They did not expect someone like him
“Veni, vidi, vici – I came, I saw and I conquered” – Julius Caesar knew how to win fantastically. But others paid the price. After his assassination his great-nephew Octavian muddled his way to become Emperor and is remembered in the history books as Emperor Caesar Augustus. It was not long before he, like his great-uncle before him, had thousands of slain on his conscience. But as princeps he could do what he wanted. One knows that history is written by the winners and only those who are successful stand in the focus of the spotlights.
In a distant corner of his empire a little boy sees the light of the world. Later on he claimed that he himself was the Light and Saviour of the world. He was crowned with a crown of thorns. His motto: “I came, I saw and I loved!” Two thousand years have passed since then. With his life he stands lonely and supreme above everything that the human spirit has ever come up with. But the question that everyone of us has to ask at Christmas is this: “Was this baby in the manger really the Son of God, i.e. God incarnate?”
There are only two answers to this question: either Jesus came as the Redeemer of the world or he was a con-man. Perhaps he misguidedly thought he was the greatest, then we could rightly call him crazy. But his claim was so radical that we simply have to take a decision. We, the staff at Diospi Suyana, take Jesus at face value: it is in his name that we are working in Peru, not to win, but to love.
Unfortunately the book of the journalist Markus Spieker only has 967 pages. It is so exciting and informative that I would have gladly read two thousand or more. (Fontis Publishing House) /KDJ
