The Lord accepted her oblation. We see that shortly thereafter she stated that she felt an intense love for others and maintained that it came from the heart of Christ, prolonged through her. So she told her sister Léonie: “I love you a thousand times more tenderly than ordinary sisters love each other, for I can love you with the heart of our celestial spouse”. 215Letter 186 to Léonie, 11 April 1896. Later, to Maurice Bellière she wrote, “How I would like to make you understand the tenderness of the heart of Jesus, what he expects from you!” 216Letter 258 to l’Abbé Bellière, 18 July 1897.
Sisters and brothers, I propose that we develop this means of reparation, which is, in a word, to offer the heart of Christ a new possibility of spreading in this world the flames of his ardent and gracious love. While it remains true that reparation entails the desire to “render compensation for the injuries inflicted on uncreated Love, whether by negligence or grave offense”, 217Cf. PIUS XI, Encyclical Letter Miserentissimus Redemptor, 8 May 1928: AAS 20 (1928), 169. the most fitting way to do this is for our love to offer the Lord a possibility of spreading, in amends for all those occasions when his love has been rejected or refused. This involves more than simply the “consolation” of Christ of which we spoke in the previous chapter; it finds expression in acts of fraternal love by which we heal the wounds of the Church and of the world. In this way, we offer the healing power of the heart of Christ new ways of expressing itself.
The sacrifices and sufferings required by these acts of love of neighbour unite us to the passion of Christ. In this way, “by that mystic crucifixion of which the Apostle speaks, we shall receive the abundant fruits of its propitiation and expiation, for ourselves and for others”. 218Ibid.: AAS 20 (1928), 172. Christ alone saves us by his offering on the cross; he alone redeems us, for “there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:5-6). The reparation that we offer is a freely accepted participation in his redeeming love and his one sacrifice. We thus complete in our flesh “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” ( Col 1:24); and Christ himself prolongs through us the effects of his complete and loving self-oblation.
Often, our sufferings have to do with our own wounded ego. The humility of the heart of Christ points us towards the path of abasement. God chose to come to us in condescension and littleness. The Old Testament had already shown us, with a variety of metaphors, a God who enters into the heart of history and allows himself to be rejected by his people. Christ’s love was shown amid the daily life of his people, begging, as it were, for a response, as if asking permission to manifest his glory. Yet “perhaps only once did the Lord Jesus refer to his own heart, in his own words. And he stresses this sole feature: ‘gentleness and lowliness’, as if to say that only in this way does he wish to win us to himself”. 219SAINT JOHN PAUL II , Catechesis, 20 June 1979: L’Osservatore Romano, 22 June 1979, p. 1. When he said, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” ( Mt 11:29), he showed us that “to make himself known, he needs our littleness, our self-abasement”. 220Homily at Mass in Domus Sanctae Marthae, 27 June 2014: L’Osservatore Romano, 28 June 2014, p. 8.
In what we have said, it is important to note several inseparable aspects. Acts of love of neighbour, with the renunciation, self-denial, suffering and effort that they entail, can only be such when they are nourished by Christ’s own love. He enables us to love as he loved, and in this way he loves and serves others through us. He humbles himself to show his love through our actions, yet even in our slightest works of mercy, his heart is glorified and displays all its grandeur. Once our hearts welcome the love of Christ in complete trust, and enable its fire to spread in our lives, we become capable of loving others as Christ did, in humility and closeness to all. In this way, Christ satisfies his thirst and gloriously spreads the flames of his ardent and gracious love in us and through us. How can we fail to see the magnificent harmony present in all this?
Finally, in order to appreciate this devotion in all of its richness, it is necessary to add, in the light of what we have said about its Trinitarian dimension, that the reparation made by Christ in his humanity is offered to the Father through the working of the Holy Spirit in each of us. Consequently, the reparation we offer to the heart of Christ is directed ultimately to the Father, who is pleased to see us united to Christ whenever we offer ourselves through him, with him and in him.