Charity as the Basis and Source of the Spirituality of the Religious Life 83 In teaching about the ways to attain perfection, the Marian Founder shows the spiritual state of a religious person and also defines the conditions for advancement on the path to perfect love, which strives for unity and an ever greater assimilation to Christ. The first among these dispositions is a constant readiness to fulfill God’s will, which presents itself in the religious life in various ways and involves not only a detachment from sin and other disorderly inclinations of human nature, but also other virtues, especially the virtue of resignation and obedience to God’s will. Papczyński remarks that “the essence of perfect love is to observe the divine words. Just as children who truly love their parents try to fulfill their will exactly, in the same way, as the sons of God, those who would like to be lovers of the best and greatest Father should take great care to fulfill His commandments most diligently. […]Therefore, it will be your duty to strive for a perfect union through the true observance of the laws and commandments of God, and of those who represent him.”163 A prerequisite for uniting with God is also a conscious undertaking of actions aiming at a close imitation of Christ who came to fulfill the law and the prophets (cf. Mt 5:17), and, being totally submitted to the Father, He fulfilled His will in everything. Therefore, this stage is marked by an intensive configuration to Christ, in which the conforming of the human will to the will of God must be regarded as fundamental, because “conforming our will to the will of God opens for Him a clear and royal road to us. Without this, even the Son of God could not have descended into the Immaculate Virgin’s womb. If conforming to the will of God and resignation from one’s own will caused God to become man and opened for Him the way to the human heart, then it will also make ready and open for Him the way to your heart.”164 In the opinion of the Marian Founder, the main trait of supernatural love in the context of the unitive way is, on the one hand, the tendency to “divest yourself of the old man, passionate and imperfect;” and on the other hand, to “put on Jesus Christ” 163 IC, Sunday of Pentecost, BHC, pt. 1. 164 IC, Third Sunday of Advent, BHC, pt. 3; also cf. T. Rogalewski, Koncepcja życia chrześcijańskiego..., pp. 34-39.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==