But in addition to such chosen leaders and heroes of the cause of Christian revival, there are still many simple, ordinary warriors – the entire mass of religiously active laypeople. The Catholic Church has the honor of discovering the full significance of this often forgotten element of Christian activism and its organization in the so-called Action Catholique. According to this model, there must arise an organization of the common Christian efficacy of the laity, with the task of active renewal in the spirit of Christian truth of all life in all the diversity of its spheres: Christian unions of different classes and professions, Christian societies for the satisfaction of human need, Christian organizations for the reconciliation of all kinds of human conflicts, of which I have already spoken above. And if here first of all organizations united by a common confession are natural, then along with this, associations of members of different Christian confessions on the basis of common Christian work can have a very special, providential mission.

This also includes the leading role of the laity in the great work of reuniting and reconciling confessions. It must be realized that this matter is not primarily a matter of ecclesiastical (in the narrow sense of the word) thought, but a matter of Christian conscience – that, as we have seen, it is organically connected with the matter of general moral reconciliation in humanity. It must be realized that what is impossible or extremely difficult for people here, because they are inevitably constrained by their subjective predilections and the difference of traditions that nourish them, is easily possible for God, who, through the great trials and tragedies of historical life, educates and enlightens human souls. However valuable the ecumenical movement is in the form of a rapprochement between various church organizations and their official representatives, this form of movement must be based on the spontaneously growing movement of broad strata of the Christian world, which in the terrible hour of world trials are animated by the search for Christian truth and are less bound by rigid traditions. In this respect, the very sad fact of the secularization of public opinion, its passing through the experience of unbelief and falling away from the church, has its good side. Insofar as this worldliness and unbelief are overcome from within, it leaves behind a trace in the form of spiritual freedom, in the form of a truly Christian readiness to learn what is right and righteous even in theoretically unbelieving champions of truth. The Christian revival in general, as well as the reunification of confessions, the restoration in empiricism of the holy catholic Church of Christ, is possible only in an atmosphere of freedom.

"To this day, when they read Moses, a veil lies over their hearts. But when they turn to the Lord, then this veil is removed, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:15-17).

The world in our terrible days and in the difficult era that must follow them in one way or another stands at a crossroads. There are only two possibilities before him: either to roll further along the path into the abyss, or to be saved from death by the heroic effort of Christian revival. May the Lord help us!

Notes

1

In addition to the above-mentioned words of the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah, the New Testament teaching on faith as certainty, faith as knowledge, goes back (not to mention other passages from the prophets and psalms) to the great words of Deuteronomy, 30:11-14: "The covenant which I have given you this day is not hidden from you, nor is it far off. For this word is near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart."

2

"Great things are possible" (Latin).

3