Work, politics and terrorism

But Reality Is a Promise
Often it is only felt as a burden. Daily work can, though, become a response to an Other. This attitude confronts the fear generated by current events, often so tragic

by Olja Panassiuk

It all started like waves from a rock thrown by François Michelin at the Rimini Meeting last year [cf. Traces Vol. 5, No. 9 (October 2003), pp. 45-6]. The attitude towards work–but after all the attitude towards the whole of reality–described by the President of the multinational tire firm, made some of us realize that for a long time we had been getting up in the morning with clenched teeth, ready from the early morning to fight against the crowd, the crazy traffic, the cold and the ice… to fight–perhaps so as not to feel sick at heart–against the ugliness of so much spiritual and material misery (ours and other people’s).
Now we see how Michelin’s attitude is more adequate and corresponds more to our hearts! It is a position so loving towards man, towards reality in its every detail, towards work in its every aspect, and towards a conception of responsibility lived as a continuous response to an Other.
Why not share with our friends and colleagues the challenge thrown at us by Michelin?

Michelin in Russian
The opportunity presented itself during the vacation of the Movement in February, with friends and colleagues. Using a complex system of dubbing, we managed to project the video of the Rimini Meeting in Russian, and at the end of the evening we distributed a leaflet entitled, “Can you be happy at work?”–inviting people to meet the following week. The evening of the meeting was very lively and rich. We spoke of responsibility and personal realization; of work we like and of work we don’t like.
The cry of the heart cannot be stifled, though at times we try not to hear it because it can be a nuisance. How? Perhaps by working a lot, perhaps by not thinking about it (we work 10-12 hours a day). Few have friends outside the work environment. The consequences are either a loss of ambition, each one trying to survive as best he can in his own little corner, or the rush to make as much money as possible (most of all amongst the young people whose only god is money).
In December, we launched the idea of meeting to discuss the forthcoming political elections so as to understand what is at stake in the choice of one party over another, when a considerable number of people were going to vote “against all of them.” Here you can even make that choice.

Bewilderment and impotence
After the attack on the underground railway, which generated a sense of bewilderment and impotence, we met together and we found decisive this part of Fr Giussani’s letter to the Holy Father for the Silver Jubilee of his pontificate: “In an era of defeats he has spoken of Christianity as a victory, over death, over evil, over unhappiness, over the nothingness that looms in every human whisper, and he did it by documenting how his Christian faith pivots on a well-motivated rationality.” Now, we are still afraid; it’s natural that every time the train stops you look at everyone who gets on and at what he is carrying, but reality is there with all it promises, and death is certainly not the last word.
What is it that moves us as regards all the relationships we have and the problems of this piece of reality in which we find ourselves? It is the discovery that, with Christ, human things are human at last, and so work is invested with the novelty that He is. And so, in some way, whoever is there with you is a companion in this adventure. This discovery makes our presence in society “go into detail” in our sharing of life. And for believers the challenge awaiting us, in everything we do, is a faith lived within reality, and for all our other friends, an answer to the heart’s desire!