TODAY’S CHALLENGE
“Questions gather people together, while answers divide”, says
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt in one of his latest novels. That gives us a snapshot of
Europe (and the world) that Pope Emeritus Benedict hoped to evangelise by his
call to the “new evangelisation”. Yet the world is not secularised. There is a
deep hunger for God. People do not look to Christianity alone but to all great
religions. The young especially are interested in spirituality but not in
religion. They are interested in God more than in the Church. They are greatly
preoccupied by death. People describe themselves as religious and with a belief
in the afterlife, especially among the young. But attendance at liturgies is
continuing to drop. “Believing without belonging” is the order of the day.
Clearly a big challenge to the churches is how to remain in
contact with the millions of people who look for God but do not come to church.
At the centre of Christianity is community: we are gathered by the Lord around
the altar. How can we attract the people to belong as well as to believe? The
old Christendom has gone. Not only Europe that Emeritus Pope Benedict had
called his church to evangelise but also the world has become the home of all
faiths of the world. The key question
for the future of the world is whether these faiths will live together in peace
or whether they will tear the world apart. Tensions between Christians and
Muslims (or, rather, pseudo-Muslims) are escalating. The so-called “Islamic
State”, professing to uphold the strictest interpretation of the Koran, offers
no quarter to adherents of other faiths. A stark challenge, indeed. We Christians can bring peace because we are
able to understand the role of faith in the lives of other believers other than
atheists. In 1989 France was split over the controversy over Muslim girls
wearing headscarves to school. It was Christian leaders who understood why it
mattered to them, people like the Archbishop of Marseilles and the Archbishop
of Canterbury. We Christians should dialogue with the Muslims; they are our
brethren in Christ. After all, if the Muslim girls could not wear their
scarves, then should Catholic nuns be allowed to wear veils in school?
Christianity first made Europe into
Christendom. Now our challenge is how to help Europe and the world flourish as
the home of many faiths.
The end of the 20th century saw the
collapse of the grand master narratives. Fascism, Communism, and even, to some
extent, capitalism, gave human beings the road map to paradise, and crucified
millions on the way. Auschwitz has become a place of pilgrimage itself, to
remind us what happens when we impose road maps on human beings.
Christianity itself does not impose an ideology.
We have no more idea than anyone else what will happen in a 100 or 1,000 years.
But Christianity invites us to set out on a journey and offers a glimpse of the
goal. The God we worship is the God of Exodus. We Christians should accompany
people on their pilgrimages, in their search for the good, the true and the
beautiful. Our Christian Theology tells us that these values are meant for all
human beings in their proper cultural settings. “The immense importance of a
culture marked by faith cannot be overlooked; before the onslaught of
contemporary secularism an evangelical culture, for all its limits, has many
more resources than the mere sum total of believers. An evangelical popular
culture contains values of faith and solidarity capable of encouraging the
development of a more just and believing society, and possesses a particular
wisdom which ought to be gratefully acknowledged” (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, no.68).
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