A week ago Megan and I went to the National Cathedral in Plaza de Mayo. We toured the church building, which is built to a grand scale. The paintings are by Flemish master Ruebens, each capilla is dedicated to various saints, and in the middle capilla on the right side is the tomb of San Martin, the liberator of Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
In the entrance of the catedral, to the left, is this statue of Jesus. He is hanging on a cross, recently deceased, and lit by an unnatural light. His legs are a rusted patina, where people have grabbed hold of him while praying.
Yet I often wonder if people only see Christ this way, as a figure who died and has little impact on the rest of their lives. Most Argentines claim to be Catholic, but it is nominal. Although almost everyone claims to be Christian, few people understand that this means their lives should be different. The have head knowledge (and sometimes not even that), but the heart knowledge is absent. There is very little in the way of discipleship among the general population.
One of the comments that the Caballito iglesia hears most often is, "You people are different. You actually CARE about people and want to know us, and you want us to know about God." There is something attractive about their love and grace towards people that is infectious.
La Iglesia de Cristo de Caballito believes that Jesus didn't (and still doesn't) just hang on a tree, but that he is alive and well, at the right hand of the Father in heaven. That causes us to try to live differently in our world. How amazing would it be if we would ALL live with the realization that God died for us but didn't stay dead! So, our Christian lives should also be alive and active!
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