigured into spiritual love.
The psychological giving of one's self is unrealistic, deceptive. It can be recognized by the fact that it gives one the sensation of being forced, of not being spontaneous. Charity, instead, is "sincere" (Rom 12:9). The Christian who has understood that the correct, natural way of loving must be transfigured by the divine, "risks, with his behavior and his words, showing off in order to demonstrate that he has truly achieved his objective... He tends, for example, to ask pardon unnecessarily, or to offer it in a rather irritating way. Does not one perhaps live better with those ordinary people who know how to get over their own sudden outbursts of anger, and also the outbursts of others, with a glass of beer, a little nap or simply a joke? The true work of charity is secret, the most secret of all workings. And, as far as possible, it is also a secret to ourselves. Do not let your right hand..." (Lewis). Here we find that loving behavior expresses a need for exhibition.
The psychological giving of self is for one's own interest. One gives in order to receive. It starts from a need rather than from the gratitude of someone who thinks they will be able to reciprocate what they had been the first to receive. They are full of enthusiasm when they see the result (the need to receive success), when they are recognized (the need to receive respect), when their sentiment is reciprocated (the need to receive affection). They are not so pleased when there is no result, when they are faced with humble and hidden things, when they are faced with the need to act and speak even at the cost of disapproval on the part of others, at the cost of loneliness and humiliation. The dynamic, in other words, is that of giving in order to receive. This is also valid for community life as a whole. A community that gets on well together is not necessarily a community that is growing in the gift of self. It is a question of checking to see if this community is in agreement about a value to pursue, or simply about the gratification of shared needs. "Here are five motives, praiseworthy or not, for which people can love each other: Out of the love of God, as in the case of the just man who loves everyone, or of the one who, while not being just, loves people who are just. Out of a natural instinct, as in the case of parents who love their children and vice versa. Out of vanity, as with the person who receives praise and loves those who give it to them. Out of cupidity, as when one is in love with a person they can receive something from. Out of the love of pleasure, as with those who merely satisfy their carnal pleasures. The first motive is good, the second is indifferent, the other three are vitiated by the passions" (St. Maximus the Confessor, Centurie, II,9).
The psychological giving of self is self-centered and characterized by anxiety about oneself, it therefore tends to "spare oneself". Spiritual love is the gift of love which is represented by the cross. And yet, when faced with suffering - above all interior and interpersonal suffering - many rebel: they defend themselves "justly so", they go back to their way of reasoning and therefore, in the end, they spare themselves.
Psychological love quickly tires, it is inconstant and unstable. It can be recognized by the fact that the interior disposition of those who love psychologically changes when circumstances change. "For example, those who love this person and despise that person, because of a "yes" or because of a "no"... Or those who love today and then tomorrow they love no more, because it seems to them that the other has changed" (St. Maximus the Confessor, Op.Cit.). This giving of oneself, in other words, is partial. It is given only to the extent to which there is a guarantee that there is a possibility of "drawing back", of verifying, of evaluating, of changing. It is a love of "living with" not of "allegiance". I open myself up to the other, I give my trust, I serve, but only as far as this does not condition my freedom. Here the prevailing need is that of avoiding harm or failure. "The friends of Christ persevere unto the end in their love. The friends of the world do so insofar as they find themselves in agreement with the things of the world" (St. Maximus the Confessor, Op.Cit). Spiritual love, instead, is "consigned". And it is consigned into the hands of sinners. Without conditions, forever and completely. The possibility of living and loving in the genuine gift of oneself is not a human possibility or a human conquest. It is the gift which God makes to those who receive Christ with a humble heart. It is the gift of being "a child of the divine". It is a true birth to a new and spiritual nature in which human nature is not despised or destroyed, but is transfigured by the Paschal mystery of death and resurrection.