<\/p>\n
Paul’s Augustine describes his conversion Christian conversion, for Augustine and Paul, is (let me use the We might also Giussani was speaking to a group of young people. At a certain point he Don Giacomo Tartandini, 30 Days<\/i>, no. 6\/7 2009<\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul’s conversion (and let me echo the words of St Augustine used speaking about his own conversion) is simply the passage from his dedication to God to recognition of what God has done and does in Jesus. Augustine describes his conversion thus: “When I read the apostle Paul [and immediately afterwards -because it is not … Continue reading Aroused by the presence of Christ<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1822,32097],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nconversion (and let me echo the words of St Augustine used speaking about his
\nown conversion) is simply the passage from his dedication to God to recognition
\nof what God has done and does in Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthus: “When I read the apostle Paul [and immediately afterwards -because it is
\nnot enough to the Scriptures–he adds:] and when Your hand healed the sadness of
\nmy heart, then I understood the difference inter praesumptionem et confessionem
\n\/ between dedication and recognition.” Praesumptio<\/i> does not indicate a bad
\nthing. In the long term it decays into bad presumption, but initially it
\nindicates a person’s attempt to achieve the good ideal intuited. Christian
\nconversion is the passage from this attempt to do good (good works, said Pope
\nBenedict) to the simple recognition of the presence of Jesus<\/span>. From praesumptio<\/i>,
\ndedication, to confessio<\/i>, recognition. The confessio, recognition, is like when
\nthe child says, ‘Mamma.” As when the mother comes towards the child and it
\nsays, ‘Mamma.”<\/span><\/p>\n
\nimage of Don Giussani’s that, in my opinion, has no equivalent) the transition
\nfrom the enthusiasm of dedication to the enthusiasm of beauty; from the
\nenthusiasm of one’s own dedication, which in itself is good, to the enthusiasm
\naroused by a presence that attracts the heart<\/span>, a presence which gratuitously
\ncomes forward and gratuitously makes itself recognized. Paul had done nothing
\nto meet Him. His gratuitous coming forwards accomplishes the transition from
\nour dedication to the beauty of His presence that makes itself recognized
\nthrough attraction. And between recognition and dedication there is no
\ncontradiction. Giussani says simply that “enthusiasm of dedication is
\nincomparable with the enthusiasm of beauty.” It is the same term St Augustine
\nuses when he describes the relationship between the virtue of men and the first
\nsteps of those who put their hope in the grace and mercy of God.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nsay that when by grace a person happens to live the same experience that Paul
\nwent through, his same experience, in the infinite remove from him, it is as if
\nall the Christian words, the word of faith, the word salvation, the word
\nChurch, were transparent of the initiative of Jesus Christ<\/span>. It is He who stirs
\nfaith<\/span>, Faith is His working. It is He who saves. Bestowing salvation is His
\ninitiative. It is He who builds His Church. “Aedifcabo ecclesiam meam” (Mt
\n16:18). Aedificabo<\/i> is a future tense [verb]: “I will build my Church” on the
\nprofession of faith of Peter, on the grace of faith given to Peter (cf. Mt
\n16:18). It is He who builds personally, in the present, His Church on a gift of
\nHis.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nasked: “What puts us in relationship with Jesus Christ? What, now, puts us in
\nrelationship with Jesus Christ?” People said: “The Church,” “The community,”
\n“Our friendship,” and so on. At the end of all the suggestions, Giussani
\nrepeated the question: “What puts us in relationship with Jesus Christ?<\/b>” And
\nthen gave the answer himself: “The fact that He is risen<\/span><\/b>.” Because were He not
\nrisen, were He not alive, the Church would be a merely human institution, like
\nso many others. One burden more. All things merely human in the become a
\nburden. The Church is the visible term of the gesture of the living Jesus who
\nmeets the heart and attracts it.