Testament of Father Christian de Chergé, Prior of the Abbey of Tibhirine, killed with six Trappist monks in Algeria by Islamic fundamentalists, probably May 21, 1996. The story of Father Christian de Chergé and his brother was devoted to the film Les hommes et les Dieux, badly translated in Italy with the Men of God If I were a day - and could be oggi - di essere vittima del terrorismo che sembra voler coinvolgere ora tutti gli stranieri che vivono in Algeria, vorrei che la mia comunità, la mia Chiesa, la mia famiglia, si ricordassero che la mia vita era “donata” a Dio e a questo paese.
Che essi accettassero che l’unico Signore di ogni vita non potrebbe essere estraneo a questa dipartita brutale.
Che pregassero per me: come essere trovato degno di una tale offerta?
Che sapessero associare questa morte a tante altre ugualmente violente, lasciate nell’indifferenza dell’anonimato.
La mia vita non ha valore più di un’altra. Non ne ha neanche meno. In ogni caso non ha l’innocenza dell’infanzia.
Ho vissuto abbastanza to know that I share the evil which seems, alas, to prevail in the world, and also what would strike me blindly. When the time comes, I wish I could have that moment of clarity that would allow me to beg forgiveness of God and that of my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart who would strike me.
I could not wish me such a death. It seems to me important to state. I do not see, in fact, as I rejoice in the fact that the people I love were indiscriminately accused of my murder.
would pay too high a price that would be called, perhaps, the "grace of martyrdom" to owe it to an Algerian, whoever he is, especially when he says acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.
So what contempt the Algerians could be surrounded, taken globally, is also known caricatures of Islam which encourages a certain Islamism. It 's too easy to get a clear conscience by identifying this religious way with the integrity of its extremism.
Algeria and Islam, for me, is another thing, are one body and soul.
I have proclaimed this often enough, I think, based on what I saw and learned from experience, finding that so often strand of the Gospel taught in the lap of my mother, my very first Church in Algeria, and, even then, nel rispetto dei credenti musulmani.
La mia morte, evidentemente, sembrerà dare ragione a quelli che mi hanno rapidamente trattato da ingenuo, o da idealista: “Dica, adesso, quello che ne pensa!”.
Ma queste persone debbono sapere che sarà finalmente liberata la mia curiosità più lancinante. Ecco, potrò, se a Dio piace, immergere il mio sguardo in quello del Padre, per contemplare con lui i Suoi figli dell’Islam così come li vede Lui, tutti illuminati dalla gloria del Cristo, frutto della Sua Passione, investiti del dono dello Spirito, la cui gioia segreta sarà sempre di stabilire la comunione,giocando con le differenze.
Di questa vita perduta, totalmente mia e totalmente loro, I thank God who seems to have willed it entirely for this joy, and in spite of everything.
In this "thank you" when all is said, now in my life, certainly include you, friends of yesterday and today, and you, my friends here, with my father and my mother, my sisters and my brothers , and to them, hundredfold as was promised!
And you, my friend the last minute that you will not have known what you were doing. Yes, I want this for you "thanks" and that "a-God" in whose face you contemplate.
And may we meet again, happy thieves in Paradise, if it pleases God our Father of both.
Amen! Inch'Allah.
Algiers December 1, 1993
Tibhrine, 1 January 1994
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