[B.] St. IGNATIUS of LOYOLA Presentation: The ... - St. Gaspar Bertoni

INTEGRE;SJ-OFM
= 8 =
- the Spiritual Exercises strive for the spiritual renovation of the individual; these
have before them a determined amount of time in which to be accomplished - they go to the
depths of the soul in striving to deepen one’s personal relationship with God;
- the Constitutions have a clearly social, ecclesial purpose - these legislate for the
remainder of one’s life, regulate not only the internal actions, but also those relationships with
one’s superiors, equals and students. In a word, these establish a juridical bond and give
practical norms of action.
[10] Therefore, a profound experience of the Spiritual Exercises is meant to lead to a
fuller living of the Constitutions.
3. The 4th Week of the Exercises : The Resurrection of Christ our Lord 4 :
a. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a marvel and a manifestation of the Heavenly
Father’s Love. It is a creative act, enabling the Divine Son to sit at His right hand [cf. Ps 110:1].
The Risen One is thus glorified in a heavenly manner. The Father raised Jesus up from among
the dead, and presents Him definitively and eschatologically to history as “the Lord of all
Creation.” There is thus manifested in anticipation His glory in the Body of the Risen One to give
Him back to humanity for ever, and with all His gifts. The Holy Spirit, Who was already present
from the beginning in His human life, now brings into history with His own dimension, making of it
a new era:
“... This news is about the Son of God who, according to the human nature he took, was a
descendant of David. It is about Jesus Christ our Lord who, in the order of the spirit, the spirit of
holiness that was in him, was proclaimed Son of God in all his power through his
resurrection from the dead...” [cf. Rm 1:3-4].
b. This event, which is for the Crucified Jesus His exaltation to the right hand of the
Father, places in evidence His divinity and the fullness of His life as God. The death of the
Crucified in the past could not live any other manner than with the very life of the Father. Jesus
is the Lord, equal to the Father, and there is seen in Him the fullness of the glory of the divinity,
which is Love. It is precisely this love which handed Him over to death, and it is that same love
which raises Him up again. He could not die forever - He is the last and definitive word of God to
the history of humanity. His love and fidelity could not expire. It is in this that the Father
manifests for us His very being as God in this unique identity of crucified love, raised up now in
the Holy Spirit, to His condition as Lord, equal to God. The Father constitutes His Son as that
definitive center which brings to perfection His work of creation, that awaited from the beginning
the glorious manifestation of the Savior.
c. Different from the Incarnation and the Passion of Christ, the Resurrection served
as a marvelous confirmation of faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ and in the redeeming
significance of the sacrifice of the Cross. Enthroned at the right hand of God, He received the
Holy Spirit from the Father, He Who had been promised and has now been sent [cf. Ac 2:33].
The Risen Son is now the Kyrios, the Christ [cf. Ac 2:56]. However, He continues likewise to
remain as Jesus of Nazareth. There is, then, in the Person of the Risen One, a profound identity
with the realization of His earthly life. Yet, there is also a break, or overcoming all limit through the
pneumatological dimension. The return of the Risen Jesus does not mean the continuation of
the broken thread of His earthly existence. What is true now is that the Crucified lives by
God and in the Spirit, and there is placed in Him in evidence the plenitude of the divinity,
His condition as Lord.
4 For what follows, cf. Santiago Arzubialde, SJ, Ejercicios Espirituales de S. Ignacio. Historia y Analisis. Bilbao -
Santiander: Mensajero-Sal Terrae 1991, pp. 463,477, passim; 499-505 passim; 577-583, passim.