Biskupi Cerkwi greckokatolickiej w listach pasterskich często wzywali wiernych do pokuty i zmiany życia. Nie chodziło im jednak tylko o regularne przystępowanie do Sakramentu Pokuty. Podkreślali, że całe życie chrześcijanina musi być pokutą. Wskazywali jednocześnie na modlitwę, post i jałmużnę jako uczynki prowadzące do podjęcia prawdziwej pokuty. Sakrament Pokuty ma być ukoronowaniem pokutniczego życia.
Św. Augustyn tłumacząc odpuszczenie grzechów w Kościele, wiąże je ściśle z Kościołem jako miejscem działania Ducha Świętego. Chrzest usuwa grzech pierworodny i wszystkie grzechy popełnione przed chrztem. Biskup wie, że człowiek jest grzeszny i słaby, przez co ma potrzebę odpuszczenia również grzechów popełnionych po chrzcie świętym. Człowiek otrzymuje odpuszczenie grzechów poprzez modlitwę, jałmużnę i pokutę. Codzienna modlitwa przynosi odpuszczenie grzechów lekkich. Grzechy ciężkie wymagają paenitentia maior. Przebaczenie udzielone innym jest warunkiem otrzymania przebaczenia przeszłych grzechów. Konieczna jest zmiana życia na lepsze, dlatego nie jest możliwe odpuszczenie bez zmiany życia.
Saint Ambrose’s life is an excellent example of the activity of a man associated with church during great change concerning not only socio-political history of the Mediterranean world but also the ways of thinking.
W kolejnej (41) części Biblioteki Myśli Spółdzielczej przypominamy fragmenty publikacji św. Józefa Stanisława Pelczara pt. „Zarys dziejów miłosierdzia w Kościele katolickim”, wydanej nakładem autora w Krakowie w 1916 roku.
EN
In the next (41st) part of the Cooperative Thought Library we remind excerpts from the saint Jozef Stanislaw Pelczar’s book entitled ”Outline of the history of charity in the Catholic Church," published by the Author in Krakow in 1916.
The need of being purified of sins, reconciled with Got and willingness of having the wrongs committed repaired, has always been present not only in Judaism and Christianity but also in all other religions. The Old Testament shows the Chosen Nation’s sinfulness, the mystery of its iniquity as well as the ability to do penance and be converted. Various peniten-tial practices are its expression. Among them a distinctive place is given to fasting, prayer and almsgiving. The Old Testament speaks about Got who is full of mercy and forgives those who repent and shows them His love. Jesus began his teaching with the call to repentance and penance. Christianity has accepted penitential legacy of the New Testament and that of the first Christians, creating numerous pious practices and devotions for the benefit of the spiritual revival. In the course of the ages the spirit of penance in the Church has developed and in various ways enlivened hearts of the faithful. This article deals with the spirit of penance in the Old and New Testament. It also analyses penitential liturgy and ascetic practices that were in support of spiritual revival. The final part points to the most popular contemporary penitential acts and devotions that prompt repentance among the faithful.
The problem of the sick, poor, old, orphans and those who are in need continuously appeared throughout human civilization. The Church played a huge, even dominant role in providing assistance to these people, as its doctrine of mercy inspired his followers to support the needy. This aid was rendered primarily through hospitals – which until the Enlightenment functioned as poorhouses; to a lesser extent by brotherhoods of charity. However, the most common form of assistance was a handout called „daily mercy”; according to the medieval concept of mercy, a „gold” and universal remedy for all human misery, because available for all the people from different classes and social groups. Giving handouts was something natural and done every day, something inherent in the mentality of medieval and modern society. It was an important part of all church and family ceremonies, public meetings, gatherings, and travel. There were different forms of giving handouts. One of them was a handout from individuals, which was usually practiced in the form of so-called testamentary handouts bequeathed in wills. Bequests and dispositions concerning handouts were made both to individuals (beggars and the poor) and a group of people living on the streets or in their homes. Also, the authors of their wills often bequeathed part of their wealth to charitable institutions, primarily hospitals and residents living in them. Informal handouts were rendered even more often; they were given by individuals in a spontaneous manner either to people who were in hospitals, or beggars who were not connected with any charitable institutions. Another form of supporting the needy was a funeral handout, distributed by the family of the deceased to beggars participating in the funeral. Sometimes it resulted from the will of the deceased, who before his death obligated relatives (in his will or by his words) to bestow handouts on the poor present in the burial ceremony. Beggars also received support participating at the funeral reception. The above-mentioned types of handouts can be defi ned as non-institutional ones. Sometimes, however, handouts were given by various institutions and organizations such as parishes, monasteries, hospitals and charitable brotherhoods, which were appointed for this very purpose, e.g. brotherhoods of the poor, hospitaller brotherhoods or brotherhoods of charity. Institutional forms of assistance include the ones provided by bishops, monarchs or municipal offi ces. Finally, there were also handouts coming from criminal penalties, because an accused or convicted person was obliged to help the needy as a substitute for any other type of sanction, for example fl ogging or prison. Sometimes the courts did not charge administrative fees, allocating them to beggars.
