The hope that does not disappoint

We have been announcing the spring atmosphere for weeks, despite the fact that we have not yet come to terms with a winter that has lost its usual characteristics, with smog not very encouragingly on the rise. But this anomalous seasonal context coincides for believers with the Lenten journey, in which to have the realism of the limits we encounter, with the fragilities that make themselves felt, with the worries of the chiaroscuro that strike us. And who knows if we still have the opportunity or the courage to look inside ourselves and discover what really moves our lives? Of course, we are going through complicated and controversial times. The expanded horizon that lies before us brings us heavy shadows, which smack of wars, atrocities, wounds, assorted madnesses...

Symptoms of an almost lost humanity, experiencing first-hand a sort of deadly confusion, no longer able to think and act positively, but allowing itself to be carried away by the worst. It is a season when darkness becomes gloomy. And there's no need for misdirections on various media and banal fronts, to almost push people to simply distract themselves. No, the moments are painful and distressing. We desperately need to find the key to the problem, starting again from the recognized dignity of people, from the freedom assured for peoples, from justice that is truly for everyone, starting from the primary needs for existence (such as being able to work without losing our life). The logic of conflicts, weapons, violence and oppression is polluting everything.

It seems that we can no longer trace back to shared rules. The world has become, here and there, explosive and disorganized. Without forgetting the new paths that new technologies are opening up to undermine what is most human about us, namely conscience, intelligence, responsibility, freedom. We also risk a lot in these unexplored territories, which must be faced and explored with the awareness of being inside delicate and crucial issues. Which the new generations, in the not too distant future, will ask us to account for. And, within all this that doesn't let us sleep peacefully, perhaps we can and must look for the holds that are valid. Pope Francis, in view of the Jubilee of 2025, is asking us to become "pilgrims of hope", that is, capable of walking within this complex (and unprecedented) season of ours, not being overwhelmed or dispersed by it, but counting precisely on the "hope that does not disappoint ”, tracing it in the soul, invoking it in prayer, nourishing it with coherent and courageous gestures. And offering strong and targeted signals, so that hope around us does not die out but is rekindled even more.


Corrado Avagnina
NP March 2024