One for all

Publish date 14-12-2022

by Cesare Falletti

We often find ourselves in front of crossroads where no indications reassure us. If it's a roundabout we start going in circles to find a direction that could go well, but in the end we have to stop if the indications don't reassure us. When we are not at a crossroads, but at a crossroads of questions that tangle within us, things appear more complicated and we are not sure whether we are acting or choosing true good. In theory there are answers, if nothing else we have great indications not only from the Gospel, but also from common wisdom; however, when it comes to action, the "buts" and "ifs", the "yet" and the "buts" multiply.

It is clear that evil must not be answered with evil, otherwise one will enter an infernal and endless spiral. In some way, however, one must respond; passivity or silence are not always the best way to serve the world and the good of our fellow humans. In the face of Evil it is not enough to say yes or no, it is necessary to seek and suggest ways out and most of the time man is faced with his own impotence, not only to do, but also to think, discern and decide.

The first job to do, then, is to purify one's heart, because passion and passions quickly invade the field galloping like a band of mad Amazons, and hide the search for truth. Not an easy or short-term job. If we think about what is being tried from the outside to influence, if not to manipulate, common thinking, it is a must to be a little suspicious. When you receive Evil, the question is not simply how to endure, or even less how to take revenge, but how to get good out of it? As in oriental martial arts, one must exploit the force of aggression to respond without using unjust violence, but by neutralizing the one that attacks us. For this reason, a response to Evil that at first seems like a new violence can instead be something that allows an awareness of the absurdity of Evil and can lead to a return to oneself, to a conversion. There are causes that must be neutralized immediately, in order not to get caught up in the game of Evil and, in this, the heart that seeks to purify itself is more lucid than another that follows passions and loses clarity.

Working on one's heart is not easy, purifying it even less. It is a living cell of humanity and of the whole world. If it is healthy or if it knows how to absorb the right medicines, every cell in the body can act for the good of the whole organism, while a very small cell carrying a tumor can lead to the death of the whole body. I believe the same thing can happen with Evil in the world. None can be said to be without influence on the totality of humanity: even if each is but one among eight billion beings similar to us, humanity itself is a single body with a continuous interaction. Working your being a human person and building yourself in the Good is salvific for all humanity.

If we accept this fact we can also feel crushed by responsibility, but, if we are humble, we welcome things as they are and our place as not indifferent. Loving then takes on a true salvific value, because I don't just love the single person, but through that particular love I serve the whole world. Otherwise there would not be a sacrament of marriage: in fact, with it one gives one's love, the love for another person, so that it enters into the action of the infinite love with which the Savior saved the world by offering himself on the cross. Through the sacrament, the promise to love each other receives the strength of God and gives God a point from which to radiate upon the world.


Cesare Falletti
NP August / September 2022

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