Conversion: Falling into Friendship Like No Other

In the context of contemporary vicissitudes, this article examines how Lonergan’s grasp of the meaning of redemption illuminates our understanding of Christian conversion. Lonergan’s Law of the Cross implies that the effectiveness of Christian conversion hinges on one’s antecedent willingness to undertake suffering for the sake of the transformation of evil into good. His analogies for Christ’s salvific work with the sacrament of reconciliation and with friendship further clarify the christomorphic, penitential, and community-building character of conversion, which proceeds from the total, transformative, and diffusive falling into friendship with God.

Confession, Continuity, and Reforms, 1920–60

This chapter delineates the ways in which the nineteenth-century emphasis on auricular confession continued into the twentieth century. Evidence from published sermons indicates that sermons were a major means for promoting confession as a regular spiritual exercise. Periodicals dedicated almost exclusively to priests and seminary moral manuals, too, focused on promoting the benefits of frequent devotional confessions. During these decades, moreover, a reform movement arose that called for a reexamination of the theology, practice, and history of confession. That reform movement was a return (a ressourcement) to the liturgical, biblical, catechetical, and historical sources of penance, and it called for a restoration of dimensions of the sacrament of penance that had in the course of history been lost or forgotten—namely, a revival of penance as a sacrament of reconciliation and worship that underlined the social and ecclesial dimensions of sin and forgiveness.

Pemahaman Sabda Pengampunan Allah Dalam Sakramen Tobat Menurut Karl Rahner

Abstrak: Dari pengamatan, tidak banyak tulisan teologis tentang sakramen tobat atau sakramen rekonsiliasi di lingkungan bahasa Indonesia selama ini. Begitu pula, ada kesan bahwa pemahaman umat Katolik mengenai sakramen tobat cukup terbatas. Dari sinilah artikel ini ingin memberi sumbangan pemikiran teologis melalui kekayaan dan kedalaman pandangan teologis Karl Rahner mengenai sakramen tobat. Dari penelitian penulis, sabda pengampunan Allah menjadi inti pemikiran Rahner tentang sakramen tobat. Dengan metode teologi transendental sebagaimana dikembangkan oleh Karl Rahner, penulis mengupas secara kritis pemahaman sabda pengampunan Allah melalui alur pemikiran sakramental Rahner. Rahner berpendapat bahwa manusia memiliki pengalaman dasar akan dosa-kesalahan yang tak dapat dihapus oleh diri sendiri, dan justru karena itulah manusia senantiasa mendambakan sabda pengampunan Allah sebagai pemberian diri Allah (Selbstmitteilung Gottes) yang berpuncak pada wafat dan kebangkitan Kristus. Melalui Gereja, sabda pengampunan Allah itu dihadirkan melalui aneka macam bentuk, sedangkan yang khusus dan istimewa melalui sakramen tobat. Tulisan ini ditutup dengan penyampaian poin-poin relevansi pandangan Rahner tersebut bagi Gereja sekarang ini. Kata-kata kunci: Sabda pengampunan Allah, sakramen tobat, sakramen rekonsiliasi, teologi sakramental, teologi transendental, belas kasih Allah. Abstract: Theology of Sacrament of reconciliation has not been widely written and developed in Indonesia, and therefore the general understanding among the faithful. This article is to contribute, particularly by presenting Karl Rahner’s theology on the sacrament of reconciliation. Rahner focused on the forgiving word of God. Employing his transcendental method, this article is presenting a critical study on the understanding of Rahner’s forgiving word of God as well as his sacramental theology. Rahner showed that human beings themselves aware and know of their experience of sin or guilt and could not just get out of it, and because of that human beings themselves are longing for forgiveness and God’s forgiving word (Selbstmitteilung Gottes) revealed per exellentiam in the death and resurrection of Christ. Disciples of Christ gathered as people of God or church make present God’s forgiving word here and now in various forms, yet especially in the sacrament of reconciliation. The article shall conclude with points of relevance for the church today. Keywords: God’s forgiving word, sacrament of penance, sacrament of reconciliation, sacramental theology, transcendental theology, mercy of God.

