We will gather humility before donning medals that belong to other lapels, which our chests do not yet deserve. It should cost a great deal to acknowledge it with an infinite heart, as a receptacle of a borderless love. All this, however, is proclaimed too lightly today. The “Christian heritage” is a great legacy, at least to claim it exclusively. Being a legatee of such a superior heritage implies a score beyond our reach. We will not claim it, we yearn one day to be worthy, to bear on our shoulders such immense responsibility.
The true Christian does not separate, does not raise walls, extends hands and hearts. Does not divide between native and immigrant, between black or white, does not feel that their God is greater and truer than that of the Muslim. Rejoices and sighs to bend their knees, to surrender their soul before another altar raised with care, beauty, and love. Yearns to pray with the different, their prayer is enriched in that company. Welcomes equally. Shares their bread, their public library, their physician, and other social services. The true Christian suffers with the Earth, leads a simple, austere life without waste, or excess of meat, aluminum, or plastic, because they know it is a way to show it their affection.
Necessarily we ask ourselves how genuine followers of Jesus Christ would act today, how they would navigate in the current coordinates, whether within the framework of the Church or outside of it, because there is “ekklesia,” that is, “assembly of believers,” also beyond the borders of Rome. Therefore, we are so surprised by the president of the most powerful nation, Donald Trump, when he states: “In our government ‘the Christian heritage’ will be treasured, protected, and defended like you have never seen before.” President Meloni is not lagging behind in this defense of the “Christian heritage.” All radical right-wing European and North American politicians are vying for this highly valued spiritual treasure.
When we thought the national-Catholic crusades had been relegated to the saddest pages of our history, we witnessed a claim of that heritage by Jesus on the part of the political forces that most contradict it.
The lack of aid, which until now the North American administration has granted to Africa, is killing brothers and sisters on the Black continent; its anti-immigration policy is shattering the souls of many Latin households; its denial of climate change is unleashing the most virulent storms… We do not know if it would be too much to ask that they seek another label other than the Christian one. Profaning today is cheap, but the “distortion” does not point to justified summer tensions, to a daring mini-skirt in the temple, but to the much less decent and disturbing facade of supremacism, of a lack of solidarity and care for the Earth.
The incoherence, the trampling already of planetary scope, should stop invoking Jesus. The disloyalty to values, the infidelity to the gospel cannot continue to be legitimized with the seal of that recurring heritage. There is adherence to the legacy of a stale Catholicism, but there is no willingness to wear His Sandals, to follow His Steps. The policies of the extreme traditionalism often represent the antithesis of the message of the Nazarene. If they truly boast of His excellent legacy, they would welcome, care for Mother Nature and their fellow human beings.
We didn’t finish watching “Christian heritage,” but rather the opposite in ultra-reactionary programs on both sides of the Atlantic. There’s also no trace of Jesus if respect is lacking for life, for that one that has, of course, already arrived, the one that has already wept, but also the one that is coming from the mother’s womb.
We have a long journey ahead of us to be fully for and by the neighbor, to care for all life in all forms and places, to ultimately reach Those always distant Steps. We are willing to persuade even if others, surely less deserving, seize the cross on the chest and the number on the back. It has been two thousand years since Jesus set the highest bar of giving and love of all time for humanity. Let us not lower it, even less for spurious political interests.
Koldo Aldai Agirretxe
English version translated with AI