Not only in the Old Testament, but in the pagan religions we meet with many forms of penance for sins and conversion. This raises the desire of reparation of evil done and liberation from sins. God in the Old Testament very often called to conversion both individual persons as well as the whole community of Israel. He revealed His mercy, kindness and graciousness for people whose sins remain unpaid by excusing of the sentence. The readiness to forgive sins of those, who repent and the will to bestow them with peace fully expresses His kindness and mercy. The author in the present article discusses the necessity and nature of penance, to which the just and at the same time merciful God urges his people. Then, the hardness and impiety, idolatry and resistance will be shown, because they brought the right punishment of God and shut out the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation. Finally, the common penitential practices and penitential liturgy in the Old Testament will be discussed, as they express the desire of sincere conversion. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving became in Christianity the main practices, which serve to obtain the forgiveness of sins and rebuild the communion with God.
The Church made assisting the poor and needy an important part of its mission, as a response to an explicit command to enact the commandment to love one’s neighbor given by Christ. The obligation to show an active love of neighbor is expressed in the catechism formula of works of mercy toward the body and soul. The article analyzes both the genesis of this formula, as well as its historical interpretation over the centuries.The corporal works of mercy have been clearly stated by Christ Himself in the context of the teaching of the last judgment recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 25:31–40, however the spiritual works of mercy find their biblical justification in different places of the Gospels. In III century Origen in the spirit of allegorical exegesis interpreted the works of mercy mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew also as a call to help in the spiritual needs of man, and after him St. Augustine in the West. In this way, gradually the list of seven works of mercy concerning the soul was established.St. Thomas Aquinas gave us the classical moral interpretation of the acts of mercy, establishing the conditions under which they are a strict moral obligation. I the later period in the practice of charity stressed the elements such as: a personal experience of God’s mercy as a call to help others (St. Faustina), valuing man in his dignity (St. John Paul II) and recentely a concern for people excluded or deprived of opportunities of self-development (Pope Francis).
PL
Wspomaganie biednych i potrzebujących uczynił Kościół ważnym elementem swojego posłannictwa, jako odpowiedź na wyraźny nakaz realizacji przykazania miłości bliźniego dany przez Chrystusa. Obowiązek okazywania czynnej miłości bliźniemu został wyrażony w katechizmowej formule uczynków miłosierdzia co do ciała i co do duszy. Artykuł analizuje zarówno genezę powstania tej formuły, jak również jej historyczną interpretację na przestrzeni wieków.Uczynki miłosierdzia co do ciała zostały wyraźnie sformułowane przez samego Chrystusa w kontekście nauki o sądzie ostatecznym, zapisanej w Ewangelii św. Mateusza 25, 31–40, natomiast uczynki co do duszy znajdują swoje biblijne uzasadnienie w różnych miejscach Ewangelii. W III wieku Orygenes w duchu egzegezy alegorycznej interpretował uczynki miłosierdzia wymienione w Ewangelii Mateusza także jako wezwanie do pomocy w duchowych potrzebach człowieka, a za nim na Zachodzie czynił tak św. Augustyn. W ten sposób stopniowo rodziła się lista siedmiu uczynków co do duszy.Klasyczną interpretację moralną uczynków miłosierdzia podał św. Tomasz z Akwinu, ustalając, w jakich warunkach są one ścisłą powinnością moralną. W późniejszym okresie w praktykowaniu miłosierdzia podkreślano takie elementy jak: osobiste doświadczenie Bożego miłosierdzia jako wezwanie do pomocy innym (św. Faustyna), dowartościowanie człowieka w jego godności (św. Jan Paweł II) oraz w ostatnim czasie troska o ludzi wykluczonych, czyli pozbawionych możliwości własnego rozwoju (papież Franciszek).
