Meeting
When Mystery
Calls
the “I”
Vocation–the true theme of this Meeting–is the
condition for being happy, because without a task and without a purpose, it is
not possible
to build
“
Is there a man who desires life and longs for happy days?” I do, I desire
it.
When we think about happiness, we think about what we desire, about the attainment
of what we want. How many times, however, something else happens! How many times
do we fight against this something else! And how many times do we live rebelliousness
and decide to dream! Wanting to be happy means to me wanting it now, with what
I have, not living time like an indefinite interval separating me from what I
expect. Even though life is the wait for my fulfillment, the definitive and total
one, yet, in this life of mine I need to start enjoying it, and this is why I
cannot avoid starting to take stock of what I have now. Take stock of, look at,
accept, love, desire, starting from what has been given to us: this is vocation.
It is the consciousness that what has happened in my life is for a purpose, a
task of good for my life and for others. This consciousness is not just talk,
on one condition: that it make me experience being happy now. I mean experience
in the sense of trying it out and thus testing, enjoying whatever is discovered
to be true.
Vocation–the true theme of this Meeting–is the condition for being
happy, because without a task and without a purpose, it is not possible to build,
or rather, one can ask: what would make it worthwhile to strive, to put out energy,
to exert oneself–what for? We are happy to the extent that we are made
irreplaceable protagonists, “masters,” of the reality in which we
live. And one can say he possesses something only when he accepts and welcomes
it, contrary to the prevailing mentality that defines acceptance as something
passive, not as an active move of a person who embraces–loves, tries to
make more precious–what he has received.
Another concept thus comes to mind: in order to accept, one must be amazed, and
not instinctive. Recognizing the other, recognizing the Mystery not made by us,
implies a sacrifice of self, of the automatism with which we are always tempted
to take whatever is around us.
The title of this Meeting seems to me to synthesize very well the challenge of
Christianity: God made Himself flesh and dwells among us. That is to say: the
impossible can happen, because it has already happened. So we can desire the
impossible, even to be happy despite the troubles, despite the drama of life.
Giancarlo Cesana