Yes, we live in a time full of crises, global ones exacerbate private ones. Many seek to ward off despair. But how? Often they think only of shells.
Although the most beautiful, the most daring, the most energetic, the most comforting of all ideas should really come right now. Because it’s Advent. We are waiting for the coming of the Redeemer. December 24 it will be again, for the 2022nd time. The child will be born in a stable in Bethlehem. This is the Son of God! There he will lie on hay and straw, as poor as the shepherds around him.
At Christmas, the idea was born that dignity is inherent in all people, including the disadvantaged, the powerless. Yes, especially them. For “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25). Accordingly, people who rely on the riches of this world, on money, power, recognition, are not very trustworthy.
Accordingly, Christianity is “the source of revolution and reform” (G.K. Chesterton): The French Revolution, the American Constitution, Black Lives Matter, Fridays for Future, LGBTIQ people – they all basically come from the idea that the most evil that arises in the world, rather the nature of man-made injustice rather than natural disease. This means that you can do something about it. You must do something about it!
Christianity separates, and this is another stroke of genius, sin from the sinner. We must not forgive the offense, but we must forgive the wrongdoer a thousand times over. Thus, Christianity leaves room for anger and disgust, and at the same time, room for mercy.
It is not a religion that mixes and dilutes, but one that enhances and allows the different to coexist. Jesus is a lion and a lamb. Man is the greatest sinner and at the same time the image of God. He walks high and hunches humbly.
And he is always at a crossroads. He can always decide in favor of good or evil, joy or despair. It depends on us whether God died or not. Everything will be fine.
Ursula von Arx does not ask herself if she should believe in God. She believes in the power of biblical texts. Von Arx writes to Bleek every second Monday.