Divine filiation

Since, as I reminded you earlier, our divine filiation is the firm foundation of our spiritual life, try to meditate often on St Paul’s words: All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him (Rom 8:14-17).

These words sum up our relationship with God the Father, in union with his Son and with the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, in view of the divine inheritance that awaits us if we are faithful to the apostolic task that belongs to us on this earth because of our vocation.

Divinising all the tasks of the world

Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terrae (Ps 2:8); ask me, and I will give you all the nations as an inheritance, and I will extend your dominion to the ends of the earth. We have, therefore, the right and the duty to take the doctrine of Jesus Christ into all spheres of human life, bringing the spirit of the Lord everywhere, divinising all the tasks of this world.

We have the right and duty to bring everything created by God, the work of his creation, closer to God, without ever violating the demands of the natural order; for, says St Paul, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future – all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Cor 3:22-23).