Living the Gospel: welcoming everyone

Jesus is well aware of the fundamental needs of people: to be understood in their innermost depths and to have, in addition to support for their efforts, clear indications on the path to follow. Let us not miss the opportunity to relate to those we meet with the love He suggests in the Gospel.

With patience and tenacity
My uncle, considered “a man of honour”, had lived for years in Supramonte, a mountainous region of Sardinia. He came down to the village every now and then, and when the carabinieri came to arrest him, he was already far away. My father had tried to keep us out of trouble with the law and with my uncle’s family, from whom we were separated by inheritance issues. As a Christian, however, I was waiting for the right opportunity to make peace with them. The first opportunity came with the arrival of a cousin in the village. Regardless of the people watching us, I went to greet her. When she and her husband greeted me, I breathed a sigh of relief: the first step had been taken. Later, when I heard that my uncle was in hospital, I wanted to visit him. My mother advised against it, saying that I had no uncle. But he was a brother to me. I went and he was very emotional when he greeted me. In time, I got closer to all the other relatives. The last one was my aunt, the one who had made us suffer the most: I had not been in touch with her for 18 years, and it had taken so many years with patient and tenacious love for peace to return to our families.

(Gavina – Italy)

Others’ needs
As I am going out in my car, I notice that my neighbour is trying to clean the windscreen and the other windows from ice. I go to help him, putting aside my haste. With a smile, he asks: “Why are you doing this?”. I have no obvious answer, but inside I thank God for pointing out the needs of the other before my own chores. A few hours later the same neighbour phoned me: “I was so happy with your gesture that I said to myself: I too must live by noticing the needs of others. And it didn’t take long: at work, in fact, I found a difficult situation, which I resolved quite easily by putting myself in the other person’s shoes. Thank you!”.

(F.A. – Slovenia)

Adopting a little brother
We are students at a technical institute. When our teacher brought Città Nuova for us to read in class, at first certain things seemed a bit delusional… But the idea of helping to build a more united world together seemed good to us. Furthermore; as we went on reading, we realised that they were not words. The newspaper reported news that we could not find in other papers, a different way of seeing events. All in all, what were we missing by trying? We tried. Every morning, together with the teacher, we gave ourselves a little “maxim” to live by. For example: “Love everyone” … who had ever thought of that? Then we happened to read an article about adoptions at a distance. And then the idea came to us to take out one, all together. That small gesture of each one contributing a small monthly sum makes us grow as people. By now Nader, even though he lives far away (he’s a little Lebanese boy), has become very important: we talk about him, about his needs, as if he were our little brother.

(The boys from IIIB – Italy)

Edited by Lorenzo Russo

(taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VII, n.3, May-June 2021)