Summer is ending. And we still have before us the war, the hunger of entire peoples, the uncertainty of the covid, cities submerged in cocaine flowing in rivers, violence everywhere, scams left unpunished, poor people who do not laugh if they do not drink, young people already old , families in disarray. The zombies reappear from the abyss called Tv, Barbara Durso, L’isola dei remade. We all have herds of fragile and insecure children under our eyes. There is a clear sensation of wobbling seated on a raft that floats just waiting to sink.
Yet it is in this context that the Church of Francis stands as an embankment and seems to relive his “apostolic zeal”, all contained in the words of the Pope: “Christianity was not born to found a religion, it was born as a passion for man. Love for man, tenderness for man “. From Forgiveness to the Meeting, from the Tent City to the marches up to dozens of “paths”. What is the truth that strikes and stuns everyone in these last days of summer? What is the key word that grips more than 100 thousand young people who have passed through these experiences in these days? “La Passion for man“, Which the Pope places at the center of his reflection, and which turns into an appeal to Christians today: in the climate of” all against all “to rediscover the way of” loving attention “to others, of closeness , of the search for the good, as a condition for being fully ourselves and bearing fruit ”. “The encounter with the other is essential”.
What strikes and stuns everyone in L’Aquila for forgiveness, in San Gabriele for the traditional meeting of the Passionists as in Rimini for the Meeting of Communion and Liberation? The immense amount of young people. At times it seems that history has turned its back on this gaze of Christ on man and Pope Francis has emphasized this several times. “The fragility of the times we live in” is also “believing that there is no possibility of redemption, a hand that lifts you up, an embrace that saves you, forgives you, lifts you up” and is “also the most painful aspect of the experience of many who lived in solitude during the pandemic or who had to abandon everything to escape the violence of war ”. But the young people who are on the “Paths”, the young people who give their time in Lourdes as in Loreto, the young people queue up to confess in Collemaggio as in the Sanctuary of San Gabriele, the young people listening in the sultry hall of the congress center of Rimini tell us that the parable of the good Samaritan is today more than ever a key word, in profound assonance with the theme of these meetings, because on the one hand it shows the need that is in every man for the “mercy of God and his delicacy”, on the other hand it embodies the “unconditional passion for every brother and sister who he meets along the way ”, which is not“ only generosity ”but is“ recognizing Christ himself in every abandoned or excluded brother ”. Whoever believes is called to have the same gaze, the same passion of Christ, who loved each one without any exclusion: a “gratuitous love, without measure and without calculations.” But – we ask ourselves – “could not all this appear to be a pious intention, compared to what we see happening today?”. How is it possible to look at those around us as an asset to be respected, in a world that today pits “everyone against everyone” and where “selfishness and partisan interests” prevail, with the pandemic and the war that we have brought back with respect to the project of a solidarity humanity? Keeping in mind that “the path of fraternity is not drawn in the clouds, but crosses the many spiritual deserts present in our societies” and that precisely in the desert “the value of what is essential for living is rediscovered, Francis shows the way:” our commitment – does not consist exclusively in actions or programs of promotion and assistance “” not an excess of activism, but first of all an attention given to the other, considering him as one with oneself. This loving attention is the beginning of a real concern for his person ”and of the desire to seek his good. “Recovering this awareness is crucial”. It is therefore the other, the encounter with the other, “the condition for becoming fully ourselves and bearing fruit”
Giving oneself to others builds that “social friendship” that the Pope recommends in his message: it is a fraternity open to all, it is an “embrace that breaks down walls and goes to meet the other in the awareness of how much each individual person is worth, in whatever situation he finds himself. A love for the other for what he is: creature of God, made in the image and likeness of him, therefore endowed with an intangible dignity, which no one can dispose of or, worse, abuse ”.
It is this social friendship that, as believers, we are invited to nurture with our witness: and it is this social friendship that the Pope invites young people to promote. Shorten distances, lower oneself to touch the suffering flesh of Christ in the people. “How much need the men and women of our time have to meet people who do not give lessons from the balcony, but take to the streets to share the daily toil of living, supported by a reliable hope!”. This is the historical task of Christians: Francis asks to take up this appeal “continuing to collaborate with the universal Church on the path of friendship among peoples, expanding the passion for man in the world ”.