Duchowy wymiar Prymasa Polski Stefana Kardynała Wyszyńskiego

Abstract

Cardinal Stephen Wyszyński lived during a period in which there was a necessity to defend human dignity. One aspect of it was the life of faith. A vocation realised under the open violence of socio-political conditions of totalitarian systems, where man is treated with contempt and disrespect always has to be somehow marked by its time. The life and service of Cardinal Stephen Wyszyński are characterised by the richness of family life, faith, Church, nation and patriotism. At the same time Wyszyński said no to all forms of evil and violence enslaving man, his subservience to the system and to all trials of pushing him against God. The needs of the Church, and situation of his countrymen, were the ones which spiritually formed and shaped his way of faith. The evil of the system and spreading sin enhanced by the ideology of atheistic materialism, forced him to say “no” in a way dictated by faith. The charism of the Church was something that constantly showed through all of the Cardinal's actions. It showed his die-hard adherence to universal values, directing his people to God and introducing them to the gift of supernatural life. He accepted and applied such a set of socio-moral rules and values that were shared by the vast majority of the Polish society. In this sense he was a “sign”, a man of Providence and a person of unquestioned moral authority. His service was bi-dimentional: he was truly human and at the same time doing his best as priest and bishop. Those two dimensions were bound together by a truly living faith and by a theological reflection. Cardinal Wyszyński was not an academic theologian, but he knew theology well, especially that of St. Thomas and that of the Thomists. He said that in Thomas' views he found a perfectly balanced synthesis of all the matters between God and people, which can be used to solve everyday problems. As the years passed, it was seen that there was a coherence between the Cardinal's personal perfection and his growing service for the people and the Church. According to the rule of St. Thomas, he showed that perfection of the act depends on the perfection of the person performing it. The Church and environment created by the morality and quality of his own being, successfully undermined and discredited ideology and propaganda slogans of the system. He heralded that the law of hatred, violence and vengeance should be wiped out by the law of love, help and forgiveness. He firmly believed that without the help of the Gospel, it was impossible to solve the problems of human life. He himself preached and lived the ideal, “find the truth with the help of love” In his opinion looking at both the man and the Church, one cannot consider only what is external and easily visible, but to see it also as a process of God's work. When being attacked, he defended not himself but the Church and his people, learning how to be humble and how to respect the freedom of others. His service was not telling others how to serve, but he himself was serving. It was summed up and lived by his motto soli Deo! A remarkable feature of his pastoral activities was that they never led to demonstrations or protests, but rather triggered an abundance of love. The faithful were the mirror of his spiritual values, who readily accepted the invisible yet perceivable testimony. Without any doubt, the Church was for the Cardinal a climate of work and life, faith and love, and being together with God and his people. He was so united with his Church to that extend that the Communists began their battle against the Church by starting a personal battle against Wyszyński. He was so far-sighted regarding the processes of history and faith that there was no reason for which he could abandon his people. He was sure that people were the ultimate beneficiary of the Church. Everything he did, he did for the people and the Church. His actions were a projection of a deep experience of faith and love. Also the devotion to Mary in Poland, apart from its historical sources, can be associated with the Cardinal's intrusting of the nation into the hands of Mary. We can truly say that the life of Cardinal Stephen Wyszyński was a life dedicated to the truth and lived out through the inspiration of the Gospel.