The following is a
major insight to understand the depths of the realism of Vatican II concerning
Christ and the human person
From Romano Guardini’s “The Lord”[1]
“The life of faith demands a revolution in our sense of reality. In our
consciousness, which is not only entangled, but completely befuddled by the
world, the body is more ‘real’ than the soul; electricity more real than
thought; power more real than love; utility more real than truth. Together they
form ‘the world’ – incomparably more real than God. How difficult it is even in
prayer to sense the reality of God! How difficult, and how seldom given us, the
grace of contemplation in which Christ is more tangibly, powerfully present
than the things of existence! And then to rise, to mix with people, perform the
duties of the day, feel the rug of environment and public life and still to
say, God is more real than all this, Christ more powerful, to say this
spontaneously, absolutely convinced that it is so, how many can do this?
“Living in faith, working
in faith, practicing faith – that is what counts. Daily, earnest exercise of faith
is what alters our sense of reality; Experience of genuine reality must be our
aim. But that is auto-suggestion, someone objects. To this there is not much
that can be said, little more than: You say that because you stand outside the
experience. It is true that in the reforming of the consciousness all means of
self-renewal are effective; nevertheless, it is not so much the technique that
counts, as the actual result of that renewal. Enter into faith, and you will
see clearly what it we are striving for. And you will no longer talk of auto-suggestion,
but of the service of faith and its bitterly needed daily exercise.
“Such exercises
are not easy. Those are rare hours in which eye is lost in eye(?), and the
circuit of power looping between God and man is complete. Usually our unrest is
stronger than Christ’s paling features. Usually the water does not seem to bear
our weight, and Christ’s word that it does, sounds like pious symbolism. What
happened to Peter in that hour [walking toward Christ over the water] happens
daily in every Christian life. For to count for nothing the things the world
holds dear, and for all-import ant what
the world counts for nothing - simply on the word of Christ; to be contradicted
again and again by those around us and
by our own hearts within us, yet to stand fast, that is no easier than Peter’s
waling on the waves.
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