Dani Alves' sermon

BarcelonaIt will be a strange experience to enter the temple and end up seeing a sermon by Dani Alves. Put aside artificial intelligence, reality continues to surprise us. The former Barça player made a pact with Our Lord in prison when he was incarcerated accused of sexual assault. A case for which he was initially convicted but later acquitted due to insufficient evidence. A case that is not yet over, as it will go to the Supreme Court. It was in prison that Alves told Our Lord that if He helped him, he would give his life to Him. Now, he is a disciple of Jesus Christ, as he explains.

It's hard to put oneself in his shoes. It's hard to imagine what you feel when you're in prison. If you're truly innocent, I can understand why you cling to anything that gives you hope. If you're truly guilty, it's more or less the same: if you save me, I promise to change, he must have said. But I've always been surprised by those people who understand religion as a personal pact. When I attended the Salesians and tried to understand the Gospels, it didn't seem that way to me, but perhaps these evangelical churches are biased in the other direction. Many suffering people end up in such churches, especially in Latin America, where they've already gained a lot of ground from Catholicism.

In sports, we've encountered many athletes who embrace this movement. People convinced they're so special that Our Lord has prepared a plan for them, like an image consultant. They believe they're destined for glory because heaven intended it that way. It's always seemed a bit arrogant to me to think that if you succeed, it's because God wants it.And belong to Jesus", they say, but then they all tend to lead a lifestyle like Neymar, which would make Jesus Christ pull his hair out. A selfish approach to religion, taking what interests them and forgetting other things, like solidarity. They neither help, nor are they supportive, nor do they empathize with the cross for the act. like Alves.

Everyone deserves a second chance, agreed. Everyone has the right to believe in what they want. constructing a tailor-made story: I have been wrongly accused and Our Lord has saved me. He will emerge as a holy man, as long as we ignore his statements in court, where he changed his version every now and then.