Father Roberto Pasolini during the preaching of spiritual exercises at the Roman Curia (ANSA)
«Eternal life is a way of living our life. The style with which the Pope lives the disease and old age proves it. Even if it was not present in the classroom Paul VI I felt the responsibility to say a word of hope for the Church when his pastor and head suffers ».
Father Roberto Pasolini, Preacher of the Pontifical House, from 9 to 14 March he kept the spiritual exercises of Lent at the Roman Curia in Communion in the Vatican in Communion with the Pope who followed the meditations (which can be listened to at this link) by connecting from the Gemelli Polyclinic where he was hospitalized since February 14.
Father Pasolini, what experience was it?
«Very intense. The absence of the Holy Father immediately created a very particular atmosphere because the great protagonist towards whom there was the attention of all of us and from all over the world was not there and therefore, in some way, his absence was a presence in some ways with which we could not fail to deal. Personally it was a very strong moment when I felt the importance of having to address words of hope also for the Church, while his boss is suffering and going through a delicate and difficult moment. There has really been a spiritual communion that makes us understand how we are also united in the distance: when a member of the Church suffers or is separated for various reasons, such as, in this, the disease and seniority of Pope Francis “.
Another novelty is that this year’s exercises, unlike last years when they took place within a real retreat outside the Vatican, were broadcast live on the Vatican media. Have you thought about the connected people?
«Community spiritual exercises have not been done for a few years anymore. It was decided to do them in the Vatican to allow the participation of all the people who live and work in the Holy See. Initially the diffusion of the contents had to take place only in an internal level, then it was evaluated the possibility of extending to everyone the opportunity to follow them in live streaming because several requests arrived. There was an excellent response. I too have been reached by many people from all over the world to tell me that they were in spiritual communion with us. It was a further opportunity to pray, listen to the Word of God – because praying also means this not only to recite the rosary – but also to open our hearts to the content of the Word of God and to the hope that there is in our faith, of which eternal life is the central point “.
Eternal life, in fact, was the theme chosen this year. Why, even among believers, death is increasingly seen as the end of everything and a jump in the dark?
«A little because this is the case and it was also for Jesus, I would say. Death has an element that intercepts and feeds our fears because, having been removed from God, we no longer feel it as a passage in her arms. This is a bit the consequence of sin. Then, however, there is the consequence of another sin, that is, having lost as Christians, as a Church, certainly here in the West, a strong bond with baptism, with the experience of the resurrection, let’s say as an atmosphere, as a feeling, as a deep experience of the heart already in this world. Christianity has moved away from this central element that in the first Christianity, however, it was precisely the experience of rising with Christ, not on the last day, but already now through the forgiveness of sins, through a life renewed by the word, by the power of the Gospel and the breath of the spirit. This strong and incandescent experience is a bit toned along the centuries, this is the reason why eternal life has not remained at the center of Christian awareness and therefore other things have become more important: values, morals, commitment, charity, documents. All important things, without a doubt, but who are collateral to what is the heart of the Christian experience: Christ is risen and in him we too can rise to eternal life already in this world “.
What is the common thread that followed to talk about this theme?
«I tried to explain that the theme of eternal life must be tackled not only as a gift, a destiny, a gift that God will make us after death, because this could console us, yes, but only up to a certain point. The Gospel and the writings of the New Testament insist a lot on the fact that eternal life is something we already have here, now; It is a way of life, it is a quality of our life, which for example makes us imitate the style of Jesus, makes us love enemies, makes us forgive, makes us privilege the humility of the heart, simplicity. Eternal life is a right, as well as a duty, if we want to see it also in these terms, which we could take the luxury of embracing already in this world. And then eternity and even the resurrection do not become, as if to say, fairy tales, distant mirages, but something we already taste in this world, because they represent an anthropological quality of our way of life “.
What can the testimony of Francis and, more generally, the experience of illness and fragility say about eternal life?
«The testimony of the pontiff, like that of all people who suffer in this world and cross tests of all kinds, is an important clue on eternal life. The way in which people approach death tells us very much how they managed to build hope not only in things and on the horizon here, but also in an over. A person who faces evidence, disease, seniority, persecution, with a certain peace in the heart, with a certain background serenity, evidently shifts attention from this world to eternal life. And therefore the people who live with faith explicitly, such as the Pope and many other Christians, but also the unaware people of having a strong bond with God who have however listened to their consciousness and their hearts in their lives and manage to offer this testimony equally, are the most beautiful signs of the fact that life is eternal and its eternity begins here “.
What experience is and what talents do they want to be the Pope’s preacher?
“First of all, knowing how to speak to many people, therefore the first talent is to know how to preach, to know how to build ordered speeches that can be listened well and that manage to combine a certain intelligence of the things we are talking about, therefore a theological, spiritual intelligence, to the ability to place these thoughts and reasoning – which can often be a little abstract or abstruse – in the heart of human life. The preacher must know how to combine concepts well with people’s human and life experience. In particular, the Pope’s preacher must also have a good knowledge of theology, therefore of Christian revelation and of tradition, in order to draw from this treasure reflections that have the depth necessary to speak first of all to the Pope, the cardinals, the bishops, the people who have put themselves at the service of the Church by putting them in the condition of questioning and updating themselves continuously “.
You have taken this assignment since 9 November last. How has your life changed, even personal?
«It has changed essentially in two ways. On the one hand, this role immediately gave me a great media exposure with the consequence that many people have started looking for me, understand who I was, ask me for interviews, words to say, meetings to carry out. Secondly, it was also a change compared to my Franciscan vocation because this assignment leads me to be a little more in motion and therefore my conventual life, which proceeded quiet, is now subjected to a whole series of stresses for which, as San Francesco said, I became “pilgrim and foreigner” much more than before. I constantly make the dirt between Milan and Rome, which are my two residences in this moment, but also towards other cities in Italy and abroad to offer my contribution, my preaching service, not only in the institutional moments in front of the Pope and the cardinals, but also in many other opportunities that the Church and the dioceses may need “.
