After a funeral, I met a woman I hadn't seen for a long time. She asked if an experience she had read in a Christian magazine was mine? When I replied in the affirmative, she asked me to briefly outline the experience. I had been invited to the religion lesson at a grammar school and had been asked to talk about the church. We put together what we could brainstorm on the subject of the church. I encouraged the young people not to sweep the negative aspects under the carpet. Then we discovered together that all these aspects were not the heart of the church. Suddenly one girl asked: ‘We've had so many boring discussions and today it's completely different. Why is it so different?’ I offered her my interpretation: ‘Can you feel how committed we are together and how we endeavour to be honest and not hurtful in our discussions? Somehow that is a form of love. And love is the name of God. And he has promised to be with us when we are united in his name, that is, in love. So: He is there - among us - very real and that fills your heart so much!’ - ‘Yes,’ said my listener, ‘that was in the experience, the church wants to become more and more an event of the living God, that has accompanied me to this day!
