Conclusion

An pastoral og holinesss

One of the ideas that are gaining ground forcibly in this particular period of the Church's life and which in some way goes beyond the narrow limits of the dual concept holiness-apostolate or prayer-activity is the consciousness aroused by prayer and the possibilities open to the apostolate everywhere to create and promote a pastoral of holiness.

Where the Holy Spirit opens paths for Christian growth there one finds the fundamental require­ments of Christian asceticism, prayer, discernment, an ever deeper consistency with the dictates of the new law. And one experiences the joy of being Christians deep down. The apparently most difficult demands of Christian morality prove to be a special gift from God, an expression of love for God and neighbour, a way of teaching God's children to behave worthily so that they are progressively enlightened by spiritunall experience.

Therefore a renewal of the Church's theology, preaching and moral life should keep pace with a positive and exacting pedagogy of spirituality and Christian holiness, with an ever more docile and convinced openness to the action of the Holy Spirit .It is a proposal that awaits relative pastoral paths of spirituality for a new evangelization applied to children, young people, married couples, laity, reli­gious and priests in their diverse moral respon­sibilities and in a progressive education to holiness.

In fact the programmatic affirmation of John Paul H's Encyclical Veritatis Splendor, which ex­presses not only an ideal but a conviction that unites the force of truth and the immediacy of the Christian experience, remains symbolic: «The life of

holiness... constitutes the simplest and mast attractive way to perceive at once the beauty of truth, the &heating force of God's love, and the value of unconditional fidelity to all the demands of the Lord's law, even in the most difficult situations» ¹⁹.

Christian morality in its height of holiness is also a reflection of the beauty of God and his plan, it is an experience of freedom in love, in the image of God's freedom and love, which makes man like him, and it is an expression of fidelity to the covenant with God, sustained and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit

In the recent Apostolic Exhortation Vita Can­secrata, John Paul II gave a concrete impulse to this dimension of spirituality and pastoral activity, where he speaks explicitly of fostering holiness and where he calls men and women religious especially to make a decisive commitment to the spiritual life ²⁰.

A pedagogy of apostolic spirituality

A doctrinal observation is not enough. Also a concrete pedagogy of unity of life and apostolic spirituality is needed. In the Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, nos. 87-88, John Paul II presents some fundamental demands which make missionary spirituality effective and vigorous.

First of all docility to the Holy Spirit, the source of every authentic «spirituality» which takes its name from Him, the Holy Spirit and sanctifier. Living in docility to the Spirit, to his action, to the grace of discernment, to the courage of witness. The Spirit which unifies the Church in prayer and action - the two movements of communion and mission which proceed from him - guarantees the unity of the apostle's life.

The Pope also emphasizes the necessary com­munion with Christ, the true «life in Christ» which is synonymous with Christocentric spirituality. He asks for communion with Him, sharing his feelings (cf. Phil 2:5-8), the total gift of self for the mission, to the point of total self-emptying, with confidence that the Spirit accompanies mission with his power and that the missionary in his fragility has the same power and effectiveness as the Lord.

In apostolic service and in prayer we, have the synthesis of a Christian existence which grows in depths in holiness and expands profusely in an apostolate, according to God's measure, according to God's will.

At the summit of the priest's spiritual itinerary, but as a conscious measure of every stage of this itinerary, there is service for Christ which is merely letting Christ continue to serve our brothers and sisters and to build up the Church through us.

Throughout this journey the motives for our service are purified thus becoming more and more full of love and gratuitousness. And at the peak of spiritual life the meaning of the works we have to do is heightened: God's works and our works; the good he wants us to do. Finally one becomes available so that He may do what he wants in us.

The priest, the religious, the lay person, each in his or her own vocation, attains perfect iden­tification with his/her model, Christ, in essence and action. And he or she, in the logic of his/her own apostolic life, becomes the bread that is eaten, the Eucharist for others, giving their lives every day but every day giving new life to the brothers and sisters to whom God sends them. The height of holiness is apostolic. Pastoral charity can be expressed in the most stressful work or in bearing illness patiently, in the apparent failure of one's apostolate or even in martyrdom. But all theseexpressions of the gift of self are reflections of the mystery of service for love of ChristJesus, he who is holy at the height of his love and his suffering. That height in which he, in prayer and in the gift of self, accomplished the mystery of our redemption and has given us with his Spirit the fullness of holiness.