The kaleidoscope of good

An image I like to use to describe Sermig's "taking care" is that of the kaleidoscope.
A tube with two or more mirrors arranged at right angles and with many colored pieces which, when the tube is rotated, are reflected and offer harmonious and full of life images. Well, the colored elements can be the chapters of the Sermig rule The joy of answering yes and the two mirrors that intersect can have as captions "on a mission" and "put yourself in the shoes of others".

ON MISSION
A recent collection of texts written by the Sermig of the servant of God Dom Luciano Mendes, former Brazilian bishop and friend and teacher of Sermig, follows the itinerary from the world created and fallen into sin to the world redeemed by Christ.
So how God took care of humanity. The starting point is God's plan indicated by Jn 3:17: "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world may be saved through him".
Jesus offers his life, he gives us the Spirit and the company of his mother, so that we, united with him, live the "Eucharistic form", we too offer our life out of love, and we throw ourselves into the world to overcome hatred. with love, violence with peace, discord with reconciliation and despair with hope. «We are in the world, therefore in suffering.
We are not of this world, so we live in hope. It is a grace to continue living to fulfill the mission that the Lord entrusts to us. The Eucharist strengthens in us the certainty of the happiness promised by God and guarantees us the certain route of the journey of life: Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (cf. Jn 14: 6) ".

PUT YOURSELF IN THE OTHER'S SHOES
«We must always remember that the other is not what I would like to meet, he is not what I imagine or desire, the other is what I have in front of me, with his history and his limits.
Not judging means knowing how to get off your horse, being on the ground, questioning yourself, being watched and found by others, bringing into play the reason that sows questions and doubts where we have too many certainties, too many ready-made answers. Knowing how to understand, compassionate does not mean yielding to emotion, it means the ability to grasp the drama of the other by putting myself in his shoes "(Rosanna Tabasso, first consecrated by Sermig).
Every other aspect, reflected by these two presuppositions, enriches the experience of life itself and also for Sermig it becomes a, indeed "the", to take care. It is impossible to collect the experience gained in a few lines. I limit myself to three flashes.

I WAS HUNGRY
It is 1964. Ernesto Olivero and his girlfriend Maria Cerrato, together with some friends, give life to Sermig to make a dream come true: to eliminate hunger in the world, putting themselves at the service of missionaries, especially those whom no one helped. A journey has begun that knows no end, neither in the Third World countries than next to us. The objectives have expanded, they have combined participation, involvement, planning, fish and rod, multiplier effects.
The common denominator: we are all brothers, so for each one the commitment is to ensure that everyone has the same dignity. The one I try to have.

DOING GOOD WELL
Ernesto reminds us: «Everything leads us to see that the Lord does good good.
In spite of our humanity, we too can do good in all things, in the apparently small and in the great ones ». And again referring to Sermig: «We have built a great" cathedral "because in every small action we have seen a cathedral.
This is our secret, our key to the present and the future.
Do I clean toilets? I'm building a cathedral. Do I listen to a person? I'm building a cathedral ».
While renovating the Arsenal, Fra 'Costantino Ruggeri, a well-known Franciscan artist who left traces of his art throughout the Arsenal of Peace, told us: "Guys, doing things well costs as much as doing them badly, but if one thing do well, if it is beautiful, it makes those who use it feel good ». Rosanna Tabasso writes: "Doing good has become for us to help everyone recover their dignity as a person, which means daily bread, necessary, indispensable for living, but also something that enlightens their life, even something small, humble that gives meaning and joy to his existence.
Welcoming a person in an orderly, clean, beautiful, colorful even if simple, is a first step, a way to say: "You have a value to me".
Then there is us. Doing good depends on knowing how to put ourselves on a par with everyone, treating each one with the same concern, with the same delicacy that we would like for ourselves ".

YOUNG EYES DARE TO DREAM
The Sermig (Youth Missionary Service) has always been attentive to the new generations to follow and accompany them on their journey of research. Because he believes in young people. In a letter addressed to them Ernesto writes: «Only with you, positive and more eni of life, we can build a world that resembles how God imagined it. Only with you can we erase words like enemy, infidel, mine: words that arrived from yesterday that made today unlivable. Only with your purity, with your fragile and strong humanity, with the part of you that dreams, is it possible to build a future in which a person is no longer worthy based on skin color, wealth, country of origin. Only with you what has not been is still possible. It is possible to make freedom and justice coexist!
It is possible to say no to the construction of weapons that kill! It is possible to experience sobriety, truly sustainable development, to guarantee care, food, home and work for every man, every woman! It is possible that your dreams will really come true! ». The World Youth Peace Appointments have made them protagonists, like so many other initiatives, the last of which concerns sport (cf. NP 2021 n. 7 p. 50).

Guido Morganti
NP Focus
October 2021