Forever

«Goodness is the only key to meeting and communicating with man» (from Sermig's Rule). Words are not enough for there to be a meeting between people and for an authentic dialogue to arise.
Words must convey goodness: you must listen to the other with a heart free from prejudice, understand his reasons, have dissolved negative feelings such as resentment, not be attached to your own ideas, want to win at all costs and much more. Dialogue is a dimension of the heart, it is a choice of the intelligence and together they orient the will. Only in this way does dialogue fully realize an encounter and, when the words of a dialogue do not divide, we truly come closer and unite.

We know all this well and repeat it often. We know well that we must start with us, start with those closest to us, with the people with whom we fellowship. Indeed, the rules of dialogue are the rules of fraternity that seeks to make the Gospel its own and live it firsthand. We try and try again, but as Saint Paul says «there is in me the desire for good, but not the ability to implement it; in fact, I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I do not want" (Rom 7, 18-20) and our efforts often end in failure, precisely among those of us who believe in them most.
We collect failures that discourage us, give us insecurity, take away the desire to try, so much so that "we will never make it".

Often our efforts to coexist and dialogue arise from good desires (to defend ideas that we recognize as important or to improve difficult situations), but they transform into requests and demands that create walls and divisions.
Or it may happen that our way of presenting ourselves expresses needs of which we are not even aware, but which do not meet the availability of the other, to the point of generating authentic clashes.

In recent days I have been thinking about the effort we make, even though we believe in it and put in all the effort we can. I wondered what could help us, what could give us the motivation to always start again. While I was thinking about it, a text from Chiara Corbella's will (photo) for her son Francesco passed over a chat: «the purpose of our life is to love and always be ready to learn to love others as only God can teach you. Whatever you do will only make sense if you see it as a function of eternal life.
If you are truly loving you will realize it from the fact that nothing truly belongs to you because everything is a gift. You are special and have a great mission. The Lord has always wanted you and will show you the path to follow if you open your heart to him. Trust me, it's worth it."

"Whatever you do will only make sense if you see it as a function of eternal life." I tried to reread my day with this key: of what I thought, said, did, what will I take with me for eternal life? Of a meeting, a dialogue, a discussion, a silence, what will I take with me to eternal life? What really matters, what is really useful to me, to others, to the fraternity? What is needed for the poorest, what is needed for peace?

In recent days I have trained with these questions and I have tried to ask myself what will remain of what I experience forever. I realized that this thought shifts priorities, helps to seek the essential, prepares the mind, heart and will to understand the other and reach out to him. Perhaps keeping our gaze fixed on life that never dies can really help us choose from time to time what really matters to invest our energies in. It can really help us direct the dialogue between us on what expresses love, the only thing that matters, the only thing we carry with us forever. Because of everything we have done at the end of life we ​​will only see if and how much we loved!

Rosanna Tabasso
NP June / July 2024