IT’S TIME WE OPEN OUR EYES

How to “deliver us from evil”?
It is important to have mercy on those who did evil. This thought reminds me of the boys from Turin who mistreated their disabled classmate, some months ago. What did society do? They washed their hands of it, after all. These boys were expelled from school, with the obligation to take part to a rehabilitation course. These measures were considered enough to make people feel calm, quite and safe again. I think it would have been better to expel the headmaster and the teachers because of their lack of supervision and of authoritativeness, above all. That kind of authoritativeness for which no means no. That kind of authoritativeness for which young people do what they are told without any need to raise your voice.
Bullying and violence have deep roots, they don’t come up suddenly. There’s something completely wrong if bosses, in most classes, are those who shout and flex their muscles.
We have to work in favour of a society where human rights go into effect and become a punishment for a boy who beats his classmate. But this kind of episodes must help people to think, to ask for pardon, to find new solutions.

How can people grow up to good ? What is more useful for this purpose? Should we protest, manifest in squares, take personal engagement or tuck up our sleeves?
Whoever wants to take part in politics, enter the Church or take on any job involving responsibility must rediscover the happiness of serving others and be surprised whenever they are given any consent.
They must actually win people’s approval through behaviours and attitudes that encourage enthusiasm and firm beliefs.
If those who are in charge are able to behave honestly, this will become the salt of the earth of our society. But is this happening? We have seen too many times key offices taken on by recommended, unscrupulous people; people who use their position to get power, although they should represent a positive image.
Bishop Dom Luciano Mendes, was a dear friend of mine, aimed only at serving others: he was filled with God, with spirituality, with light and wherever he went, he brought with him the will to change and to serve truthfully.
Nowadays, if the world does not make a step back to rediscover the happiness of serving others, it will run the risk to fall into darker and darker moments, as since September 11th. We have not been able to help peace developing, darkness has turned into such a deep hate and despair to produce kamikazes, people who are willing to get hurt only to hurt others. After all, this is also happening in the Western countries, although backgrounds here are different. There are thousands of young people who hurt themselves and destroy themselves with drugs, buzz and emptiness, as they do not find any tangible way out or any meaning in life. A serious adult society would have already tried to understand the reasons for that a long time ago, find convincing answers and adopt serious policies for the new generations. Today we are living in a time where the adult society is not reliable.

You have quoted an example of goodness: Dom Luciano. Does good exist today? Is it visible?
I am persuaded that if newspapers were really doing their job, they would find a thousand positive news more than negative ones. Newspapers are therefore responsible as well as some specials that we watch on television. In a society like ours, that turns a child’s murder in his house into a show, into a continuous special, it becomes necessary to find a reliable and independent authority that could stop and turn away irresponsible journalists and TV hosts.
Do we really want mass media to become means for our society’s development? If we do, we should set a good example and stop watching this kind of TV programs.
This evil that takes us and makes us feel no remorse or turns us into gruesome seekers should make us think. Nevertheless, I tell you again that I can see many examples of goodness around me, which I would have never expected.
Unfortunately media never highlight these examples, they never search for them, but if they did and drew attention to them, we should all have to realize that a silent world of goodness is growing without making any noise. If only there was a new Saint Anthony, a new Dom Luciano, or a new Saint Francis or politicians who really wanted to act as a real statesman, there could be a U-turn.