What I Want to Believe

I refuse to believe that man can be a prisoner of hate, of racism, and of war.  I

believe that love, brotherhood, and peace can become a reality.

I will never believe in a God who enjoys suffering, who regrets having given humans freedom, who will only save Christians.

I do not believe that human beings, even if guilty, condemned, and haughty, can be forever separated from God’s mercy

I believe in God

I believe that He is living, in spite of His silence and His discretion.

I believe that He created us for happiness and for life, despite evil and suffering

I believe that He is the Father, despite the limits of my reasoning and the limits of my heart

I believe in Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary

He lived among us like a free man

He loved to treat each person as a unique being in the world

He believed in and gave each one the chance to live a life of love

It is He that Peter recognized as Christ, the son of the living God.

He continued loving throughout his betrayal, arrest, judgment, condemnation, execution, without fleeing the hate brought upon him, choosing not to put away his enemies in their duplicity.

He forgave them because they did not know what they were doing

But God, his Father, did not abandon him in death; he resurrected him, Peter and the disciples as his witnesses

I believe in the Holy Spirit that Jesus has given us: he makes the blind see, he gives us inner freedom that is stronger than any prison bar; he allows us to communicate with each other.  He calls us to follow Jesus’ example and tread the path of service to others.

To the Church, I believe that God entrusts the mission of announcing to all humanity, the love that He has for us, the faith that gives freedom and the hope according to which nothing is ever lost.

Inmates of the Bois d’Arcy Prison