August 2012 The Road to Daybreak A Spiritual Journey by Henri J M Nouwen

Continue from ...... Beauty and Order Another language, another style, another "tone". I continue to be surprised by how small Europe is and how great the differences are between people who live so close to each other. I took the train from Paris to Strasbourg. There Franz Johna, my friend and editor at Verlag Herder, met me and drove me over the border to Freibury. A beautiful, charming, rather intimate city built around the splendid Munster Cathedral, Freiburg sits like a precious gem in the valley between the Rhne and the first hills of the Black Forest. It is a university town, with very little industry. The centre is kept free from cars. People walk in the middle of the streets, which are lined by narrow gutters of running water. There are many beautiful churches, city gates, small medieval-looking alleys, and little squares with contemporary sculptures. It is a new city completely rebuilt after the Second World War. Yet it is a very old city rebuilt in the style and atmosphere of ages past. Everyone looks well-to-do. The stores are many and filled with a great variety of goods, clothes, food books, modern appliances, artwork, and so on. There seems to be no end to the abundance. At 11pm Franz drove me to my place of residence, the mother house of the Vincentian Sisters in the habsburger Strasse. The sisters received me with enthusiasm and warm hospitality and gave me a large room to stay in. I feel very happy to be here. I have been in this country only a few times in my life and always for a very short time. The occupation of Holland during the Second World War made it hard for us to go to Germany. Somehow all my attention was directed westward. But now I can get to know a new country, a new people, and a new way of praising God. The Deeper Question My breakfast and dinner discussions with the priests who live in the mother house of the Vincentian Sisters have helped me to get some idea of the struggles of the Church in Germany. That these struggles are not minor became clear from the simple fact that my fellow priests disagreed with each other on most issues they discussed. I was often the surprised witness of fierce debates involving both body and mind. Still, there is agreement about one thing. Questions concerning birth control, abortion, and euthanasia, as well as questions about the Pope, bishops' appointments, clerical dress, liturgical styles, and so on, are all symptoms of a much deeper question, which is, "Do we truly believe in God?" The Germans, no less than the French and the Dutch, have moved into a new age. The existence of God, the divinity of Christ, and the spiritual authority of the Church are no longer foundational elements of Western European society. Whereas the society of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth ceutnries could still build upon a value system deeply molded by the Christian tradition, the late twentieth century finds hardly a common value left. When it comes to legislation about central social issues such as giving life is a gift from God, to be nurtured, developed, and at all cost respected, no longer guides the decisions of all lawmakers. Thus laws, rules and regulations tend to become increasingly functional and pragmatic. The question then becomes, "What seems best at present for the majority of the people?" Meanwhile, many church leaders spend and often waste precious energy on issues which do more to distract us than to deepen our sense of mission. Progressives and conservatives fight each other within the Church, but both are in constant danger of becoming completely irrelevant to what molds our contemporary society. Is there a God who cares? Are there any signs that history is guided by a merciful hand? Are there relationships which reach beyond the limits of the interpersonal, intercommunal, or international? Is life more that what psychologists, sociologists, biologists, and chemists can define? Is there anything to hope for after we have returned to dust? These questions are far from speculative. They touch the core of our civilication. Is the Church perpared to deal with these issues not just on an intellectual level, but on the level of daily life? Many Germans who still go to church no longer believe in a life after death. They come for very different reasons than the words they read or hear in church suggest. It is doubtful that they will stay very long. The coming weeks will give me ample chance to think about all of this. I am happy to have fellow priests to help me articulate the questions and think about them. It forces me to go to the heart of the Christian faith, first of all my own.

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2012. All rights reserved.