1.0. INTRODUCTION:
The Church’s social teachings are the indispensable reference point that determines the nature, modality, articulation and development of pastoral activity in the social field (n.524 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church). In the current assignment we shall see how the sacramental mysticism is carried forward into the Social doctrines of the church there by creating the true ambience for the human development and in turn satisfying man’s integral vocation.
1.1. SACRAMENTAL MYSTICISM
Sacraments are traditionally defined as an out ward sign of inward grace. This itself establishes the mystical dimension of the sacraments. We now shall see what is Christian mysticism and how it is deeply rooted the sacrament of the Eucharist at first and later in the Church.
1.1.1. CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM:
In the Christian tradition mysticism is understood as the result of God's action in persons, an unmerited grace they receive from union with God. Mysticism has three distinct characteristics they are first, the experience is immediate and overwhelming, divorced from the common experience of reality. Second, the experience or the knowledge imparted by it is felt to be self - authenticating, without need of further evidence or justification. Finally, it is held to be ineffable, its essence incapable of being expressed or understood outside the experience itself.
Other religions allow for the human achievement of the mystical states through certain methods of contemplation, fasting, and breathing. Only those whose lives are marked by penance and emotional purification achieve mystical states, however, and the experience itself is always of an Absolute that ...