Introductory notes for readers of this thesis - Theses - Flinders ...

personal encounter that even if other external supports to faith—such as a canon ofscripture—were to disappear, or did not exist in the first place, the saint would remainsecure and at peace 57 .Though this bold declaration may shock many Christians who view scripture and theinstitution of the church as integral to an authentic experience of the Spirit, a later chapterwill demonstrate word and sacrament as integral to Rahner’s ideas about Christianspirituality and the church. Ignatius, too, was both a man of the church and a student ofthe gospels with a mystical orientation; Rahner’s Ignatian comment, drawn from astatement in Ignatius’ biography 58 , simply emphasises the centrality of a mysticalencounter with God as the ultimate sustaining power of faith. For both Ignatius andRahner, the essential component of spirituality and true human existence of any kind is‘solitariness before God, security in his silent, immediate presence’ 59 . Rahner, speakingas Ignatius, declares that ‘if the Order [representing Ignatius’ life work] should collapse, Iwould not need more than ten minutes to be near to God and at peace again’ 60 .The power and blessing of this experience of silent, gracious nearness is what Ignatiuslongs to communicate with others 61 ; for him, it is the entire purpose of the order and ofthe church. For Ignatius, the human heart is like a piece of land that has both a ‘wellwithin’ and requires ‘irrigation from without’ 62 , and the church is the servant tohumanity, helping each person to directly encounter God through the recognition andrelational awareness of the existential ‘inner promise of God himself’ 63 . The SpiritualExercises and the spiritual director facilitate this direct encounter when the person in theguidance role adopts an appropriate posture.57 Ibid, 12.58 See Ronald Modras’ commentary on this in, Ignatian Humanism – a dynamic spirituality for the 21 stCentury, (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2004), 16-17.59 Ibid, 35.60 Ibid.61 Ibid, 11.62 Ibid, 15.63 Ibid, 16.43