It is a great honor for me to officially open this exhibition here at the Kardinal König Haus today! I would like to thank everyone in advance without whom this endeavor would not have been possible: Father Gustav Schörghofer, Father Gernot Wisser, Georg Nuhsbaumer, and the two technicians Jakob Heinz and Franz Grundnik.
As some of you may know, the work presented here, "I Am Here," or Epiphany, has been showcased before at the Brunnenmarkt in Vienna Ottakring.
There, the place of God's manifestation was a simple market stall, which was "illuminated" outside of opening hours. While we had a distinctly mundane environment, a marketplace, this work here approaches its spiritual origin more closely.
As you know, Moses was also surprised and overwhelmed by his encounter with God in an unusual place, in the desert, not in a temple, church, or before an image of Yahweh. God caught him tending sheep at the foot of Mount Horeb, and Moses must have been quite astonished when he received his commands from a flame in a burning bush.
And where are we surprised as we approach the entrance? We find ourselves in transition, in multiple ways:
First: Physically, we are on our way, either into the house of education or out of it. Our movement, our physical existence between A and B, gives a motion sensor a signal that releases the power to the light.
Second: Mentally, we are also on our way. We are either already deep in thought about the event we are visiting or thinking about our way home or our loved ones at home. Life is a pilgrimage, vita est peregrinatio, but a pilgrimage without reflection on our innermost goal, without spiritual orientation, deteriorates into a distracted holiday hike. The light triggered by our movement reaches us right there, in the transition, confronting us with an act of simple presence that also wants to evoke the question: yes, am I really here?! Just as a cross by the roadside invites passersby to pray or remember, here the light invites us to a brief inner pause, to conscious being.
Third, the light itself is in the midst of the transition: in the bridge from the house of God to the more secular world of the education house. And you see: by slightly shifting the inscription from the center toward the house, it becomes quite clear that the light of God, the One, moves out from its protected area of worship into the world and wants to become active there: in the countless seminars taking place in the K.K. house, in the minds and hearts of the more than 20,000 people who enter this house each year, and surely also in the spirit of those who have come together here to "act in truth" in the sense of Cardinal König. Because: "The motto of K. König was not to be committed to the truth, nor to hold to the truth guided by love, but to do it in love."
I hope in this sense that this artistic intervention helps the house and its users serve humanity, both the inner and the outer.
So that our presence may bring joy and glory to the One who – especially in this very moment now – allows us to be here and assures us of his unceasing presence:
"I am here."
Thank you for your attention!