The Heart of the Church Problem

How can those who encounter Jesus Christ a day, a month, a hundred, a thousand, or two thousand years after his disappearance from earthly horizons, be enabled to realize that he corresponds to the truth which he claims? In other words, how does one come to see whether Jesus of Nazareth is or is not in a strict sense that event that incarnates the hypothesis of revelation?
This problem is the heart of what history has always called Church.
The word “Church” indicates an historical phenomenon whose only meaning lies in the fact that it enables man to attain a certainty about Christ. It is, in short, the answer to this question: “How can I, who arrived the day after Christ left, know that this really is Something of supreme interest to me, and how can I know this with any reasonable degree of certainty?” We have already noted that, whatever the answer may be, it is impossible to imagine a problem graver than this for a human being (cf. L. Giussani, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal 1998, see in particular chapter 3, pp. 29-35). For any person who comes into contact with the Christian message, it is imperative that he or she attempt to obtain a certainty about it, since this is such a decisive issue for his or her life and for the life of the world. The problem can obviously be censored, but considering the nature of the question, that would be like saying “no.” It is important, therefore, that he who comes after the event of Jesus of Nazareth–a long time after–may draw near to him today in such a way as to arrive at a reasonable and certain evaluation befitting the seriousness of the problem. The Church presents itself as the answer to this need for a sure evaluation. This is the theme we are about to deal with. Facing it head on presupposes the seriousness of the question: “In truth, who is Christ?” That is, not only does it presuppose that we make a moral commitment by putting our conscience to work in the face of the historical fact of the Christian message, ultimately, it also assumes a moral seriousness in the life of the religious sense as such.
If, on the contrary, we do not make a commitment to that inevitable and omnipresent aspect of life which is the religious sense, if we think that we have the option not to assume a personal position concerning the historical fact of Christ, then the interest that the Church has for our lives will only be reduced to the level of sociological or political problem or a problem of association to be fought for or defended according to these various points of view.
But how degrading for reason to be stripped of an authentic and living religious sense, the one aspect that makes its connective capacity more human and fulfilled!
However, it is a fact that, whether we like it or not, whether we resist or come to terms with it, the annunciation of God made man runs right through the entire course of history.