The existential awareness of what faith truly is and thus of what Christ truly is—the living discovery of the value of our unity, of our community, of what the Church truly is—these are not the fruit of a reasoning process nor of our study. They are instead the fruit of an encounter.
Encounter means the event of the relationship with a person and with a community whose richness is so authentic that we feel struck by a light and called to a life that is different and more true.
In this encounter, the value of faith and the value of the historical reality of the Church begin to appear in a concrete manner (not one that is abstract or theoretical)—in a real manner, to the point that it provokes us to make a total response. Because when the person is really provoked, he feels the totality of his life put in play.
If it is not like this, if it does not have to do with a totality, it is not yet the discovery of faith but simply the knowledge or practice of some religious form.
We can say, paradoxically, that Christianity is not a religion but a life.