Charity as the Basis and Source of the Spirituality of the Religious Life 91 resurrection, because this is how Christ reveals His submissive love of the Father. For this very reason, the Passion experiences of a consecrated person also take on a special significance because they become both the defining factor in attaining the fullness of unification and the necessary condition for entering into a true friendship with God.186 Outlining his vision of unity with God and the supernatural love which is proper to him, Papczyński does not give it any exclusively vertical and individualistic traits, the crucial element of which is what happens between God and man striving for unity with Him. In addition to the internal attitude relating to the Passion and the Paschal events in a Christ-like manner, it is important to actively practice love of neighbor. It is true that “no one is closer to the glory of God than His friends” as Papczyński states in his Inspectio cordis. However, he adds at once that although it may seem as if only those, “whose hearts are continuously fixed on God” enjoy the fruits of the love, “the Lord says that loving one’s neighbor is much like loving God (cf. Mt 22:39). Indeed, it must be asserted that the one cannot exist without the other.”187 The condition and criterion of a true loving friendship is the ability to love one’s neighbor along with the enemies and to abide by God’s commandments and the evangelical counsels, because supernatural love “discourages rebellions, averts wars, begets peace, loves laws, highly esteems the neighbor, embraces the enemy, wishes well and does good to all.”188 Contemplation is an appropriate prayer of union with God. Papczyński sees it as “a good and a gift from God.” It is given to men as a sample and a promise of eternal life. Through contemplation, the consecrated person attains a knowledge of himself and of God, as well as receiving the grace of a “very close union” (unio arctissima) with his Creator. Seeing that “the entire happiness of the saints in Heaven comes from looking upon God,” those who gaze at God and see themselves and divine works in Him, somehow taste the happiness of the 186 Cf. T. Rogalewski, Tajemnica krzyża..., pp. 62-70. 187 IC, Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, BHC, pt. 3. 188 IC, Meditation IX, pt. 1; cf. J. Misiurek, Zarys historii duchowości chrześcijańskiej, Częstochowa 2003, p. 174..
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