DEAR, is almost a month since my blog is quiet. Lent, which begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday led me to resume my work. I propose a reflection that I prepared for a magazine.
"The memories of the true joys and strange that have marked my long life may not show that the human being, just like an eagle, is greedy for space and unlimited horizons, but is forced to fight , incapable of flying, I was almost prevented by a few wounded? (...) It seems to me the human heart woven of shadows and light, capable of heroic deeds and terrible cowardice, tended toward wider horizons and always on the verge of stumbling into all sorts of obstacles, most of the time interior ".
Each year at the beginning of Lent I am struggling with the reality expressed by the words the priest says that by imposing the ashes:" Remember man that you are dust and to dust you shall return. "
While My intelligence is not hard to adhere to the meaning of that admonition, my heart feels a slight backlash to dissolve into thin air as if the image I have formed a man who, day after day, looking in, accepting in my mind the voices of nature, beauty and affection of people, striving for a well.
I need of refuge, in those moments of slight bewilderment, amazement that pervades the author of Psalm 8: "When I see the heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what man that you should remember him, the son of man that you care for him? You have made him little less than God, glory and honor you crowned him, gave him power over the works of your hands, put all things under his feet: all flocks and herds, all the beasts of the field; the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. "
The words of the Psalmist does not clear the fragility of human beings, but help me to see and to appreciate the preciousness. Man is indeed dust but dust and light precious. powder that falls in love, that knows how to express affection, which recognizes the beauty of the body made it vibrant, light and transparent emotions, in the goodness that flourishes in gestures of solidarity, in the wonders of science and technology, in the depths reached by the spirit . Powder loved by God
So it is easier to recognize and understand also that the human person ephemeral and immortal creature, which is limited in space and time together and thirsty for the infinite, beast and angel, as Pascal says, and that it persists in the continuous struggle between opposing tendencies, described by 'Abbé Pierre in the quotation cited above and Blessed is the beautiful volume the last. A life for the dispossessed of the earth (Mondadori, 1998).
Faced with this conflict that runs through my life, like that of every man, I know I can not be just a spectator. The courage to engage in the struggle between the creative and the destructive forces me is the realization that it is not in vain, because it has already been fought victoriously from Christ. By also experience what it means to be dust, with his resurrection has made all human beings share the redemptive power of his love. I know that every day you can experience resurrection, becoming aware that man is dust so fragile, but valuable and strong because loved.
Love,
Angelo