Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 86 No. 3, 2016.
Pregledni rad
Faith in the Perspective of the Proclamation of Mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation
Mislav Kutleša
; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
By promulgating the bull Misericordiae vultus on April 11, 2015, Pope Francis has announced the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy as the special time for the Church. The bull has pointed out two things: 1) the goal of the jubilee, which is to open the possibility for the human being to have a true encounter with God and to have a personal experience of the closeness and love of God, and (2) demands, which are primarily addressed to ministers of the sacrament of reconciliation, and these consist in revealing the face of mercy of the Heavenly Father and in helping the penitent on his/her way of faith. For this reason, the main goal of this article is to reflect on the relation between faithand mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation. However, in order to avoid unnecessary idealisation of this relation, experience does not allow us to forget the other »side of the coin«, i.e., how the penitent to whom mercy is proclaimed is not only encountering love of God, but, often, also his/her own disbelief, which, then, makes the further discourse on merciful God full of love and goodness harder. The article does not exclude possible banalisation of sin, sinful state, and faith (since God who loves forgives always and everything) either. These things, then, point out an incorrect understanding of God´s mercy. This challenge sets the task for the minister of the sacrament of reconciliation to present clear teaching that mercy of God the Father is dynamics of his love with which he meets the human being and invites him/her to respond in a similarly dynamic way: to repent and to believe in the gospel. From this dynamics of love springs the truthfulness of the proclamation of mercy that calls to faith and faithfulness, i.e. to the renewal of the Covenant of the filial relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ.
Ključne riječi
faith; sin; reconciliation; communion; theological virtues; vir perfectus
Hrčak ID:
170879
URI
Datum izdavanja:
17.12.2016.
Posjeta: 1.118 *