ECUMENISM / Sharing a passion for Christ

The dialogue proposed by the Meeting was based on Dostoevsky's provocative phrase, "An educated man, a European of our time, can he believe, really believe in the divinity of the Son of God Jesus Christ?" It went far beyond what could have been an interesting cultural event, a stimulating comparison between two different Christian traditions.

It was quite a surprising event, because beyond the rich insights and reflections offered by the two main speakers, Metropolitan Filaret, Patriarchal Exarch of Belarus and Cardinal Peter Erdö, Primate of Hungary and President of the Conference of European Churches, it put with dazzling clarity before the eyes of thousands of people the fact, unheard of and miraculous, of that unity that already exists in Christ.

This is a unity that has no fear of human frailty, the labor of uncertainties and doubts that accompany us, of “the modern intellectual”, so precisely described by Cardinal Erdö, that does not stop even before the demonic possession which mankind sometimes seems to be the prey today, according to the image of the Gospel parable chosen by Metropolitan Filaret to illustrate the condition of contemporary European consciousness.

"’Everything is possible for one who believes, ‘and ‘ I believe, Lord! Come help my unbelief ‘: this call of God to man and this human response to God represent the universal model of relationship with God," said Metropolitan Filaret. It is a moving encounter and filled with wonder between man and God, because, as pointed out also by Cardinal Erdö, "the most unimaginable thing for our human imagination is that God is made flesh, and making Himself encounterable by him by taking the form of man so that we might see Him in a way more suited to the capacity of the human being. "

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