CATECHESIS

16.01.2016

Saint Agnes: The Christian faith was for us, the Romans of the third century, a great discovery. We received the Gospel as a revelation from the bright Heaven and the subsequent truths of faith, which we studied in depth, were entering our lives and transforming them. We wanted to get to know Jesus, our Savior, and find out everything that was possible about Him. This was the case during our common meetings, where the Holy Scriptures were read. Today, you are born surrounded by the faith of your forefathers. Lord Jesus and His mystery are known and proclaimed in all churches. You accept the faith as something normal that accompanies you from childhood and is some kind of a norm. For us, getting to know the subsequent truths of faith was a discovery and a shock. We imbibed this knowledge as the chosen ones and distinguished in grace, to whom was given the grace to recognize the truth. The world around us did not know God and did not seek Him. The world around us did not hear the name of Jesus. The people whom we passed on the streets of Rome were living unaware, not knowing the purpose of life, things past and future, and above all not knowing that they have been redeemed by God, who in His Son descended on Earth to suffer and to announce to us the good news. Life for God was a continuation of His work. We all wanted to be like Him and we were all aware that this precious faith is kept in the world in us as in clay pots, which are today and tomorrow may stop to exist on this Earth. Who then will worship the true God?

Thus, the teaching that we received was for us like bread. We did not allow even a crumble of this precious gift to fall. We desired to get to know and to remember everything, and then to convey well to others, so that they may keep this faith after our death for the coming of our Lord. Yes, we were God’s chosen ones, and for that reason the responsibility magnified in us the desire for sacrifice, so that the only holy faith could spread to the whole world and all men could get to know Jesus and the hope, which He has brought to us from Heaven. With every dying Christian, his precious faith and knowledge seemed to die, because during that time faith and knowledge lived in the people who had believed. We buried our priests as holy books, preserving their relics out of respect and for the graces that we hoped to obtain through them, but the knowledge and the faith that they possessed were departing together with them. This is why we strived to listen to their stories with more zeal, like children who, feeling the approaching hour of the death of their parents, ask for matters about which they will never again find out from anybody else.

Everything in this world was passing and only what we had in our hearts was lasting and certain. Thus, we wanted to fill our hearts and fill the hearts of others so that Jesus would live in us and through us. Only later records and paintings came into existence. In my times, they were so rare that we did not have free access to them, and even these works were often destroyed. Today, you are not afraid that the only Christ in the world is the One in you. Holy images are available everywhere. The same is true of the Gospel and the Holy Scriptures. However, this abundance does not translate into faith. On the contrary. Having too much, you have ceased to perceive the value of these things. It seems to you that the world of faith is like an obvious norm, not a miracle and a choosing. The truths of faith are received as a theory that one does not need to comprehend, let alone introduce into life. All that was life to us, for you is the shadow of life. It is accompanying it, but from behind, from the side, on the shelf. In the midst of many objects speaking about God and representing God, you have lost what is the most important. The faith. The faith is the pearl for which Jesus will return. And when He will come, who among you will keep it pure and beautiful? Be concerned about this true pearl, because it is becoming increasingly rare in the world.

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Translated from: Życie sakramentalne pierwotnego Kościoła według św. Agnieszki, na podstawie Orędzi na Czasy Ostateczne które własnie nadeszły, Grzechynia 2017, p. 82-85