The world is running even faster than before; it is becoming global. Cultures, people, civilizations, religions, languages, and races are being united, founded, confused, and collided. The need for identity, or recognition of every individual is becoming more pressing. The fundamental comforts/reassurances of our being waver dangerously. Every limit is bound to be pushed. Human beings cross and intersect, inflating themselves in a manner that is both confusing and uncertain.
The existential question “Who am I?” becomes more dramatic with each passing day.
No longer is there security nor are there points of reference for certainty. We are being projected into a new era: the era of the internet. We are all linked, connected by the same net, threatened by the same virus, the same fears and anguish.
Personal and individual destiny are becoming universal. Each local event is becoming global, every individual action corresponds with planetary consequences.
The confusion is total. The influence of maleficent and demonic forces is terribly present in this world. Man, in his uncontrollable and impatient thirst for knowledge and power, is unable to stay away from the persuasive and flattering forces of Evil.
The increasing relativism, materialism and consumerism expose the human being to a tremendous existential emptiness that manifests itself in depression, anxiety and uncertainty. The world feels a desperate need for a message of courage, hope, faith, and stability.
The world needs Christ. But who and what does Christ represent? Christ is the symbol of the destiny and Dignity of man.
To say Christ means strength, courage, hope, faith, love, respect, brotherhood, friendship, solidarity. To say Christ means the image of God in us.
Christ is not only a historical and spiritual figure: Christ is the symbol that groups together ideals, values and principles that are manifested in a corresponding lifestyle and that lead to the Dignity of man – creation of God.
More than ever, the world needs Christ, to find the lost Dignity, to reestablish the image of God within itself.
According to Christianity, the human being was created “in the image and likeness” of God. Our body is the “temple of the Holy Spirit”. We are sacred: our lives, our thoughts, our bodies – everything is sacred in that it was created and loved by God.
In observing this world, I ask myself: Is there still anything sacred?
As Seventh-Day Adventists we have the privilege to spread and protect the value of human Dignity through the figure of Christ, symbol of Dignity and sanctity.
As Adventists, we have the privilege to promote the image of God in this world, as Ambassadors of Dignity.
In a world in which sacred and dignified things no longer exist, as Adventists, we have the privilege to offer a message of sacredness and dignity – in other words Christ, our Dignity.
Because, without Dignity, there is no Liberty.
