“At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” Rom. 5:6

If you had asked the French a few weeks ago who Arnaud Beltrame was, it is almost sure not many of them would’ve acknowledged knowing him. Should you ask the same question today, you will be astonished by the level of attention it will draw to you and even more by the superlatives people will use to describe him. That colonel will have been brought out of the anonymity and discretion he was so accustomed to by a bravery act which people who know him testify is not a one-off coming from him; it is in Arnaud’s nature to risk his life to save those of people he does not know.

The most deserved tribute that France paid to that forty-years-old fiancé man on 28th March 2018, a man whose religious wedding is slated for June 2018, will have brought together very high personalities of the Republic. Even in the Parliament, known for antagonism between various groups, it was in an exceptional consensus that A. Beltrame was honoured by all trends of politicians. Moreso, the first part of “Envoyé Special” broadcasted on France 2 on 29th March 2018 was dedicated to that man who made no case of his own life and exchanged it for a lady he did not meet before in a supermarket.

It is interesting to see how the world was moved by A. Beltrame’s action, starting from France and there is nothing to be said about his bravery. Only that the enthusiasm brought up by his sacrifice intervenes at a moment Jesus’ sacrifice to save not just one person or a group of people but rather the whole mankind seems to touch fewer and fewer people.

If some of those who were moved by “Beltrame’s sacrifice” were still finding it difficult to get convinced of the message of the cross, it should most likely be less difficult for them henceforth given events of these last weeks.

Indeed, that the son of God forsakes his attributes and agrees to come and live human condition, that rather than welcome him and treat him as per his rank those he has come to save turned out to be his executioner and lead him to the ignominious death on the cross and that, even in those conditions, Jesus continued and completed his earthly mission, that alone should suffice for all to come together and honour him and serve him.