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Today’s news is often filled with the suffering of many children. They are mistreated, taken advantage of, prostituted, and abandoned to an unknown destiny. A child is no longer that precious jewel to keep and to love, “nu piezz’e core,” like they say in Naples, which means “a piece of our heart.” It seems that a child has changed from the greatest possible gift to a burden that you just get rid of. The selfishness of adults makes them objects on which  to vent their own adult instincts, to exploit for making money, or to toss in the garbage, like something you dump from your life as fast as you can.
All this happens, again and again, before our eyes with a constancy that by now has almost become a norm of indifference. Maybe even just for a moment, listening or reading, our conscience awakes from that stupor to which the world has relegated it; but then, very often, everything returns to the same status quo.
We, instead, want to continue to give a voice to that scream that wells up inside of us in the face of so much human wickedness. Why all of this? Why does man arrive to these levels of cruelty and selfishness? A world that neither loves nor respects little ones and fails to defend those who are the weakest, is a world of cadavers, a world of desperate people. A world that rejects life, that does violence to the life of children, cannot even be called a world. Yet, God calls us specifically to love this world, to be bearers of hope and rays of light and kindness to resurrect humanity. Today we suffer from a deadly cancer: the incapacity to love. He who does not love is dead. He is truly not alive. He does not suffer; he does not struggle; he does not rejoice; he does not cry. Anyone who does not love is indifferent! Often, however, the person who doesn’t know how to love has not known true love, that love that sets your heart on fire and turns your life upside down, making you explode with the will to love. Yes, love generates love, and today there is an immense need of people able to give birth to hope through love. There is a need for new families. If the family is reborn and parents are genuinely converted, the children will be saved. The Lord calls us to this challenge, for our future and that of our children depends upon it.
Who do we want to follow? Who is our Teacher? What does He want from us? The joy or the sadness of our families, our children, and those who are near us is totally dependent upon the response we give to these questions. It will determine springtime or winter in our hearts. We experience Resurrection every day with the lost and “dead” youth who enter into our houses, as well as with their families who have been destroyed by suffering and desperation. We see Resurrection in the eyes of the children of our missions, in whom the violence of the streets has left open and bleeding scars. Daily we experience the hope that brings light to those once lifeless eyes. Because of this we believe that, even in the darkest night, it is possible to find light again. In the deepest sadness, joy can be rekindled; in the bitterest loneliness, a friend may draw close and love you.
Yes, we want to be witnesses of this hope to proclaim to the world that the secret of rebirth is to open our hearts to that marvelous Father who awaits each of us as His most precious sons and daughters. |
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