Paul writes, “… because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father! Here, the Spirit is called the Spirit of God’s Son. Just as the Son was sent into the world to make us children of God, so the Spirit of that same Son is sent into our hearts, giving us the Son’s own Abba Father cry to God. Abba is the Aramaic word for Father. During his life on earth, Jesus addressed God this way (Mark 14:36). Since Jesus spoke Aramaic, not Greek, it is more likely that he often called God Abba.

This shows that the Father and the Son do not wish us to remain spectators of their relationship. Instead, they invite us to participate in that same love. The Spirit of God’s Son makes this possible. Through the Spirit, the Son’s own cry to the Father becomes our cry, uniting us with Jesus’ relationship to God. In heaven, Jesus still speaks his “Abba” before the Father, and that same cry is echoed within us through the Spirit living in our hearts.

This means that we share in the Son’s relationship with the Father through the Spirit. It is not only a personal experience, although each of us can individually know it. Paul’s language emphasises the plural: we are sons and daughters together. The Spirit binds us as a community, drawing us into the Son’s love for the Father. Therefore, as God’s family, we cry “Abba” together. Through the Spirit of the Son, we are caught up into this relationship of love, not only as individuals, but as one people united in Christ.