How nice to be able to say that spring has exploded, and it’s not about bombs. We had just peered at the buds, shy on bony branches; felt a hint of light breeze, almost perfumed, even in the early morning chills. Then, suddenly, a beautiful day: blue sky, windy, white and pink flowers that splash even the cities with color. It’s time for songs, for celebrations, which lead to Easter: Saint Joseph, the Annunciation. There Lent it opens wide to the Resurrection, the only thing that matters for our life, for those we love, for everyone’s hope.
While the penitential rites are taking place, the angel speaks to a virgin and asks her for a yes to save the world. As we prepare for the Passion, life blossoms in the liturgy and in nature, and asks to blossom in us too. There is an announcement to be welcomed, a yes to be said with convinced emotion. There is an announcement to be repeated, so that this good contagion of faith spreads.
The Word became flesh and history has changed since then and forever. We know it, they will say. But if this word does not become an experience it is in vain. Christians forget that the announcement made to Mary is not an event of the past. It is a personal call, continually renewed, and a responsibility so that we become announcers in our turn.
“Go and preach the Gospel to every creature” is a mandate not only for religious people and it is a shame to relegate it among our doubts, our shyness. The dark times we live in were not spared our fathers and their fathers. Even today, as too many times, the name of God has been used to curse, to sow hatred and violence; the name of God has justified wars, persecutions and divisions; the name of God has once again covered Mammon, that is, the interest in money and power.
But the conditions of life that are given to us are an opportunity, not objections or excuses for our fearfulness, our skepticism. Also because we are not alone in supporting the sweet and hard weight of the truth that is Jesus. We have the testimony and encouragement of the saints: from Saint Joseph to the last one elevated to the altars. And of the many saints we meet, or live next to us, Christians in word and deed, with an extra touch of tenderness, of smiles that warm the heart.
Hagia Sophia, in Rome, a basilica that takes inspiration from the main basilica of Kiev, commissioned by Saint Paul VI to remember the martyrs of Soviet repression. Via Crucis, per the new martyrs and the many young people killed at the front. Many children, with colorful traditional clothes, women who at the end of prayers and songs prepare typical sweets, thanking those who joined them. It rained on those faces of women who looked far away, at their land invaded and violated by the invasion that has turned their lives upside down for four years. But what certainty in that common prayer that God’s presence is there and works among us, despite all the despites.
It’s spring, again. At any age, it is a new time to say thank you, and find courage again: a beautiful word, which means to have a heart, to care.
In collaboration with Credere
Credere, the magazine for living the “adventure of faith”
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