No. My answer is no

No. We must not normalize the attacks we suffered with the interruption of the Holy Mass in Curitiba last Saturday (the 5th). I even wonder. Does someone who is not Catholic have any idea what a Mass is? It is God himself being killed again, it is communion with the sacrifice and with brothers in the faith. It is a master reset of civilization’s founding act. I am not okay with interrupting the Mass. No.

I am not okay with the feedback loop of violence against the individual, let alone against the individual’s sacred.

My parents wrote a book of blessings for me. Many pages with passages from Scripture, icons related to talents, love letters. When I showed it, some years ago, to analyst Michelle Thomé, she did not touch that collage without first washing her hands. She leafed through it so carefully that it made me think: “this is how it is done.” I imitate Michelle in that too. Yesterday, my sacred was vilified.

First, I know a powerful God who — for believers — was lynched while declaring himself innocent. From Jesus Christ until now, the wheel of violence has been spinning in a void. Or would the protesters (of very low category? Of course, but protesters still) have achieved the feat of disturbing an undisturbable God? If they have, I hand over my Christian credentials here.

No. No way. Not at all! My answer is no. I am not okay with the reaction of those who use the mark of Christ to murder. In my modest interpretation of the Mosaic Law, “you shall not kill.”

Yesterday, they stole my money, kicked my saint, burned my yard (terreiro), but it was not because they interrupted the Mass. It was because I read — with these beautiful bright brown eyes I have — that “if someone had been armed at the Mass, this would not have happened.” “This” what, murderer?

No. I am not okay knowing that in the world there is someone who is okay with emptying the cylinder at a Mass. Imagine the lovely update to the Book of Acts. “When persecution came, the Christians opened fire.”

No. Not that. Not at all.