Folia Theologica et Canonica 9. 31/23 (2020)
Sacra theologia
THE BELL RINGS... 39 There are several answers: They flee from wars, from weapons manufactured by western countries. There are economic refugees among them. They do not want us, neither our culture nor perhaps our religion. They want welfare, because at home they lacked it. The European Union wants to solve its demographic plight by receiving migrants. Others see manpower in them. There is labour shortage in the car factories. Europe refuses to do physical work. And these people want to keep their religion. They remain together, because they can keep their identity in this way. They build mosques, marry among each other, they do not want to mingle - this is forbidden by the rules of their religions. And they often interpret European military interventions as a war of religion. At the same time, it is a question, who to carry on a dialogue with? There is no single Islam. What is to be done? The churches are to join their forces: talk about the phenomenon, organize local aids, provide for health care, education and employment possibilities locally, act for the society together, demolish prejudices, and finally, to turn towards them with love. “The bell rings”, the phenomenon calls us to wake up. Because all this may be about me, too? We can leam something from the migrants! They can have their opinions about us. The question is, whether we recognize the ‘signs of times’.11 Do we seek God’s will in the events? Or do we simply see a technical problem in the migration of our time? As from the time of Abraham throughout thousands of years yes, there is a future for the people, the nation, the family, the communities, the churches. What we have to offer is the gospel of Christ. We are also commanded to do so: “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation.”11 12 Let us ask the Holy Spirit that when the bell rings, it may wake us up to stronger faith and genuine activity, building the Church of Christ, in order to be able to experience something of the new creation, where “all peoples and nations became his servants”13 and praise the Lamb, whose light the nations will walk by.14 Mihály Kránitz Pázmány Péter Catholic University Faculty of Theology kranitz. m ihaly@htk.ppke. hu 11 See Lk 12:56. 12 Mk 16:15. 13 Da 7:14. 14 Rev 21:24.
