2023-10-31 19:19:00
Empathy is a quality that cannot be taken for granted, he said in his speech in the Lutheran City Church on Tuesday evening. According to biblical tradition, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus did not speak “of the so-called high achievers,” but “of the weak, of the excluded, of those on the margins of society.”
Van der Bellen was invited as a speaker by the Lutheran City Church. Instead of speaking from the pulpit as planned, the Federal President spoke at eye level with those attending the service. He thanked the Protestant church community on behalf of all religious communities in Austria, because civil society and social commitment is “an essential source of cohesion in this country.” The work on the successful development of society combines politics and religion.
“Preacher in the Desert”
Regarding the reading – the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew – Van der Bellen, who, according to his own admission, often sees himself as a “preacher in the desert” said: “It is not success that determines a person’s worth, not his wealth, not his health or social status. We are all worth the same.” We are therefore obliged to show solidarity. The prerequisite for interpersonal relationships is empathy, “a quality that cannot be taken for granted.”
This interpersonal relationship also applies to all people who need help, said Van der Bellen – and emphasized that sometimes help is very simple. “Let us try once more to put what unites us in the foreground,” said the Federal President – not just in the churches and faith communities or in our own circle of friends and acquaintances, “but across these borders, beyond our own horizons.”
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