Pneumatologiczne podstawy działalności charytatywnej Kościoła

Abstract

The Holy Spirit is not limited in His mission in the world, but His privileged place of activity is the Church of Christ. Now, the charitable ministry is an essential sector of the salvational activity of the Church. In the light of Inter-Trinitarian pneumatology the personal property of the Holy Spirit is best expressed by the concept of love. Therefore the charitable ministry of the Church has a strict, direct, and ontological relationship with the Person of the Holy Spirit. Being Love incarnate in the most profound mysteries of God, He is at the same time an unfathomed and inexhaustible source of human love. Each man who wants to serve other people out of love has a need to draw from this source. It is owing to the Holy Spirit that God can exist “outside Himself.” The revelation testifies that God in the Holy Spirit wishes to give His life to man and make a dwelling with him (J 14:23). The abundance of the Divine Gift demands that man should adopt an attitude of acceptance, but the decision belongs to the free human person. The man who is open to the Gift of the Holy Spirit will soon receive “power from above” and he will bring forth fruit in the spirit. One of them is love which gives birth to sensitivity to the needs of the other man and calls to magnanimous help. Pneumatological ecclesiology makes us aware that the abundance of the Church is expressed in the variety and power of charisms which particular faithful receive from the Holy Spirit. The effectiveness of evangelical radiation of the Church in the world depends on the volume and openness of our hearts and the acceptance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The examples of St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, or Mother Theresa of Calcutta show what the Holy Spirit can do in the world through the charismatic people of the Church.