There are not only weeds
I can well understand why so many people are fed up with faith and church. It is the gap between the pious claim and the reality that disgusts. Revelations in the media suggest that communities are teeming with sanctimonious moralizers. The perceived double standard gives rise to cynicism or sarcastic jokes. When a Catholic clergyman speaks out on ethical issues, half the republic laughs itself silly. And the 1000 different opinions in the evangelical world offer little orientation for outsiders.
Gandhi is reported to have said that he would gladly convert to Christianity if Christians could be found who lived what they claimed to believe.
Things are not looking good in the field of God. As a result, church departures are a mass phenomenon, worship spaces are empty, and clerical administrative structures are in financial disarray. Where is the enthusiasm of Christians about what they claim to believe? Who else is God’s love driving into the streets to share the good news? Do I really need forgiveness or rather a psychotherapist? And who still reckons with heaven and hell? The former is a cheap postponement to never-never day, and the latter is a blunt instrument of intimidation from the Middle Ages. Or is it?
Those who hold to the Christian faith today and thus represent a small minority position feel compelled to seek justifications. Amazingly, Jesus Christ prophesied these “chaos days” of Christianity two millennia ago. In the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus describes a wheat field full of good seed. The enemy emerges and secretly sows weeds. It doesn’t take long for the mess to become apparent. The farmer’s employees react angrily to this prank, but the owner of the field remains surprisingly calm. “Friends, don’t panic,” he explains his relaxed attitude. “When harvest time comes, we sort the wheat and weeds. Until then, let’s keep calm!”
You have to walk around with blinders on to miss all the weeds in the churches. It shows everywhere. Unfortunately, in my own life as well. Anyone who knows the contents of the Ten Commandments and has read the Sermon on the Mount may well feel like a failure. Conclusion: I do not manage to implement these ideals. True all, notdestotrotz grows a huge good crop.
Christians of all denominations are deeply committed to helping the broken, the outcast, and the down-and-out. They do a damn good job. They comfort the sad, ease emotional pain, and provide active life support. Whoever travels as a globetrotter through the countries of the so-called 3rd world, can soon no longer count the Christian initiatives for the good of society. Diospi Suyana also does something that strikes many Peruvians as a real AHA experience: modern medicine for the poorest! 460,000 patient visits is a fact, not wishful thinking. And the more than 200 long-term missionaries to date have already attracted a long line of secular television crews to Curahuasi with their convincing efforts. Because these men and women have worked hard and lost a lot of money. The reason: donations can never compensate for the salary that you previously earned in your home country.
When I belonged to a church youth group 40 years ago, one of the songs we sang was, “Better we are not, but better off we are, Jesus sets us free, start over with us!” That’s exactly how it is.
Millions of people throughout the ages have experienced the forgiveness of their sins as total liberation. Free of their old burdens, they were finally able to breathe deeply again. And who offers me security in the present if not God? Have you ever attended a funeral of atheists? You will not find a shred of hope there. The hard credo of the skeptics is: A random product disappears in the fog of meaninglessness. Death is dark, cold, inescapable, sinister and brutal. And this depressing end may come to us sooner than we think.
When Jesus died on the cross, two more terrorists were executed next to him. One turned to the dying man in the middle and whispered, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom!” And Jesus answered, “I promise you, this very night you will be with me in paradise!”
If Jesus also thinks of me and promises me a great future, then I will never, ever throw my faith in the garbage. The hope that Christ preached and lived is great. There is nothing better. Also, I think the tremendous harvest of faith is brilliant. At Diospi Suyana, too, we at the hospital, at the school and at the media center are bringing in huge returns that we would never have dared to dream of in the past. We do this not as philanthropists, humanists or altruists, but as Christians. The cross of Christ and his empty tomb have convinced us.
Marco Zileri was also present at the hospital’s tenth anniversary celebration on August 31, 2017. The then editor-in-chief of the left-liberal magazine “Caretas” – similarly positioned to the German “Spiegel” – summarized his impressions on six pages a few weeks later. Zileri a convinced atheist found the following words:
“In the place of Curahuasi, God is visible, but the state is practically invisible. Catholics and Protestants, Jews and atheists work together with this mission hospital without any profit motive!” And then he quoted a remark that I had made between the door and the table: “We want to recognize Christ in our lives and not merely believe in Him. That is why we work here day after day and year after year. On the last night (before the feast) we all prayed. Our struggle continues!” /KDJ
