VII

CONCLUSION

The Eyes Enlightening the Heart

16. This exhortation which I address to you on the Solemnity of the Annunciation in the Jubilee Year of the Redemption is meant to be an expression of that love which the Church has for men and women religious. You, dear brothers and sisters, are truly a special treasure of the Church. And this treasure becomes more understandable through meditation on the reality of the Redemption, for which the present Holy Year offers a continuous opportunity and a welcome encouragement. Recognize, therefore, in this light, your identity and your dignity. May the Holy Spirit-through Christ's cross and resurrection-"having the eyes of your hearts enlightened," enable you "to know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints."(¹⁰⁴)

These "eyes enlightening the heart" the Church unceasingly asks for each one of you who have already taken the road of the profession of the evangelical counsels. The Church, together with you, asks for the same "enlightened eyes" for many Christians, especially for young men and women, that they may discover this way and not be afraid to enter upon it, that-even in the midst of the adverse circumstances of life today-they may hear Christ's "Follow me."(¹⁰⁵) You too must strive for this through your prayer and also through the witness of that love whereby "God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."(¹⁰⁶) May this witness become present everywhere and universally clear. May the people of our times, in their spiritual weariness, find in it both support and hope. Therefore, serve your brethren with the joy that wells up from a heart in which Christ has His dwelling. "And may the world of our time...be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected and discouraged...but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ."(¹⁰⁷)

The Church, in her love for you, does not cease "kneeling before the Father,"(¹⁰⁸) that He may effect in you ". . .the strengthening of the inner nature,"(¹⁰⁹) and as in you, so also in many others of your baptized brothers and sisters, especially young people, so that they may find the same way to holiness which in the course of history so many generations have traveled together with Christ, the Redeemer of the world and Spouse of souls, often leaving behind them the bright radiance of God's light against the dark and gray background of human existence.

To all of you who travel this road in the present phase of the history of the Church and the world there is addressed this fervent hope of the Jubilee Year of the Redemption, that "you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."(¹¹⁰)