Thursday 9 May 2013

Afterword.

Having come to the end of these posts on Christian attitude let me make these additional remarks:
Christian attitude is linked organically to Baptism - and in the mystery of Baptism the awareness or consciousness of Christ and what he has done, and does. The formation of Christian attitude then, is something which surrounds Baptism, especially in the way that individuals and families are catechised before and after Baptism, and by the culture which surrounds this catechesis. This ambient culture must be an evangelising culture, and not simply a secular one.
Secular culture does not enable the discovery of what it is to be a Christian person and to advance in Christian attitude, so the formation of Christian attitude must be a focus for the Church's life today.
This work within the Church will take place by first making explicit the nature of Christian attitude, and by a new sense, in the Church, of nurturing and cherishing a Christian attitude. Such a project should be well within the Church's reach since faith today is not a mass movement. 
Secular ascesis, on the other hand, is a mass movement today and is lived within a culture of use and being used: using other people for your gain, and being used, by the culture, for no genuine human value. In such a climate as ours, which systematically undermines human dignity, the formation of Christian attitude cannot be overlooked.
  

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