Meeting of the group "Desert Flower"

On Saturday, November 12, we, the Desert Flower group gathered for another meeting. Like with every meeting, we began with a song.

Then, because some new members joined the group (two from the Beer Sheba community and one from Nazareth), we did another round of introductions of each person in the group.

The theme of this meeting was "To believe – easy or difficult?" In connection with this theme, we received pages on which was a kind of questionnaire – "are you an easily identifiable Christian?" – the intention being: can one tell that you are a Christian from the first look?

Through the questions, a broad ranging discussion developed about a variety of questions regarding the TaNaKh (Old Testament) classes in school, whether one makes the sign of the cross (e.g. before an examination), whether one prays at home, before meals, attending Sunday mass, vacations, etc. Each one of us, of course, had different answers from the others and the discussion was vast and fascinating.

Then, we began to prepare our lunch and during the meal those who had been in Spain shared with the new members of the group.

After lunch we went for a walk around Jaffa.

When we returned from the walk, we began the second part of the program. We began with a song: "For God so loved". Then we read a text from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew (13:54-58). In this text, Jesus is in Nazareth, the town in which he grew up, and he is teaching people in the synagogue. People are astonished and say: "Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter's son?" Because of their unbelief, he did not do many miracles there.

From here we derived the question: why is it so hard for people to believe? We all agreed that it is because people are afraid. – some are afraid of something unknown, afraid because faith is intangible, or afraid that if they believe God might ask them to give up something that would be difficult for them.

In addition, we talked about doubts that anyone might have regarding religion because not everything in religion is logical. Many things are difficult for us to understand from a human point of view. Thus each one might have doubts but these doubts do not make one an unbeliever, rather on the contrary. These doubts lead us to an even greater interest in religion, to seek out answers that might make us even better believers. Nobody can know everything!

So, I hope that we might always have some doubt. I hope that we always believe and know that there is someone above who hears us, listening to us always and who never asks that we renounce without knowing that in renouncing something, we receive much else that gives us much more!