And the more deeply a person realizes this gift and lives by it, the more he will see how little he matches up to it. The saint is right, contrary to all those who see him from the outside, to feel that he is the worst sinner and failure. Here we see quite clearly that the total acceptance of the gift of God's love in unreflecting childlikeness is the very opposite of magic. In the language of eros, it is the total abandon in which the bride allows the bridegroom to penetrate her intimately. The complete and yet simple faith that Jesus requires guarantees the success of that reciprocity of love that is God's aim.
Every dogma contains within itself the one, entire mystery.
But insofar as the mystery is inexhaustible in its fullness, in its aspects and consequences, the one dogma can be unfolded into a countless number of propositions. It also brings together things that appear irreconcilable. And this applies irrespective of all the grumblers who object that the empirical Church looks very different. Dogma, in being reflected back from the figure of Jesus Christ, can and must shed light on the conditions that make his appearance possible and on the origin of the mystery in God. It can and must illuminate the ineradicable difference between the One who sends, the One who is sent and that Spirit who is promised at the moment the Son returns to the Father.