From The Personal to The Interpersonal to The Social

One of the persistent dangers in Christian spirituality is "intimism," a kind of piety in which the individual becomes absorbed in himself and gradually cut off from interpersonal and social responsibilities. The person remains passive, almost immune from the contagion of the world.

Saint Vincent certainly avoided that temptation! But some of his contemporaries did not. Various forms of quietism were condemned in his day. Quietists stressed the exclusive efficacy of grace in a corrupt world and advocated total abandonment to God's action, with the individual remaining passive.

Much of the piety of Saint Vincent's day, even when it took forms healthier than quietism, tended to be rather individualistic. In the twentieth century we have experienced greater emphasis on the interpersonal. Personalist philosophy has had profound influence on temporary thought and practice. Martin Buber made the "I-Thou" a part of our vocabulary today.

Beyond that, we have seen an increasing emphasis on the social and societal, with a growing consciousness of the interrelatedness of all persons and of all human reality. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World proclaims that the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anguish of contemporary men and women, especially the poor and those suffering affliction, as the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anguish of Christ's disciples too. The social encyclicals over the last century have more and more emphasized Christians' responsibility for justice in the world. The Church's preferential option for the poor is stressed again and again. Christians are encouraged to develop a global world view and to play their part in working for the "transformation of the world."