Elide Siviero (From the source "Saint of Miracles "May 2020)

“Lloyd, it's an uphill period ". “It will mean that it will continue in a better way, sir”. "Because after the climb there is the descent?”. "Because after the climb there is the view, sir” (Simone Tempia, Traveling with Lloid). This phrase has been resonating within me for a few days. I am writing this article in the time of imprisonment for all Italians ... when it is published I do not know how the situation will have evolved, but it is right to reflect on what we are experiencing. First of all, in the midst of all the voices, the word, the exhortations or verses of doom I hear around me, here is a different invitation: the path we are taking can lead us to contemplate a different panorama. The Christian does not live outside of reality, but he must read reality with the eyes of faith. We feel afraid, threatened, locked up, deprived of our freedom, but also everything we took for granted, from friends, to trips; from the Mass, to confession, because a virus disrupts our life. We are threatened and we must resist, without drama: we are closed in the house, but Anna Franck was locked in an attic for two years, with very little food, without being able to move or make noise. We can't get out, but we can call us, video call us, watching television, to be informed, call your doctor, go to the pharmacy, to read, to study, play, to cook, doing gymnastics ... life turned upside down is not taken away from us, if the threatening virus does not take us. But we must be able to make the most of all of this: before life returns as before, it will take a long time; we will count the dead buried without funeral; the health workers who fell in the field; businesses closed or in difficulty. But we must also count how many will have changed as a result of this tragedy, how many have found the thirst for God within themselves, strength in prayer, love for brothers, the importance of relationships and especially the nostalgia for the Liturgy. We will have understood the preciousness of the National Health Service and how it should be preserved and guarded. We will give importance to every greeting, at every meeting, with every smile, to each person. We will have discovered that our life is fragile, weak, but also that it is guarded by God. We will have discovered that we cannot plan anything, because a virus is enough to change the cards on the table, but we will not finish planning and hoping, only without the delusion of omnipotence. With confidence, but also aware of our limit. The words of Etty Hillesum come to mind, a young Jewish woman of 25 years, written in his "Diary 1941-1943", in full persecution of the Jews: "My God, take me by the hand: I'll follow you like a good girl, I will not make too much resistance, I will not withdraw from any of the things that will come upon me in this life. I will try to accept everything and in the best way, but give me a brief moment of peace from time to time ... They can make our life a little unpleasant, they can deprive us of some material good or some freedom of movement, but it is we ourselves who deprive ourselves of our best forces with our wrong attitude ... The threats and terror grow day by day: but I raise prayer around me like a wall offering shelter, I withdraw in prayer as in the cell of a convent and I come out more collected, concentrated and strong ". The greatest renunciation, that of the Eucharist, puts us next to all those Christians who can only have Mass a few times a year; to those persecuted, without priests; to the Japanese martyrs who no longer saw a priest, they no longer had a mass, but they did not cease to believe in Christ's death and resurrection: with this fast we will discover the precious good that has been given to us by Christ. “I hate living in hardship, Lloyd”. “Then I would suggest trying to downsize, sir”. “Certain diets require huge sacrifices, Lloyd”. “Which in return, however, give us something even more important, sir”. “The line we had lost, Lloyd?”. “That hunger we had forgotten, sir”. May all this make us discover the hunger for God.

- Elide Siviero (From the source "Saint of Miracles "May 2020)