The Saints Are Still Silent

Times of rapid social change offer an excellent opportunity for an assessment of how far the hopes of the past have been realised and for ideological, doctrinal or personal conversion, before individuals or institutions cease to be able to contribute to the benefit of mankind or of society. The present generation is witnessing the last stage of the decline and sunset of the capitalist world, which is based on the profit principle and supported by the puritan creed of social usefulness as a prerequisite for a man\u27s salvation. The Church now has a new and extraordinary opportunity to sever all its, connections, however weak and reluctant these may be nowadays, with power structures and their supporting ideologies. The Church must leave all responsibility for the functioning of social survival systems to the state and its organizations, and regain the freedom it needs to be able to care for human life without compromising with the new world-order which Is gaining ground at an ever-increasing speed. To make its own mission valid and more efficient than it has been in the past twenty centuries, the Church must stop leaving the earth to animals, profit-makers and the wielders of power. It has to offer a rich human life to its members. As a body established for a specific mission, the Church can only carry out that mission by starting and continuing to present Jesus as a real model of human life for man, who should not be concerned first with his own survival, but with the needs of his neighbour. The only practical advice Jesus gives to those who believe that he has the truth is to do as he has done