The night is a symbol of darkness and of the unknown. It means the absence of that light which cannot be found without a lamp and a companion who travels beside us on our journey through life.
The night envelops our wounded and violated planet that is marked by massacre and by war motivated by the lust for power and money.
Night is what millions of people experience, people who no longer have a voice to cry out against injustice and oppression.
What about us? How can we continue to believe in a renewed and better world which we do not see developing as we had expected? How can we recognise the signs of all that is good in our everyday relationships? These are questions to which we do not always know how to respond. Nonetheless, although it is difficult to discern the answers, they urge us to look for a companion who “walks” alongside us and to recognise the universal need for a spirituality that is inherent in human nature and that we experience if we live out mutual love with those around us.
Sometimes there are brief flashes of light that shine out in the most unexpected ways – even through social media – and they light up the night. One example is the story of Chiara Badano and Sara Cornelio, two friends whose relationship spansacross time.
Sara, born in 1998, ‘met’ Chiara, so to speak, who had died eight years before aged 19, when she was little more than a child. She heard about Chiara during one of the many meetings during which people spoke of her extraordinary life. Sara began to regard her as a friend, a companion in her dreams, a confidante and a strong presence. Sara had a captivating personality: she sang, danced, studied and had many friends. At the same time, however, she lived with the daily reality of a congenital condition that – literally and not just figuratively – ‘took her breath away’. Nevertheless, she was certain that “love conquers all” and this was the subject of an essay she wrote in the sixth form. She was fortunate to receive a lung transplant, and over time, became a gift for other people by bearing witness to this certainty through books, school visits, songs, short films, a blog and a theatrical performance.
Her wonderful family lived an experience of falling in love and of love itself. Her death in 2022, when she was not even 24 years of age, left all those who loved her – even those who had simply come across her on Facebook – feeling devastated and alone.
During her time on this earth, Sara regarded Chiara as a friend who was always close, accompanying, encouraging and supporting her and who ‘revealed’ herself in the most unexpected moments and circumstances. She was a friend who knew how to ‘be there’ in moments of pure joy as well as in the pain and loneliness of a hospital or an intensive care unit.
In those final moments of solitude and weakness, Chiara’s presence became mysteriously silent, almost elusive, yet perhaps all the more authentic for it, and destined to become a friendship ‘forever’.
Chiara and Sara: unique, just as every story is unique.

Photo : © Kanenori – Pixabay