Is there room for both?” “

“Be not afraid…” is the title of the Easter Letter sent to the priests of the diocese of Malines-Brussels by the archbishop, Cardinal Godfried Danneels . “‘Be not afraid’, these words – writes the cardinal – are like a fire that, from the very beginning, runs through the field of God: the words already heard by Abraham and Moses, repeated “by the angels to Joseph, to Mary and to the shepherds on Christmas Eve”, the words addressed by Jesus “to the disciples in the midst of the storm, to the Twelve at the Last Supper, to the women at the tomb on the morning of Easter”. Is it possible, therefore to forget them, or to live “as if they were meaningless? Especially in our time we have a desperate need to listen to them!”. A time which, as Cardinal Danneels points out, in spite of widespread prosperity, seems characterized by “a destructive climate” and “a vague and latent malaise”. “Who’s responsible for that?” asks the archbishop. According to some, it is Christianity itself that bears the blame: they allege that “it has contained, for centuries, the brackish water of a poisoned source”, and that it is “the gospel itself that has made man ill and a prisoner in a cage”. We excerpt some points from his Letter. A widespread malaise. What are the causes? In the first place, “the wanting to have”, the urge to possess; this “in itself is not an evil – explains the archbishop – but it becomes one if it oversteps the limit”. Further ills are a mistaken concept of happiness, as satisfaction of every desire; “a misconceived notion of truth and freedom” which “leads these two ships adrift”; “the reduction of love to eroticism” and “the breakdown of marriage”; “the curious paradox” represented by the “hyper-communication that generates loneliness”; the limits of science and technology; and “the impotence of the ‘power’ of man”. The sun and the diamond. A really sombre picture, “in which the points of reference hitherto delineated appear to be lost”, but the cardinal is convinced that “the source of the current malaise is found at an even deeper level” and consists “in believing God superfluous”. But without God, “would we be capable of supporting the disappointments of life and steering our boat alone?”. “‘Is there room for both, for God and for me? If God exists, am I not a slave?’ many people ask”. But, argues the archbishop, “would the diamond ever order the sun: Stop shining! You overwhelm me?’. It would ask, on the contrary: ‘Illuminate me, since the brighter your rays, the more brilliant is my radiance”. In the garden of modernity. “We belong to modern culture, yet we must not blindly follow it – says the archbishop –. We preach the virtue of selflessness, but we also hope for efficiency. We speak of sobriety, yet we live on the goods of the earth. We recommend love for our neighbour, but don’t hesitate to enter a world of competition and competitiveness (…) It’s normal for some to think us both hypocritical and ingenuous”. It’s not easy to bear “the fragile Christian message through the ages” and “this might induce us to remain inert and paralysed watching the film of history unwind in front of us”, or “to bring the gospel in the language of the deaf and dumb so that people might only understand it by reading our lips. The temptation to adopt a ‘strategy of prudence’, or to seek shortcuts is, at times, strong”. But, exhorts Cardinal Danneels, “Christ begs us to speak, to proclaim his message with conviction and be afraid of nothing, to cast our nets over his word. That is not a ‘strategy of prudence’; it is the courageous strategy of the faith. Beyond shame”.