There is another, complementary, approach to reparation, which allows us to set it in an even more direct relationship with the heart of Christ, without excluding the aspect of concrete commitment to our brothers and sisters.
Elsewhere I have suggested that, “God has in some way sought to limit himself in such a way that many of the things we think of as evils, dangers or sources of suffering, are in reality part of the pains of childbirth which he uses to draw us into the act of cooperation with the Creator”. 205Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ (24 May 2015), 80: AAS 107 (2015), 879. This cooperation on our part can allow the power and the love of God to expand in our lives and in the world, whereas our refusal or indifference can prevent it. Several passages of the Bible express this metaphorically, as when the Lord cries out, “If only you would return to me, O Israel!” (cf. Jer 4:1). Or when, confronted with rejection by his people, he says, “My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender” ( Hos 11:8).
Even though it is not possible to speak of new suffering on the part of the glorified Lord, “the paschal mystery of Christ… and all that Christ is – all that he did and suffered for all men – participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all”. 206Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1085. We can say that he has allowed the expansive glory of his resurrection to be limited and the diffusion of his immense and burning love to be contained, in order to leave room for our free cooperation with his heart. Our rejection of his love erects a barrier to that gracious gift, whereas our trusting acceptance of it opens a space, a channel enabling it to pour into our hearts. Our rejection or indifference limits the effects of his power and the fruitfulness of his love in us. If he does not encounter openness and confidence in me, his love is deprived – because he himself has willed it – of its extension, unique and unrepeatable, in my life and in this world, where he calls me to make him present. Again, this does not stem from any weakness on his part but rather from his infinite freedom, his mysterious power and his perfect love for each of us. When God’s power is revealed in the weakness of our human freedom, “only faith can discern it”. 207Ibid., No. 268.