Dilexit Nos §102

¹⁰² Let us consider some of the ways that, in the history of the Christian faith, these prophecies were understood to have been fulfilled. Various Fathers of the Church, especially those in Asia Minor, spoke of the wounded side of Jesus as the source of the water of the Holy Spirit: the word, its grace and the sacraments that communicate it. The courage of the martyrs is born of “the heavenly fount of living waters flowing from the side of Christ” or, in the version of Rufinus, “the heavenly and eternal streams that flow from the heart of Christ”. We believers, reborn in the Spirit, emerge from the cleft in the rock; “we have come forth from the heart of Christ”. His wounded side, understood as his heart, filled with the Holy Spirit, comes to us as a flood of living water. “The fount of the Spirit is entirely in Christ”. Yet the Spirit whom we have received does not distance us from the risen Lord, but fills us with his presence, for by drinking of the Spirit we drink of the same Christ. In the words of Saint Ambrose: “Drink of Christ, for he is the rock that pours forth a flood of water. Drink of Christ, for he is the source of life. Drink of Christ, for he is the river whose streams gladden the city of God. Drink of Christ, for he is our peace. Drink of Christ, for from his side flows living water”.