Je Suis Charlie... Jesu Is...
Slogans. Je suis Charlie (the murdered journalist who belittled the Prophet in the name of liberty). Je suis Jewish (the murdered Jewish store staff). Je suis the policeman (the murdered Muslim on duty officer). The meta narrative was the values of the Republic: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. We were deeply moved by this aspiration to come together as one great family. But sadly, unexamined assumptions could be the death of such aspirations.
The fact that people have freedom to mock holy things, or to neglect the poor, or to pretend that imperialists are the goodies and those who retaliate are the baddies, does not mean that they ARE good, wise or should be supported in what they are doing. The secular agenda is part of the problem.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance in fighting the moral equivalent of war. Values of respect, love, forgiveness don't grow on thin air. Equality is impossible unless there is something of God in each person. Brotherhood and sisterhood are mirages unless we know what makes us one family and what is our common parentage in God.
Christians, that despised minority, celebrate this very week the baptism of Jesus Christ in the muddy river Jordan. They teach that the eternal all-pure, all-good Son of God immersed himself in the muddied stream of human life - the stream that included everyone in Paris and those who had fled - thus imparting transformative values.
Je suis humanity. Je suis the All-Good. Put it another way. Jesu Is. Jesus is the source of humanising values. Jesus is the way to make them come alive. In victim and perpetrator, in demonstrator and bystander. Why? How? Walk the Talk. Explore our Way of Life.
