Easter 2020. Father Arnaldo: The doves will keep flying!

The doves will keep flying!
Easter 2020

Easter is the proclamation of life! Such an affirmation seems imprudence or at least naivety, or at least a lack of sensitivity for the time so dramatic that we are living at all levels: socio-political and even religious. And Religion, rightly through the mouth of the angel, proclaims: "He is risen, he is not here". (Mc16, 6; Mt 28, 6). Today, without taking anything away from the truth of the word of the Gospel, perhaps it should be rephrased in this way: "He is risen, He is here", so that it may preserve all his strength and still be spoken, without insulting those who in these days, and they are not few, have left us in isolation. And likewise, without any cynical comment for those who, nurses, doctors, health care workers, have put and continue to put their lives at risk so that other lives may flourish.

Only a religion that has the courage to face concretely and give meaning to the word "life" can dare to announce Easter. The proclamation of life that continues even today and tenaciously makes its way through weeds, wastes, indifference, wickedness, secondary things, and I dare say, even useless things.

Perhaps never as today do we feel the futility of a religion that is content only with exteriority and external ceremonies, as beautiful as one wants, but with no interiority. The material temple has been emptied and there is nostalgia. Perhaps never as now do we need to meet the inner temple in which we enter into the presence of God with all the dear and unknown people, bringing suffering and expectations on us, within us.

Jesus had already said this to the woman of Samaria: "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. But the hour is coming - and it is this - when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:21.23). And Pope Francis repeats it to us again today by explaining, through the Prefecture of the Papal Household, which states that because of "the current international health emergency, all the Liturgical Celebrations of Holy Week will take place without the physical presence of the faithful.

Never as in this time we have understood that true Christianity, the life and praxis of Jesus have overturned our way of living and thinking: first the wellbeing of others and only after our own. Better: our good makes sense and is only realized if we first of all feel responsible for the good, the pain, the suffering and the joys of others.

This time also makes us rediscover the unity of the country of Italy, and not only that, but also the unity of the nations among themselves, the unity of the world. Defeating those divisions so puerile and sterile as to split the country between North and South; the world between the northern and southern hemisphere; between developed nations, which would be us, and other developing nations. It is a time when this must make us feel how connected, how interdependent, how necessary we are to one another and how the values demand that we respond to these facts. In other words, we are asked to put on the scales responsible behaviour: care and attention for all persons, collaboration with what is indicated to us, availability according to our skills and possibilities, etc.

Finally, this time allows us to rediscover the time of the family, of being together and of being able to accept and live the spaces that are very confined today, not as spaces imposed by an external enemy, but as opportunities that God offers us to rediscover our need to reflect, to be together, to immerse ourselves in personal silence, in the most unadorned prayer, in that dialogue in which we can balance saying and listening, receiving and offering. After all, it is a question of rediscovering the taste for renouncing some of our own space in order to enlarge the space of those next to us.

We were discussing a few days ago, here among ourselves, the condominium gardens, our keeping fit or feeling good in health; the right to go out and get some air. But who thinks that behind a curtain there may be a child looking and who cannot go out and sees his unhappiness heightened! Why look just at your own well-being? And this comes normal at all ages, but especially among adults, always ready with a vindictive sign up!

We could continue endlessly on the repercussions of Easter as a celebration of life ... and they are not digressions! Previous attitudes, which I let emerge from the heart, spoke only of resurrected life.

I apologize for these thoughts. But I wouldn't want everything to end up wishing for the hugs and kisses of yesteryear, the effusions of a bygone era, the rediscovered freedom, the regained habits, the popular streets, gardens, bars, supermarkets, and also churches, that is to say, to be in the sun again, like a film already seen. All these realities must certainly be rediscovered, but they must be lived with greater simplicity, a greater truth and interiority.

In conclusion, I invite you to visit "Virgin Mary running through the square of Sulmona" (La Madonna che corre a Sulmona) on the internet. I have always been impressed by this ritual, on Easter day, of this Madonna who runs to meet her Risen Son. The whole scene revolves around changing colours; a statue of Mary coming out of the door of one of the many churches in Sulmona waiting for a great event, a candid flight of doves and a collective race of the confraternity bearers. The Virgin comes out wrapped in a long black mantle and stands at one end of a square facing a risen Christ at the other end of the square. After a slight rocking of the confraternity bearers, the race begins. Instantly the black veil falls and a sumptuous and shining green dress appears while a flock of doves hover in the air and the Mother runs towards her Son. Darkness gives way to hope, as if to say that where the resurrection is announced no one is left behind, just everyone, bodies and souls, like that white flock of doves pointing towards the blue sky. A mystery of total life: of all, for all, with all. A mystery never so much desired as in the moment we are going through! Simply because, if we desire life for others, it will be life for us too.

Best wishes then for a Happy Easter, while I invite you to place in Mary, who is running towards the risen life, the anxieties and hopes of all and everyone. It will be Easter if we continue to believe that that flight of doves also continues today. And then many of those who have left us will feel even closer, even lighter. It will be Easter for us if we accept to rediscover ourselves fragile and to want to become more human again.

With a grateful and assured feeling of your friendship and prayers, I reciprocate with a hundredfold wish of rediscovered hope and serenity, courage and determination in Him who for us has overcome all deaths. May each of us be whether at home, in the family, in the country, and wherever we happen to be, one of those doves that always tends towards the blue. “Mandi. Buine Pasche!” ... which in our Friulian language means: “Remain in God, Happy Easter!”
Father Arnaldo Baritussio
Comboni missionary