Rozeznanie ewangeliczne jako metoda odczytywania i interpretacji znaków czasu

Abstract

The life of a Christian, the effecting of his divine calling, is always brought about in a concrete reality. Its development is not an accidental becoming, but growing up in the historical character of the time and place. The transformations performed in many domains are the circumstances which moral theologians cannot disregard, if they want to be faithful to their own calling, which is to show the sense of moral life in a concrete historical reality. This belief was expressed in the theology of the signs of time worked out by Vatican Council II; that document calls on the Church to examine the signs of time and explain them in the light of the Gospel. The reflections on how the believer’s existence is determined by the temporal dimension, performed on the theological-moral level, cannot stop - contrary to a mere sociological description - on the natural dimension of the events and circumstances. A true reading out of the contemporary „signs of time” in the spirit of a kairological challenge must be supplemented by the pointing to their supernatural expression. First, it would be connected with the discovery of a certain moral situation in the given reality which becomes a task, or else a call directed to responsibility and freedom of a particular person and community. This call on the natural level is directly connected with the religious dimension and should be read out as a personal call or vocation on the part of God. The circumstances which contain divine calling enter conscience as the voice of the personal God. This is always brought about in the spirit of evangelical discernment. This study attempts to analyze the phenomenon of evangelical discernment itself which is a believer’s experience, a man that seeks to confront his faith with the surrounding reality. The problem of discernment itself has a long tradition. Basically, one may distinguish two principal meanings of evangelical discernment: one from the area of spirituality - discerning spirits; the other more connected with morality - moral (ethical) discernment. The basic subject of evangelical discernment, at the same time the reading out and interpreting the signs of time, is the community of the Church. It is, above all, its task first to „listen out” for the reality, in order to individualize the true signs of God’s presence and His plan in history. This is always effected in Christian conscience, for it is conscience that is ultimately the subject of judgement under given circumstances. This conscience is situated in the ecclesial context and, respectively, formed by means of the virtue of prudence should come to concrete action in love, according to a practical judgement. This individualization of discernment is an essential factor in the discovery of God acting in history. It is a conviction that the Risen Christ is present and participates in human history and in the history of each man by the power of His Spirit. It is He who shows man the fullness of his calling. This direction on Christ as the source and end of man’s existence and his moral life safeguards the situational element which is so important in the structure of morality before the phenomenon of relativistic ethical situationism. Principally, evangelical discernment is a critical judgement engaging above all the rational sphere of man, a kind of wisdom in the practical sense, an ability for a critical evaluation, a skill to live in a prudent manner, i.e. it presumes a concrete effort on the pari of the reflectional sphere, it may not be limited to this sphere. It will never be a result of the mere calculation of means and aims, but first of all a fruit of grace and love. As St. Paul taught in many places, ethical discernment of the Christian begins in the transformation at the moment of the Holy Baptism which renews the believer in the moral sense. For it stems from love and is inspired by the Holy Ghost through faith, hope and love. What is more, it is love that enriches intelligence, knowledge, gives sense to particular action, and the reality of grace and endowment that confers on human prudence - which is one of the basic natural factors of evangelical discernment - a supernatural character. The Christian is able to discern in such a measure in which he has been transformed through the renewal of his mind. Discernment is another image of the new law in Christ, thereby occupying the central place in the whole life of a Christian.