8 The topics discussed in this book show the history of salvation: both individual and communal, that is, the history of the Congregation of Marian Fathers and, in the broadest sense, the history of the Church. Adopting the paschal paradigm immediately situates the facts within the presence and action of God. To put it very concisely, the word “crisis” – which has many meanings today, including philosophical, psychological, religious, economic, etc. – basically describes the objective situation of a given object, showing signs of a temporary collapse of its current state. It does not, however, refer directly to either the cause of this state or its goal, but demands a separate analysis of the situation. The word “Passover”, on the other hand, immediately introduces a religious context: first in relation to the Old Testament Passover, where it generally means “passing” and includes the events connected to the flight from Egypt (see Ex 12:12-14.27), and then, in the context of Christianity, where the central place belongs to the saving work of Jesus Christ (paschal mystery) and His “passing over” from death to life through the Resurrection. The paschal approach to the biographies of the selected personalities and events from the history of the Congregation of Marian Fathers, which also bears the subtitle Through Death to Life ..., goes beyond a scholarly historical presentation of the facts. Indeed, for the reader, it becomes a proclamation of the kerygma that God can bring life out of death as it came to pass in the person of Jesus; that death does not have the last word in the personal and collective history of salvation; that the experience of the Paschal Christ through faith and union with Him in the Holy Spirit may become the experience of every human at any time and in any place. The stories of individuals – members of the Marian Congregation presented in this book are the proof of this. Furthermore, they are also the expression of struggle in the spiritual battle for paschal faith. For some, it will be a hope that their priestly toil, forgotten in the depths of Siberia, will bear fruit known only to God and the people they helped (C. Szwernicki), or that their sacrifice will bear fruit at the right time, unknown to them (S. Papczyński, C. Wyszyński, G. Matulewicz); for others, it will mean “hope against hope” that God will not allow His work to die (V. Sękowski); and still others, united with Christ’s death, will experience their passing away, as to rise again in Him and with Him
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