Theological Foundations new file

25 CHAPTER ONE GOD IN THE CENTER OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE According to the teaching of both the Founder and the Renovator of Marians, the first and most important theological foundation, on which the entire moral formation of a Christian should be based, is theocen- trism. When we conduct an in-depth study of the writings of these two authors, we realize that Christian life should be directed towards God. 1 God is supposed to exert such an influence on the shaping of man’s per- sonality that he would accept the system of Christian values in his life and act according to these values. As they ponder the Divine Revelation, the two authors emphasize, first of all, the call of Divine Love addressed to us. As they seek the best way in which to respond to this call, they encourage us to spread God’s glory by all possible means. The consequence of adopting such an atti- tude is one’s complete dedication to God. 1. The Call of Everlasting Love In Father Papczynski’s opinion, love is the fundamental and the most important virtue in the teaching of Christian life. God calls man to love and wants to bring him to a union with Himself. The author describes such a union as a meeting inside a mystical temple. Every man created by God and reborn in the Sacrament of Baptism is such a temple. There is an altar in this temple, namely the human heart. It is in the human heart that God remains hidden just as He does on the altar in the Eucharist: “So who will deny that man’s heart, especially the heart of a man who fears God, is the altar of God Most High? Just as God is always present in the Most Holy Eucharist on the altar of a material tem- ple, He is equally present in the human heart which is dedicated to