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Trinitarian-Eucharist Thinking about Christian Initiation

Ivica Raguž orcid.org/0000-0002-0083-0325 ; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet u Đakovu Sveučilišta Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Đakovo, Hrvatska

Sažetak

The crisis of Christian faith today is particularly highlighted in Christian initiation. It is not difficult to see that the majority of the faithful are virtually indifferent to the sacraments of Christian initiation and in particular, towards Baptism and Confirmation. Many believers do not know when they were baptised or confirmed and are living under the impression that these two sacraments have no relation to their current way of living the faith. Often enough, this crisis of the sacraments of Christian initiation is often contributed to by Church practise: the insignificance of Catechumens, lack of attention given to sacramental pastoral care, minimalism of the sacraments, the problem of the ordering of the sacraments of initiation, distancing theology from the Liturgy and Liturgy from theology. All these problematic aspects of Christian initiation require theological thought which needs to take a critical view of the current practises and point out some other possibilities that have already existed in the history of the Church. The article aims at offering a Trinitarian-Eucharistic foundation for Christian initiation which is rare today in dogmatic, catechetic and pastoral thought. That means that the article is not an historical presentation or an analysis of the current rite of Christian initiation. The focal point of thinking is a Trinitarian-Eucharistic approach to Christian initiation with a dogmatic-theological view.
The first part of the article presents an outline of the theology of Christian initiation in the New Testament and the first centuries of the Church. We will see that Baptism was always considered to be an event with the grace of the Holy Spirit that enables unity with the Father and Christ's body. Baptism was celebrated as the confirmation of the Holy Spirit and being accepted to the Eucharistic community with the Triune God and Church. This confirms the Trinitarian structure of Christian initiation which founds its unity and diversity.
The second part of the article deals with the problem of usual Christian initiation in the Catholic Church which obtained its current form in Medieval Times. Medieval practise of Christian initiation led to many problems which we are feeling to this day in the Church. One of the main reasons is that the Trinity has been neglected. We will present certain negative consequences that have resulted from this neglect during Christian initiation.
The third part of the article attempts to explain the significance of the Trinitarian-Eucharistic notion of Christian initiation which should permeate the entire mission of the Church and above all, theology and catechesis.

Ključne riječi

Christian initiation; Trinity; Eucharist; baptism; Confirmation

Hrčak ID:

41021

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/41021

Datum izdavanja:

2.10.2009.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 1.860 *