Dynamika wiary

Abstract

The history of salvation finds its crowning and most complete sense in Jesus Christ. It is He who gives graces for reconciliation with the Father. The mystery of the Incarnation is like gazing upon Christ who was sent by the Father as the Word, which by taking the Bodily Form reveals God as a compassionate Father to us. The Incarnation reveals God existing in the Trinity of Persons, as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Through faith in Christ we receive the gift of becoming God’s children. Faith is a gift. We receive it in the holy baptism. However, the gift has to grow and ripen throughout one’s whole life. If there is no growth the gift of faith will not only remain fruitless but it may be lost as well. The time of the Jubilee should be then a time of faith animation and of consciousness of maturation in the faith. Faith has to grow and ripen like it grows and ripens when it is threatened by various difficulties that a man encounters in his life when he does not have a sound foundation. When is faith immature? First of all when there is a discrepancy between outward religious observance and everyday life; when the forms of religiousness are limited to attending the Sunday Holy Mass and perhaps saying a short prayer formula: when the basic reason for the religious practices is a sense of duty. On the other hand, ripe faith consists first of all in consistence of professing the dogmas of the faith and life. Mature faith is a personal conviction that God revealed Himself to me in Christ. This is my personal response to Christ’s call. Traditions, forms of the cult, religious customs are helpful in a personal meeting with Christ, which happens throughout one’s life that is a ceaseless journey. Personally experienced truth goes through a lot of troubles and uncertainties. Here, on the earth, there is no complete vision of God. Hence, doubts may come and do come. Starting from Abraham people have been undergoing tests of faith on their way of faithfulness to God. Christ even allows the tests so that our faith is strengthened by overcoming adversities, so that we become inured in our faith. In reflection upon faith the significant content is the truth about the Holy Trinity. Hence reflection on Jesus Christ who came to the world in order to give it salvation and give it the Father. However, one cannot profess faith without the help of the Holy Spirit in whom we have a trusty access to the Father. Christ descended from the Father and came back to the Father. Hence it is important for a believer to broaden his horizons according to the very Jesus of Nazareth’s perspective, the perspective of the truth about the Father who is in heaven. Faith will always be performed in the journey, and hence the symbol of pilgrimage has a great significance. It is following the Saviour’s ways, marked with asceticism and penance for human weaknesses, which is an expression of man’s constant watchfulness against his weakness and which prepares him for a change of his heart. Through vigilance, fasting and prayer the pilgrim follows the way of Christian perfection, trying – with God's help – to achieve perfection modelled on Christ’s completeness.