Together4Europe | Munich 2016 | EN

and communion with God
and man.
• So that´s what it is about:
Preferring the unknown, the
unfamiliar, the marginalized
– as a “learning place” of
faith – in, with, and through
Jesus.
• This especially applies to
the different charisms and
their communion: in Paris in
November 2013 at a meeting
of Together for Europe
with Jean Vanier, founder
of “L’Arche”, it became apparent
to us: one of the real
aims of the charisms is also
to receive the “charism of
the world” and to reflect it
to this world. Vanier’s testimony
has been very impressive:
primarly it´s not
about living with and for
the “addressees” of the Beatitudes
of Jesus, but from
them. In fact they – the supposedly
needy and receiving
ones – are the God-gifted
and giving ones. They are
the bearers of a message, a
presence of God that has to
return to the center of our
societies from their margins.
Klaus Hemmerle, Bishop of
Aachen and religious philosopher
wrote concisely:
“Let me learn from you the
message that I have to pass
to you”.
8 This attitude, however,
requires a “thrust reversal”, a
true metánoia of many a Christian
on their understanding of
themselves and the world. It
calls for a new faith in God’s
love for the world which is revealed
in Christ.
It´s a matter of growing ever
more into a “culture of trust”,
including a worldly trust in
God that is founded in Jesus.
9 Looking up into the dome
of the Circus-Krone building,
we might think of some trapeze
artists. For me, they are the true
artists of de-frightening: Flyers
hovering in the air, always taking
the risk of trust, letting go
and stretching out again for future
spaces. An artistic moment
in that prophetic and always
fragile, risky intermediate state
of “grace and gravity”: the
grace of weightlessness, yet
the creature always having a
knowledge of being held and
secure, in a certain sense “redeemed”
from itself and liberated
for turning towards the
other.
With this in mind, Henri
Nouwen writes: “A flyer must
fly, and a catcher must catch,
and the flyer must trust, with
outstretched arms and open
hands that his catcher will be
there for him. […] Remember
that you are the beloved child
of God. He will be there when
you make your long jump.
Don’t try to grab him; he will
grab you. Just stretch out your
arms and hands – and trust,
trust, trust!“
Dance performance
© Haaf
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