Psychologies Magazine, June 2002 —
“Do not be afraid!” This injunction appears 365 times in the Bible. In the Old Testament, God speaks to his prophets in this way to reassure them against the terror they feel at approaching the Creator. This call to overcome fear runs throughout the Gospel in a broader sense and is more concerned with the fear of the other. Listen no longer to the voice of fear, but to the voice of love, Christ says in essence. Share, even if you fear you will lack; give to those who ask of you, even if you fear they will bother you again; welcome the stranger, even if he frightens you; come out of your self-absorption and open your hearts wide. Love is presented by Jesus as the opposite and the antidote to fear, which spontaneously governs the human heart, and which will be judged only on love.
This is the whole meaning of the Gospel message, summarized in the famous scene of the Last Judgment: “Come to me, you who are blessed by my Father, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, sick and you looked after me, in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:35). Since the 18th century and the Enlightenment, this message has become secularized, inspiring the discourse of human rights and becoming the very substance of socialist values.
“Do not be afraid! Enter into hope!” When I heard the leader of the National Front allude to the words of Christ, echoed by John Paul II at the beginning of his pontificate, on the evening of the first round of the presidential election, I felt a chill run down my spine. For while socialism appropriates Gospel values while forgetting the source, here the source is cited while turning its back on those values. “Do not be afraid!” in Mr. Le Pen’s mouth, becomes the antithesis of the Gospel. No longer tremble before the immigrant threat! If we are elected, we will drive the Arabs and the destitute foreigners out of France as Joan of Arc once drove out the English! We will reinstate the death penalty and place a police officer on every street corner! As several bishops have pointed out, nothing is more opposed to the National Front’s platform than the Gospel message.
The notion of "national preference" is strongly opposed by Christ. Scandalizing his disciples who, in the name of the privilege of the Israelite nation, cannot accept that the good news of salvation be proclaimed to the pagan nations, Jesus proclaims a universal religion, where there is no longer any discrimination between people, where all, regardless of their country or race, are called to the same salvation. After Christ's death, Paul still had to struggle to impose this vision in the face of the apostles' skepticism: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Mr. Le Pen has the right to think and say what he wants, but he should stop referring to the Gospels, which unequivocally condemn his message.
June 2002