Religion and Freedom The Value of Earthly Reality is not Underminded by the Holy

         What really is important in life is not so much to provide answers, as to discern true questions. When true questions are found, they themselves open the heart to the mystery. Origen used to say: ‘Every true question is like the lance which pierces the side of Christ causing blood and water to flow forth’. In this light we understand why Christ is not first of all the answer: He is first the restlessness of the query, as we see by the fact that the Gospel opens with the word ‘metanoéite’, change your heart and life. Only at this price is Jesus also the peace and the truth which enlightens. Therefore if we want to find true answers for our condition as pilgrims in history towards the homeland of God’s promise, we must listen to the true questions which lie at the heart of history itself, since they will open us towards the enlightening darkness of the mystery. Very often Church mission fails because we answer questions no one is asking or we pose questions which interest no one. The challenge is to discern the true questions, the questions that God writes on the tablet of our heart and of our time.