A ray of light in a depressing place

Dream or reality?

A child dies unexpectedly in its mother’s womb.  The little boy is buried in Curahuasi’s cemetery.  On the wall behind his grave one can read words that Jesus spoke: “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies!”  Dr Susan Dressler, the mother of the deceased, started the painting, which Dr Ilse Schütze finished a couple of days ago. These are the facts.

Many tears are shed on cemeteries.  We remember loved ones who are still sorely missed.  Herbert Grönemeyer sings: “The human being is called human being, because he forgets and suppresses,” and then the short sentence, “I miss you,” follows.  A pointer to his deceased wife.

There is no point in trying to make it better: death is and stays terrible.  Death forces us to ask the reason for our existence and can drive us into melancholy or can snatch away all our hope.

Did Jesus promise too much?  Will those people who really trust him, live forever when they die?  Do the words of the carpenter’s son remove the issue until the cows come home or are the words of Christ the biggest hope-call that ring through centuries of man-inflicted brutality, wars and injustice?

What do you think?

If you think Jesus is the walking cane for hopeless beings, which happen to have the misfortune that due to the capacity of their cerebrum they can think about their own mortality, then you are right, if you turn your back on Christianity.

But should Christ be right, then it would be a good thing for all of us to trust in him, with our whole hearts and all our souls.  Matters of life and death are radical and you and only you yourself make this decision. /KDJ

The finished mural on the Curahuasi’s cemetery wall.
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