Niniejsze opracowanie jest próbą przedstawienia zagadnień szczegółowych, takich jak autorstwo Księgi Tobiasza, nazwa, okres jej powstania oraz środowisko, jak również cechy literackie oraz cel jej napisania. W artykule podjęto próbę określenia pojęcia miłosierdzie i wskazania, jak pojęcie to rozumiał autor biblijny. Omówiono uczynki miłosierdzia, które w swoim życiu propagował i wykonywał Tobiasz. W opracowaniu dokonano egzegezy dwóch podstawowych fragmentów, które w sposób konkretny odnoszą się do omawianego zagadnienia.
EN
This work is an attempt to show some specific questions like authorship of the Book of Tobias, its name, the time of its origin, its environment, as well as its literary features and the aim of its writing. In the article the author made an attempt to definethe notion of mercy and pointing out it the meaning of mercy rot the biblical author. There were described the works of mercy promoted and made by Tobias during his life. In this work there has been done an exegesis of two important pieces of the Book of Tobias, which refer to the question of concern.
Il testo sacro parte dalla costatazione che l’uomo in quanto peccatore ha bisogno della conversione ossia è chiamato a riconoscere di aver bisogno del perdono per le mancanze, imperfezioni, infedeltà e cioè per i peccati commessi. La conversione è questione della verità e dell’onestà. Non è poi da trascurare il fatto dell’universalità della coscienza umana in cerca del perdono e della riconciliazione con la divinità. I testi egizi, mesopotamici, ugaritici, greci e romani confermano in misura notevole quel desiderio innato della pace con il Divino e quindi del perdono dei propri torti. Più della civiltà naturale, quella rivelata ne dà non solo testimonianza ma anche le ragioni teologiche: Dio d’Israele è non solo un Essere Assoluto, ma anche una Persona santa e morale, quindi dalle creature fatte a Sua immagine e somiglianza esige un comportarsi conforme al Suo agire. Per il fatto che Israele è stato scelto Suo popolo eletto, rimane soggetto alla debolezza e alla infedetà, ma è proprio per questa circostanza chiamato alla conversione continua e in seguito darne un esempio di speranza e garanzia di esito per gli altri popoli. Le pratiche penitenziali, gli atti di conversione nell’Antico Testamento sono sparsi lungo il testo intero, vuol dire che la conversione accompagna tutte le tappe della storia della salvezza, e non può essere diversamente. Dio continuamente chiama il Suo popolo a convertirsi per bocca dei profeti, per mezzo della Parola di Dio che manda ai figli diletti ma così spesso ribelli. Il popolo e i suoi singoli membri rispondono in spirito di ubbidienza e di riconoscenza della verità „tutti abbiamo peccato, ci siamo comportati da sciocchi” (cfr Ger 14, 20; Dn 3, 29). Il rito penitenziale sia quello privato che communitario nell’AT risulta molto sviluppato e ricco. Le principali manifestazioni sono: preghiera, confessione dei peccati, digiuno, elemosina, il Giorno della Riconciliazione ( Yom Kippur ), diversi sacrifici cruenti, gesti, vestiti, pianto, cospargersi con la cenere, abluzioni (praticate specialmente dai farisei e a Qumran). Non di rado i profeti accusano il formalismo di quelle pratiche d’altronde impressionanti e ricche di significato. Quale valore hanno avuto quelle praciche in quel tempo quando non c’era ancora il sacramento della riconciliazione? Soprattutto il valore della verità stessa: l’uomo in quanto tale è peccatore il che in lingua biblica vuol dire che ha bisogno di Dio per vivere, per esistere e per agire in conformità con il Suo disegno; poi vuol dire riconoscere Dio quale giudice delle proprie azioni dell‘uomo; in terzo luogo vuol dire che le pratiche penitenziali anticotestamentarie dimostrano l’altissimo livello della spiritualità d’Israele. Infine vuol dire riconoscere Dio in quanto misericordioso, buono e giusto, generoso nel perdonare e pronto nel riconciliarsi con gli uomini – figli ribelli mandando loro il Suo Figlio Unigenito in quanto Agnello immolato e Testimone della misericordia del Padre.
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