Współczesny człowiek - drogą Kościoła. Refleksja nad nauczaniem Jana Pawła II

Abstract

According to John Paul II the Church should read out man as its principal way. He means here not an „abstract” man but a „concrete” man, that is man considered in his whole complexity of his life situation. John Paul II from the beginning of his pontificate has sought to describe this situation of the contemporary man so that to point out the essential tasks of the Church. The paper seeks to give a synthetic view of the situation of the contemporary man in the light of papal teaching. First the author points to the ethical meaning of that situation. A psychological-sociological analysis does not suffice. In order to read out the ethical situation as a temporal concrelization of the voice of the Lord one needs to look at it in the spirit of faith, from the perspective of the so-called „theology of the signs of the time” Then the challenge posed by the particular situation becomes a calling which bears a personal character: it is the voice of the calling God. The pope very clearly points to an ambivalent character of many phenomena and events which make the contemporary situation of man: these are the ups and downs, the chances and threats. It seems, however, that the pope emphasizes strongly enough all that which point to the threats to the contemporary man. These threats are connected, above all, with the unsettled hierarchy of values and with the wrong conception of freedom. Feeling the responsibility for the salvation of man in each epoch, the Church cannot be closed to the problems of contemporary man. According to John Paul II it is the openness in the spirit of truth and love, as well as trust towards the man himself. Independently of a critical approach to so many phenomena of the present times, the Pope says that one should not subdue to pessimism, despair or passivity.