Light our hearts

Only life lived can communicate what words cannot explain

When as a young man I prayed Psalm 90 – «The years of life are seventy, eighty for the most robust, and their agitation is fatigue and disappointment; they soon pass and we fly away" (v.10) - I didn't understand why he expressed an almost negative vision of life and I told myself that for me, for us "moderns" it wouldn't be like that! Indeed, from the boomer generation onwards, the quality and expectancy of life have increased, not to mention generation Z or Alpha who have reached levels of well-being never seen before. But, despite everything, what we possess and can use, we are no longer happy and even young people struggle to live with depression, discomfort and emotional fragility.

What is missing, what are we missing? A young friend recently confided to us: «I changed schools and I like this one, but I haven't been there for weeks. I don't know why, yet the companions are nice. I only know that, if it were up to me, I would sleep all day, but at night I stay awake and alive." And a boy: "I only leave the house to come here to you, otherwise I spend the whole day in front of the screen." Then there are the children who no longer want to watch the war on TV; Many cry when their parents argue because they are afraid they will split up...

But there are also adults who say: "I'm not happy" and who seek life in ever stronger emotions. The list could go on and we would all find ourselves in it. Children, young people, adults, the elderly, we all feel that we are missing something and are so parched that we no longer have anything to give to each other. The hearts of too many of us have been extinguished and we cannot find anyone who can rekindle it in this scenario of precariousness, uncertainty, void of meaning, and - as the psalm says - we experience disappointment and fatigue.

However much we do, we cannot add a single day to our life (Mt 6.27) and this limit includes all the others, it defines that we cannot rekindle our heart alone, but only God, the author of life, can do it: «Recognize that the Lord is God; he made us, and we are his, his people, and the flock of his pasture" (Psalm 100:3). Without Him life dries up and dies. There is a hunger for love in each of us, but we cannot feed ourselves and human relationships are not enough.

How to tell everyone? We can't even find suitable words to say it to ourselves because we are wrapped up in our selfishness that seeks his advantage.

Only life lived can communicate what words cannot explain. And then at least we who have known God, who are nourished by his Word and by him becoming his Bread, begin to look up. Let us begin to contemplate the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord has always prepared for everyone, let us taste his Presence, let us let our hearts be rekindled by Him. At least we try not to be strangers to the God who gives life and let us start again from Him. Human love is nothing but a reflection of the love that God experiences and He is the "fire that burns and is not consumed" (Ex 3:2). Like Moses in front of the burning bush, let us take off our sandals and contemplate the love that regenerates us, even when around us there is only desert, death and destruction. «Behold, the days are coming – oracle of the Lord God – when I will send famine into the land; not hunger for bread or thirst for water, but to listen to the words of the Lord" (Am 8,11). The hunger around us is too great. At least we try to have our hearts lit by God, to look to Him, to seek the source of love in Him. Which doesn't run out.

Rosanna Tabasso

NP Febbraio 2024