The Exercises are, in the last analysis, a method in the pedagogy of
love – the pedagogy, that is, of the most pure charity towards God and towards
one’s neighbor. They root out of the
human heart carnal and worldly love, thus opening it to the beams of God’s
love. A demanding love it is, calling
forth in us a response of love and of service.
Service, which is itself love.
This is the message of the very last paragraph of the book of the Exercises: “The zealous service of God our Lord, out of
pure love, should be esteemed above all” (Spir.
Ex. 370) In the Exercises, we find terms and concepts which are logically reducible
to one another: “the glory of God,” for
example, can be replaced by “the service of God.” The same may be said of “praise” and
“reverence.” Only one term in final and
irreducible to any other: love.
(Pedro
Arrupe, S.J. “Rooted and Grounded in Love” [1981])
No comments:
Post a Comment