O inviolável sigilo dos sacerdotes e o respeito à intimidade

Resumo: O inviolável sigilo sacerdotal, ao celebrar o sacramento da reconciliação, é uma reflexão necessária diante da midiatização da privacidade e da intimidade. O argumento exige uma análise interdisciplinar e coloca o direito canônico em diálogo com a teologia, a antropologia e a pastoral. O serviço desenvolvido pelos presbíteros na ação pastoral implica que o sigilo sacramental e o segredo de ofício, que se aproximam da ética profissional, sejam assegurados pela maturidade humana do próprio presbítero e garantidos pela legislação civil e canônica. Deste modo, o fiel, ao procurar o trabalho pastoral dos sacerdotes e manifestar os assuntos de sua intimidade, de sua consciência e de suas questões relacionadas ao ambiente familiar, merece respeito e consideração, pois a divulgação de fatos alheios representaria uma agressão ao direito natural e ao direito divino de inviolabilidade que o sacramento impõe, com consequências gravíssimas na legislação canônica e civil.Palavras-chaves: Sigilo. Intimidade. Mídia. Sacramento da reconciliação.Abstract: The inviolable priestly secrecy to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation is a necessary reflection on the media coverage of privacy and intimacy. The argument requires an interdisciplinary analysis and puts the canon law in dialogue with theology, anthropology and pastoral. The service developed by priests in pastoral action implies that the sacramental seal of office and secrecy, approaching professional ethics, human maturity is assured by the priest himself, and guaranteed civil and canonical law. Thus the faithful to seek the pastoral work of priests and express the issues of intimacy, of your consciousness and issues related to family environment deserves respect and consideration because the disclosure of unrelated facts represents an assault on the natural law and the divine right sanctity of the sacrament requires with very serious consequences in canon and civil law.Keywords: Secrecy. Intimacy. Media. Sacrament of reconciliation.

Sacramento da Penitência-Reconciliação. Achegas teológicas e sugestões pastorais

Síntese: o sacramento da Penitência-Reconciliação passa por mais uma crise em sua história. A superação dessa crise requer aprofundamento na teologia e abertura na pastoral. Na teologia, são fundamentais os conceitos de penitência, confissão e reconciliação, bem como o fato de que é na reconciliação com a Igreja que se realiza a reconciliação com Deus. Na pastoral, vemo-nos diante de dois desafios. O primeiro consiste na educação dos fiéis e das comunidades para o autêntico sentido da Reconciliação; o segundo, em assumir as aberturas do Ritual da Penitência e avançar a partir delas na renovação desse sacramento de importância decisiva na existência cristã, porém, ainda muito necessitado de aprofundamento teológico, litúrgico e pastoral. Somente uma renovação séria e corajosa fará com que o sacramento da Reconciliação cumpra a missão que lhe cabe na existência dos fiéis, das comunidades e na edificação da Igreja.Palavras-chave: Salvação. Penitência. Confissão. Reconciliação. Pastoral.Abstract: The sacrament of Penance-Reconciliation is going through another crisis in its history. To transcend this crisis, we need a deeper theology and a more open pastoral. In theology, the concepts of penance, confession and reconciliation are fundamental, and also fundamental is the fact that it is through the reconciliation with the Church that the reconciliation with God is made. In the pastoral, we find ourselves faced with two challenges. The first is how to teach the faithful and their communities the true meaning of reconciliation; the second is to take the openings of the Rite of Penance and from them proceed towards the renewal of this vitally important sacrament in Christian life, a sacrament that is still very much in need of further theological, liturgical and pastoral studies. Only a serious and courageous renovation will make the Sacrament of Reconciliation fulfil its mission in the existence of believers and communities and in the edification of the Church.Keywords: Salvation. Penance. Confession. Reconciliation. Pastoral.

Sacramentum Pacis: The Eucharist as the Sacrament of Peace

This paper will examine the nature of the Eucharist as a “sacrament of peace”, a sacrament by which the Christian believer is reconciled to Christ and the Church. While, properly-speaking, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the ordinary means of this activity, one sees that the Eucharist provides a healing balm for sin, enflames the soul with the fire of charity, and reveals itself as both a symbol of peace already realized and a sign of peace yet to come. This “sacrament of peace” bestows God’s peace to the Church, which, in turn, commissions the Christian to embody this peace through works of mercy and initiatives of justice. Through this, we see the social and missional implications for a community centered around the Eucharistic table. Helpful to this investigation will be the Eucharistic theology of the late Orthodox theologian, Alexander Schmemann and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.