Thanks to pastoral journeys, publications and, to the top extent, podcasts available on the Internet, priest Robert Skrzypczak became 1 of the most celebrated clergymen in our country. And since his homilies are alive, moving, to hearts and souls, and with the large wealth of their crucial and wise content—also a preacher whose words many search and whose words are for many a reason to reflect, a origin of deep reflection.
The book by Fr Prof. Robert Skrzypczak – a deep reflection on the condition of the Church, religion and return to the sources of Christianity.The Holy Baptism has given each of us the gift of being on the best of the roads, and despite this – how frequently and how easy we lose the signs. The author of the book entitled “The Greatness of Christianity” points to a series of reasons that are mostly the consequence of a departure from what is most crucial and at the same time the top in religion in Jesus Christ. The problem we face present is not limited to the phenomenon of full breaking up with the Church. It already has destructive effects not only on the condition of human souls, but besides sad in the social dimension and how destructive – in civilization. The consequences of abandoning religion in the actual God have been known for millennia. Gilbert Chesterton said: “When you halt believing in God you start believing in anything.” The eruption of specified pathologies, whose manifestation is the bloom of countless and always curiosistic sects sooner or later taking on various forms of Satanism, we know from the russian Russia and the flooded countries of the West. In the record-breaking scale of the Czech Atheism, the customized of not picking up dead people in hospitals has become widespread. A large part of families in which not only religion has gone to the past, but besides any actual tradition, the remainder of the bodies of their brothers, sisters or parents, leaves the state. The cemeteries begin to fade. If we are shocked not only by the distance from religion, but besides by the eternal custom, let us consider whether we have taken the first steps in the same direction. A fewer years ago, together with respective friends, I became active in actions to bring from abroad countries the corpses of prominent Poles, whose graves were threatened by the liquidation of e.g. the usage of cemeteries for construction. In this we had the support of the government of Mateusz Morawiecki, so alternatively of liquidation – there were fresh resting places of temporal remains and at the same time – memory. And in the native land, not the alien land. By the way, I learned how many cemeteries disappeared. shortly there will not be another Berlinian one, on which there are many prominent figures and from which we decided to exhume and bring to Poland the ashes of Alexander Bruckner – 1 of the most distinguished and most well-deserved historians of Polish literature and culture. Let us remember how many cemeteries were around us and how frequently we witnessed funerals. In the interwar Warsaw, there were times erstwhile the ceremony way to Powązki traveled all the way from the Savior's Church! Thus, on a regular basis, everyone witnessed a spiritual ceremony and had the chance to reflect on the fragility and the inevitable end of life for each of us. There were respective twelve cemeteries in my hometown of Wrocław. Now, if you don't number churches, frequently mini - necropolises, there are almost no churches in the urban areas. And all the open cemeteries are on the outskirts. If there are more – as far as possible from the centre, but from the city in general. The 1 on which the return is now most frequently buried is in Kiełczów, which lies among the fields, beyond the administrative boundaries of the city. Is this denial, erasing the consciousness of death not what is called the “reaction of an ostrich”? The view removed, hidden, is supported by cemeteries, conducts, funerals. Does this consequence in no death? So erstwhile we are outraged at the increasing number of Czechs today, who do not apply for the corpses of their dead in the hospitals of their fathers or mothers, which means that they are burned and buried namelessly, let's think about whether we are going this way ourselves.
