Usprawiedliwiający wymiar sakramentu pokuty i pojednania. Aspekt ekumeniczny

Abstract

In the sacrament of penance the sinner surrendering to merciful judgement of God anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he will be surrendered to at the end of earth’s life. Because, just already now, within this life, the human being has got a possibility to choice between life and death, and following only the way of religious conversion one may enter into the kingdom from which the heavy sin eliminates. Being converted to the Christ by penance and faith, the sinner crosses over death to life and “will not be judged” (John 5, 24). Justifying dimension of the sacrament of penance and reconciliation is in a manner of speaking continuation of the baptism at an angle of forgiveness of sins, i.e. reduction of obstacles which separate from the Christ. Positive aspect of this sacrament relies on making available eschatological reality to the human being and bringing back him full right to participate in it. The grace received in this sacrament is a grain of which natural fruit is eschatological glory. This grace is the guaranty of spiritual growth. The sacrament of baptism assumes definitive breaking up with the sin and entering into sphere of justification, while the sacrament penance and reconciliation repeated many times takes into consideration imperfect nature of the human being because of effects of the original sin and contributing to restoration of human orientation strengthening his dispositions weakened by sin. Taking into account the human dispositions and state of continuous exposure to sin, the restoration of covenant concluded on baptism is required to be repeated and improved, what is being happened within the frames of trinity dynamics, like during the baptism, of the sacrament of penance and reconciliation.