The world in which we live, can no longer be considered as Christian. New generations don’t easily accept the vision of life that in the past was transmitted from parents to children by means of authority. The ideas and instructions that predominate in modern culture are very far away from Christian inspiration. We live in a «post-Christian» epoch.

This means that faith is no longer «something evident and natural». What’s Christian is subjected to a critical examination that is more and more relentless. Many in this context feel shaken by doubt and many abandon everything, allowing themselves to be carried away by the currents of the moment.

A faith that is fought against from so many directions can’t be lived out as in years past. The believer can no longer be supported in the culture around him or in the institutions. Faith is going to depend all the more on the personal decision of each one. Someone will be Christian who takes the conscious decision to accept and follow Jesus Christ. This is the fact that’s most decisive in the religious moment we’re living today in Europe: we’re passing from a Christianity based on birth, to a Christianity based on decision.

But the person needs to be supported in some kind of positive experience in order to make such an important decision. Experience is becoming a kind of criterion of authenticity and a fundamental factor for deciding the orientation of our very life. This means that, in the future, religious experience will be all the more important for establishing the faith. That person will be a believer who experiences that God is for him and that Jesus Christ helps him to live.

The Gospel story in John ends up more significant today than ever. At one point, many of Jesus’ disciples doubt and leave him behind. Then Jesus says to the Twelve: «Do you want to go away too?». Simon Peter answers him in the name of them all from a basic experience: «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe». A lot of people today move between a state of traditional Christianity and a process of de-Christianization. It’s not good to live in ambiguity. It’s necessary to make a decision based on our own experience. And you: do you also want to go away?

José Antonio Pagola

 Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf

Publicado en www.gruposdejesus.com