The spoken word counts!
Dear brothers in the episcopal service,
Dear sisters and brothers!
There is something fascinating about bridges, just think of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the famous bridge in Mostar, or the Stone Bridge in Regensburg.
It’s been 15 days since the Carola Bridge collapsed in Dresden in the middle of the night. Whenever such a bridge is damaged or even collapses, we investigate. Destroyed bridges, broken connections between two parts of the city or areas of land – we intuitively associate such images with images of war, where the destruction of bridges is done as a protective tactic, but then also as a targeted weakening of the infrastructure.
A collapsed bridge quickly becomes a symbol of the fragility of our existence. We notice that what otherwise connects and holds together can fall apart at any time. It is unimaginably shocking to think about the situation of those people who were on the bridge at the time of a collapse – quite drastic in Genoa, for example, a few years ago.
Christians are bridge people! Our identifying symbol is the cross. The cross is a bridge, yes die Bridge par excellence. Our ancestors expressed this in the old passion song “o, you most holy cross”, in which a verse about the cross says: “you are the safe bridge over which all pious people go to heaven”.
The two dimensions of the cross both represent connection and togetherness. In the vertical dimension we see Christ stretched between heaven and earth, between God and people. On the cross it becomes clear in an existential way: He, the Son of God, gets involved on the cross with all human life, all poverty, even death. He goes to this extreme point and doesn’t shy away from it.
And then the horizontal dimension: Jesus spreads his arms wide on the cross, to the right and to the left, to connect and unite everyone. This becomes clear in the case of the one thief to whom he says: “Amen, I say to you: today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).” And last but not least, in the Roman centurion, who is no longer in the dying Christ not the unpleasant subject, but a righteous one and praises God. The cross wants to connect, it creates great togetherness among us humans.
As Christians we must never fall behind the cross. On the contrary, we stand by the cross and want to be there as bridge people. We don’t have to act on our own. If we look at it carefully, we don’t need to build this bridge. We can use them, we can walk over them, so to speak. That takes a lot of pressure off of us. We are asked to care for the bridge, to maintain it and to walk on it ourselves again and again.
Three short suggestions:
Let us cultivate in our personal faith that which, like a bridge, strengthens the connection between God and us humans. Spirituality, spiritual life, or simply piety does not consist of completing or fulfilling something, but has the deep meaning of walking a bridge to God. When I pray, read scripture, or simply become quiet and expose myself to God, I am already on that bridge. Constantly cultivate the bridge that keeps your connection to God alive!
A second thing: The inherent thing about bridges is that they connect different landscapes, sometimes even different countries, for example Øresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden or in our partner diocese Tancredo Neves Bridge the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu with the Argentinian city of Puerto Iguazú across the Iguaçu River.
As Archbishop of Hamburg, I experience this because of the high proportion of Catholics who speak other languages. Over a third of Catholics in the north have a migrant background and the proportion is increasing. They are not guests, especially not strangers. The one faith of our universal church binds us into one family. In the Holy Spirit we all belong to the one church in a great community.
Far too often these days the focus is on the negative news, which unfortunately creates very sad headlines. But how many positive examples are there of immigrants who contribute with all their work and their qualifications? Where integration succeeds, it becomes noticeable that we belong to one another. And “turned Catholic” it becomes clear: the one faith of our universal church binds us into one family.
And one last thing: A bridge is not just for me, but for everyone. On the one hand, Paul speaks of this pro me = for me and then again from for us = for us. That’s why we must never remain individual or even individualistic, but are invited to always think universally.
In a society that is currently living in extreme conditions, we always need bridges that connect us with one another. As Christians, we are committed to unity and reconciliation, to integration and inclusion.
Transferred to the structure of our democracy, repair work is always required here so that the construction continues to be stable. However, anyone who proposes amateurish and crude improvements, as we see in the current asylum debate, endangers stability. There remains a struggle to find good solutions to do justice to the complexity of the issue.
Jesus Christ showed us this: he himself became this bridge and went to the point where the connection was most severely disturbed: suffering, sin and death.
Finally, perhaps one last picture can encourage us:
Not all bridges have to be made of brick in order to be stable and fulfill their purpose. I’m thinking, for example, of a suspension bridge: it often spans the abyss between two bases. Every now and then you can look through and see the abyss that needs to be overcome. Every now and then it sways and it is quite uncomfortable to cross it.
There are certainly people who are unable to use such a bridge. I wish us the necessary strength and courage to do this; Our bridge is Christ and it stands! We just need to cross it. Amen.
