Wiara, nadzieja i miłość jako podstawowe warunki dialogu zbawienia

Abstract

The Church of Christ’s will initiates a salvific dialogue with the whole mankind throughout its history. The dialogical awareness of the Church was made particularly profound during the pontificate of John Paul II and the Second Vatican Council. The principal conditions of the dialogue of salvation are as follows: faith, hope, and love. The vertical and horizontal character of those virtues makes it that they first direct us to the dialogue with God, and, in consequence, determine the shape of the dialogue with our neighbours. The virtue of faith comprises three kinds of human activity which can be named as “believe,” “trust,” “to be faithful.” The virtue of hope is characterised by “yearning,” “trust,” and “encouragement.” Love is always communing with “somebody” (with God or man) and it calls for “presence” (being “towards”), “closeness” (being “with”), and “mutuality” (being “for”). In the practice of Christian life, also in the dialogue of salvation, one can never separate the love of God from the love of one’s neighbour, for they both are one. Faith, hope, and love are not only basic conditions of dialogue, but they also make a specific metalanguage; it is the metalanguage of “participation” in the life of God and people.