Together for peace

The term "community" is the container of all those values that Sermig has sewn into its skin.
It immediately came to mind when in our life as enthusiastic young people we were a group, always ready to invent initiatives in order to raise funds to allocate to our missionary friends. These include the Fasting Dinner and the Working Day, proposals to encourage people to increasingly introduce the values of sharing and justice into their lives. It was our way of "becoming neighbor". But something more became urgent.

In a document by Sermig dated September 1970 it is clear that the transition from group to "community" had already been in place for some time and there was a need for a rethink to materialize the proposal to form a central community of reference and unity for all the groups from which Sermig was formed at the time. In a letter from Ernesto Olivero dated 14 September 1976, we read: «We must become more of a community, be a joyful image of family to refer to. […]
I think the moment is also maturing in which some boys and girls, who feel called, take into consideration the possibility of consecrating their lives on a vocational level for God with Sermig, so that true pivots can be born among us [...]. Our being together must not be so much in the light of "company", of feeling good among us, but in the light of Jesus' phrase "love one another as I have loved you".

This was a fundamental turning point in the early seventies which led the group to become aware of being a community.
Some girls – interesting, women always in the front row! – they play the part of Mary more than Martha. Lidia confides to Ernesto that she does not feel called by the Lord just to "get busy" and some girls, during the Saturday meeting in the Viale Thovez headquarters, choose to stay in the little church in adoration rather than participate in the organizational meeting.
Ernesto understands that it is time for a turning point. The activities become the fruit of listening to the Word and worship. “Tuesday” becomes the day on which the community meets publicly to pray, the monthly retreat becomes a prerogative.

In this period the foundations of what will later be defined as the spirituality of the Presence are laid. It therefore becomes natural to link active struggle and contemplation together. An active struggle that has the aim of giving glory to God by realizing a piece of his kingdom. The "becoming neighbor", the various activities arise from "we know Who we do it for", the basis of that research that will develop with the Arsenale in the spirituality of hospitality.

It becomes like a necessity to pray to the Lord while other friends are performing a service. Community life has the effect of having a profound impact on everyone's personal life: life is perceived as a gift from God and therefore, as a response to the gift, it should not be wasted. It therefore no longer makes sense to talk about a time commitment: it is life that must involve itself entirely in that "becoming close" directed and supported by listening to the Word, by adoration, by prayer.

This sense of life in Sermig develops the spirituality of restitution.
Initially the word "restitution" was used mainly as a proposal aimed at justice and peace (see first leaflet on restitution). But the awareness that life is a gift has led to giving the word restitution a broader meaning: the need to respond to the gift through time, spiritual and material resources, the talents available to be returned to God through one's own " Yes".
The Lord has made us mature these beliefs also through the poor, the suffering, the disabled. They are the ones who made us understand the strength of the spirituality of restitution and grasp its profound meanings.

The poor farmer from the North East of Brazil who participates in the projects of Assindes (the name in Portuguese of the International Cooperative for Development, created by Sermig) teaches us that the most important thing he managed to gain from meeting Sermig is the belief that he too has something of himself to give to others: experience, a smile, availability... That the dignity of man lies in the fact that he is able to always find in himself something to give to others.

The transition from group to community and then to Fraternity allowed Sermig to open the Arsenals, concretely creating the acronym Sermig (Youth Missionary Service).
Loving each other, communicating, supporting each other, "putting up with each other", helping each other walk in hope supported by faith, believing in peace... are objectives to strive for every day.

But how? There is no peace, there is the "silence of God", hope falters.
However, with Christ all the promises have been fulfilled, already and not yet (see 2Pt 3,9). It is up to us to collaborate in the incessant work of redemption, to desire the kingdom of God and build it here, animated by Hope, the one with a capital H, supported by faith, a faith certainly favored by living and being a community/fraternity.

It would be nice if the community/fraternity values we experienced infected the international community!
We could glimpse a horizon of hope and peace! It is up to us to build a future of hope through a reality of peace, justice and solidarity.

Guido Morganti
NPFocus
NP November 2023