(Reprinted from Integrity's Vault of Records.)
Reflections on CFL: Paragraphs 28 and 29
In this section of CFL the pope explores the ways the laity participate in the life of the Church, both individually and as a group.
But his introduction to the section is of particular note. For it shows once again the personalist philosophy that is the foundation for JPII's understanding of the world. The pope tells us that:
"each Christian as an individual is 'unique and irrepeatable.'"
This is a resounding theme of the pope's philosophical writings. Weigel, in his biography Witness To Hope, quotes a letter from JPII to Lubac, in which he writes that the "evil of our times consists in the first place in a kind of degradation, indeed in a pulverization, of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person." One can surmise that this conviction, in part, is drawn from JPII's familiarity with Auschwitz. (Knowing its impact on me when I visited there a few years ago, I can only imagine the influence of what happened there has had on those who were in Poland during WWII.) It is also why JPII believes St. Maximilian Kolbe is such an important witness. Rocco Buttiglione, in his book Karol Wojtyla: The Thought of the Man Who Became Pope John Paul II, reflects on a homily of JPII that makes my point:
Sin: A Refusal To Be
Take Your Place has a great reflection on the nature of sin, challenging our common conceptions on what it means to have sinned. Pay Take Your Place a visit.
Posted by JACK at 02:45 PM in Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)