I want to share something of the retreat I had with the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. I= d like to start with the vision that Conchita had. It’s a cross with the pierced heart and dove above it and a cloud of light and fire and rays of light.

The thing that always bothers me is that Jesus already died and rose from the dead and we have been given the Spirit, how come we are so slow in responding to all these graces that God gives us? It seems to me as I struggle and wrestle with this question, that the attitude we have toward the cross is one of the attitudes that blocks us from profiting.

In this particular grace that the Lord raised up in the church through Conchita he makes us look at the cross as the place where the love of God is flowing into the world. One morning when Conchita was praying she saw this vision of light, a very strong light, and then light got clearer and in the light she saw the dove, very white, and fire and a cloud of fire and rays of light, all kinds, thousands of them. But the dove was in such a position as to imply that it embraced the whole scene. All the light, the whole big Cross, the heart on the Cross, etc.

That takes us to the first issue that we deal with the question of redemption. We celebrate the completion of the work of redemption with the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and we call the rest of the year Ordinary time meaning that we are under the power of the Holy Spirit all the time. That means the light and the love of the Holy Spirit guides and shapes the church and you and me. So the first re-transformation of looking at the Cross is that the Cross, from the point of view of God and Christ= s redemption, was already the place where the Holy Spirit was operative fully. Now it is continuing down through ages. So the Holy Spirit has to be at the center of things in our life if we are to live the Christian life. We have to ask ourselves what kind of relationship do I have with the Holy Spirit? I don= t have to create it, it= s already in me because I= m baptized and as a baptized person I have an orientation toward each person of the Trinity like you do. So it’s a question of flowing with the gifts of the Spirit in your life.

The second thing is the big Cross. The big Cross has no place to rest on, it= s in the air. Jesus makes clear to Conchita that the reason for that is that this is really the condition of the human race. That it is always in the condition of the Cross, that is, it always finds a struggle between life and death. It= s only grounded when it= s grounded in the Spirit.

Then there’s the heart right where the beams come together. It= s not a painted heart, it’s not a piece of wood, it= s a living, glorious heart. It= s Christ= s glorious heart palpitating and radiating light and fire coming out of it, around it and coming out of it very strongly. Jesus tells her that the fire coming out of the heart represents his love for unity that comes from the Trinity since the three persons in one God, there= s a unity and that unity of love is manifested in this rush of fire coming out from the heart. Then the fire around the heart, he says, is the communicating love that he has to embrace all mankind. He talks about the fact that the large Cross is what makes people begin to wake up and come to move toward him. The cross without the heart, of course, is to us frightening because it means suffering and difficulties. So by putting the heart on the Cross, which is the truth of things, namely, that Jesus is committed to the human race forever. Wherever the Cross is that= s where Jesus is, where ever Jesus is his heart is. So he’s always committed to the salvation of the human race, you and me included. Again we have to listen to how the Lord is working in our life because he= s actively loving us.

The next one is the lanced pierced heart that= s a symbol of the total gift of Jesus and the openness the path that we have between heaven and earth is open to us because of the redemptive work of Jesus and the thrusting of the lance is the manifestation of that truth that blood and water flows is the salvation for the whole world.

Then there= s little Cross on top of the heart and that really represents that Jesus embraced from the beginning of his incarnation the work of redemption, the sins of the world, he began to experience from the time he was incarnated until he ascended into heaven. The real act of redemption is Jesus= embrace of the sinfulness of mankind and all its suffering. So the purpose of the little cross and the crown of thorns around his heart and the lance is to remind us that the suffering of Jesus is interior is the really redemptive suffering. The other suffering in this part of it there= s no doubt about it but the real one is how much he embraced interior suffering for us.

Then the last point is that the whole scene is embraced by a cloud of fire and rays and light, etc., reminding us that the presence of God is that close to us. God is committed to us. In his commitment his light and his love are always embracing us.