The reflection expressed above is 1 of the many who got me to read “The Greatness of Christianity”. due to the fact that although the title expresses what is absolutely wonderful, the book besides spares the reader bitter facts. The kind that each of us should think about. Anyone who doesn't want to go through life in a permanent “string position”. prof. Robert Skrzypczak in his speech does not dwell on the problem of those who left the Church. His voice directs first of all to those who are part of the Church, but – are they in it the most appropriate way? Have they formally been Roman Catholics lost azimuths meaning actual Catholicism? Forgive me for 1 of my many flaws, which in this case is low intellectual discipline, which despite my efforts I frequently find it hard to master, and in this case resulting in another of the full stream of reflections that are born over each side of the book by prof. Robert Skrzypczak. This prominent man of the Church draws attention to, among another things, the effects that a departure from the doctrine of the Universal Church can bring. That is, from what, being the fruit of the gifts received from Jesus Christ himself and the tradition of the 2 millenniums, mostly constitutes the title - grandeur of Christianity. erstwhile I was a kid, I liked watching Westerns, where Protestant pastors played an crucial role. I liked these characters no little than those played by actors like John Weyna due to the fact that I liked them very much in the congregations of the talk. In boys’ years, I enjoyed listening to recollectionists and preachers more than attending the liturgy and hence my sympathy and interest in the Evangelical confession. Being a small older, I happened to spend a longer time in West German Rhineland-Palatinate, almost equally inhabited by Catholics and evangelicals. I heard earlier that “the German Catholic Church is protesting” but it did not origin me any concern. Remembering Westerners with preachers, I assumed that this might be due to the fact that there are “more good sermons” in the churches there. The first Sunday Christmas Mass in the Rhine church truly impressed me. The temple was full of people whose majority joined Holy Communion. Proportions present in the church and joining the sacrament – different in Poland! The first bucket of cold water spilled on me was the first individual I shared this amazing impression with. “Only erstwhile did any of them last go to confession? any can in childhood and any can surely – never.” That information was a terrible shock to me. From an early age it was apparent to me that specified an act is simply a sacrilege. And I besides learned that the priest himself is aware of it. So – knowingly participates in sacrilege! After learning the reality of the Church operating in Germany, I realized that despite the formal relation with Rome, it is simply a very different phenomenon. Subsequent manifestations of this inactive frightened me, but I was no longer amazed that the German priest could simply – not be able to confess! And erstwhile I was told how it was to hear about the capture of Warsaw by the Nazi troops in September 1939, the bells of all the “Catholic” churches in Germany were joyfully ringing. Therefore, I was not so shocked erstwhile in the movie about Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski I saw a scene in which the confessing German was amazed to respond that he was killing Poles, but killing Poles is not a sin, so why would he confess something like this...
The arguments and examples to which prof. Robert Skrzypczak refers are usually not that heavy. But they admit the direction in which we drift distant from the doctrine of the Church. due to the fact that even if it is simply a very tiny step, it is always done in the direction of losing not only the sacrum, but besides the whole, so inalienable, fundamental catalogue of simple ethics. A church that does not make demands, that does not stand by the rules – it is no longer a church. Forgetting the doctrine of our Church, letting go of everything, giving up orders for comfort and pleasure, surviving in the head of the slogan “do what you want” – it's going to the road consecutive to hell. And it is sometimes hell already on this earth, for is not hell the world, in which in towers topped with crosses ringing bells expressing the joy of defeating the neighboring nation – burning in fires, decimated by bombs that we have thrown? And isn't it a hell of a planet in which, convinced of their full belonging to the Church, they do not intend to confess their individual murders, for in the belief of specified a “faithful Church” the murdered deserved to die?
Professor Robert Skrzypczak rightly cites examples not so shocking. As powerful as I have recalled, they can come from reading the full references to the more and little distant past and the present, in which we should see adequate of what must even disturb us and at the same time prompt us to do the work of repair. Is not this part of our life, which is the permanent examination of conscience, a large lesson in life to constantly reflect on ourselves? The excellent priest points out that the large authoreflexion, the constant search and analysis of mistakes made and the persistent correction of them should be a regular component of the life of the Church. Both “normal believers and priests and hierarchs. Despite its divine dimension, the Church is co-created by people who are guilty. A sin whose full awareness and combat is simply a duty. After all, Jesus Christ came into the planet for this intent and founded the Church to destruct Satan’s wicked work.
The “greatness of Christianity” recalls the absolute incontinence of the truths of the most crucial and holiest. This book is simply a large diagnosis of both the problems of the modern planet and of each of us individually. It besides contains the best of the recipes to get out of the crisis in which present and large communities and individuals are sinking. Without doubt, many can aid to find the right way after long wandering along the rams. Reading this book gives the impression that even though it is of exquisite size, it contains a charge of content disproportionately larger than these respective 100 pages. The impassion of the thoughts contained in it amazes us with its consistency and, above all, with its motivation to reflect, to initiate its own associations and reflections. This book – can live not only in the head but besides in the heart and soul of the reader. So it is simply a book of this kind that will be worth reading many times. Just like dealing with a wise homily that stays in our memory and even after years becomes a reason to reflect, reconsider. It's just a reading that can produce many times. It is the books worth having at home, on a useful shelf, to which it is easy to reach. Not everything in it is simple, does not offer the easiest solutions, does not propose any shortcuts. Its author does not tend to sweeten and comfort his readers cheaply. At the same time, however, everything that directs us is marked by the unbreakable power of hope. The author's diagnosis is not trivially joyful or superficially optimistic. Its guiding thought, however, is the absolute certainty of Christ's triumph and divine plan. So it is worth reading into this work, so that if we have strayed a small – come back and be a part of this plan and victory. At the same time, it provides a firm conviction of the large sense of our earthly labor.
“The Greatness of Christianity” is just a book – wonderful. Arches – needed, arches – helpful, highly important. And it's beautiful. He who is wisely inclined over it and the heart will be open to it will return to it. Many times.
Artur Adamski
