We live close together, often continuously connected, yet many times we feel alone, divided, distant.
This trip to Brescia gave us a beautiful image: the Cammino delle Sorelle. And perhaps here lies a decisive question for our lives: what really unites us?
It is as if this land told us that beauty is born when differences are not fought, but learn to be together. The Gospel goes even deeper. Jesus says: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). It doesn’t say: if you will be perfect, if you will be successful, if you wear a recognizable symbol… But, if you know how to love yourself. True Love attracts, strikes and reveals… the Love of God in us. Because the opposite of love is not hate. It’s indifference. It’s living next door without actually meeting. So perhaps the problem of our time is not just speed or stress. It’s that we risk losing the sense of connection.
Nobody saves themselves. Each is a thread that intertwines with the others. If you break all the ties, in the end you too remain fragile. Pope Paul VI, born in this land, said that “this world needs witnesses more than teachers”. Authentic and credible people. Not perfect, but they do their best to build. So let’s try to do something very concrete.
First: Spend more time with the people you love rather than the phone in your hand.
Second: really listen to someone without interrupting and without immediately thinking about the answer.
Third: make peace with those who feel distant, even with a message, a phone call, a small gesture. Because we often wait for big opportunities, but it’s the small steps that mend relationships. And perhaps the deepest meaning of life is precisely this: becoming people who unite. People who make others feel less alone. Because in the end we will not be remembered for what we have accumulated, but for how much love we managed to leave in someone’s heart.
