It is hardly an exaggeration to say that also among Christians profound consciousness of the Lord’s return has become a rarity. Between preoccupation with the last things and present reality stands the wall known as the scientific viewpoint. But doesn’t this entail an essential loss to Christian faith?
Christianity has long since taken its place as Christian culture in the world, where it has become an integral part of the whole, and where it is only too inclined to share the general conception of a world to be ended by natural phenomena. Thus Christianity today lacks the tension which lent its early centuries their clear-cut decisiveness, their ardour and élan. The fact that most of the early Christians were converted as adults also did much to increase the earnestness and enlightened clarity of their faith. Nevertheless, faith in Christ’s coming is not dead, and all faith has a certain seed iike dormancy. It can rest for centuries only suddenly to put forth root and leaf.
Perhaps before this can happen Christianity must loose some of its complacency. The term “Christian culture must be purged of all that is questionable in it. The gulf between revelation and the world must reopen, Perhaps a new period of persecution and outlawry must come to shake Christians back to a living consciousness of the values for which they stand. Such a period might also enliven belief in Christ’s coming. It is difficult to say. Different elements of Christian truth have different seasons. At times they are powerfully felt, at others they recede into the background, seem to lose their importance and lustre, only to reappear in response to some new vital need.
Servant of God Monsignor Guardini (+1968) was born in and became a renowned liturgist and professor of philosophy and theology in Germany.