UNTIL THE FULFILLMENT OF LOVE

UNTIL THE FULFILLMENT OF LOVE: “Because as I did, you do too” (Jn 13:15)

Letter from Bishop Corrado to the Archdiocese of Palermo on the occasion of the opening of the itinerary towards the 30th anniversary of the killing of Blessed Pino Puglisi (1993-2023). Thursday 15 September in the Cathedral Church the start of the Pastoral Year
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Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I turn to you, a large community of men and women who history has placed on the painful but fruitful furrows dug by the footsteps of dozens of martyrs, the martyrs of the ruthless violence generated by the oppression of the mafia culture. Today we cross the threshold of the thirtieth year since the killing of Blessed Father Pino Puglisi and still walking along those furrows that time has neither eroded nor dried up, we admire the fruits, which are ourselves, we who so much desire to live in the world as humble witnesses of the example we have received and accepted. The example of Jesus in the washing of the feet – “He loved them to the end (eis télos)” (Jn 13: 1) – was renewed in the body of those who imitated him by loving to the end, that is, until the fulfillment of the love.

 

Thirty years later, the martyr Giuseppe Puglisi continues to accompany his and our Church. He is what the Church must be, confirms it in the gift of the Spirit.

A monastic hymn dedicated to the martyrs comes to mind:

He who lives the Gospel

the Lamb follows wherever he goes

renews and narrates among us

the great sign of love.

In your great and holy Name

announces the Kingdom and gives life

forgive all his enemies

he gives you his breath.

Around the throne of the Lamb

with joy he intones the new song

near sources of living water

he is neither hungry nor thirsty.

(Hymnbook of Bose – 200. He who lives the Gospel)

Living the Gospel is following the Lamb wherever he goes: right to the end. Because the Church is born from the Cross, an extreme act of a mad love, that of God for men and for the world: for the men and women who are in the world. A love that is continually reborn because it shines on the face of the Crucified One and transpires in the life of those who are united to his Cross, of those who already carry it as a condition, because of the weight of human life, and of those who ‘carry it’ by call. .

Martyrs are those who renew with their lives the proclamation of the Kingdom, the great sign of the love that makes the world fruitful, to give God the spaces of existence once again through transfigured gazes, addressed to the “eminent dignity of the poor” (Jacques Bénigne Bossuet) and the suffering.

They are the ones who tell the truth of the seed on earth, of the shed blood that gives life. It is they who indicate among the brothers and sisters, in the toil and travail of every day, the way of love, of listening to the signs of the times and of ecclesial co-responsibility. They remind our communities not to lose sight of the best part, in order to be continually regenerated by listening to the Lord, the foundation and strength of the synodal style.

“Victor quia victima” (Winner because victim), writes St. Augustine in the Confessions (X, 43). Whoever is a victim for love is the one who wins. He wins over evil, which is transfigured. He wins over the enemy, who converts.

In the body of those who are victims of love, evil reaches a momentary, fragile and finally inconsistent victory: just when evil seems to triumph, it is instead defeated by the sprouting of new life that it has unsuccessfully tried to overwhelm.

The strength of our beloved Fr Pino germinated from the Word within him: the Word as a relationship with God that becomes a relationship with man. For a long time Don Pino had looked for ways to help man. And in the end he had returned to the beginning, to the beginning: to the Word of God and to the life given to the brothers: “Watch carefully, know how to endure suffering, do your work as a preacher of the Gospel, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim 4, 5). One of us, Don Pino, committed along the roads of life to endure his and his brothers’ sufferings, committed on the streets of the city to humbly fulfill his ministry: to remind men that they are forgiven by the Father, loved in the Son, comforted by the Spirit. Remind men that the ultimate meaning of existence is also for us in these verbs: to love, to forgive and to console. How beautiful and attractive is his testimony as a priest. How grateful our beloved presbytery is for this wonderful companion and brother in Kingdom service!

This year that begins today will not only be one of commemoration but – above all – of conversion: for this reason I want to invite all of you, Sisters and Brothers, to set out on a journey that retraces its paths. Let us continue on this path made of passion for the Word and passion for men, let us reread with him the theology of the Incarnation: Christ becomes man, so that man becomes human. Inside this mystery is the ministry of our Fr. Pino: he who welcomes martyrdom so that the city becomes more human, the neighborhood becomes more human, every street and our way of living there, our style of living together, become more human.

I cannot fail to remind myself and all of us that on this same day, four years ago, Pope Francis came to ideally inaugurate our journey in the footsteps of Fr. Pino. He did so by coming to visit Brancaccio’s houses and immediately pointing out the broken chair in our Blessed’s room: he continues to tell us, Fr. out, among the streets, where men build history, so that it may be a fully human history, according to God’s desire.

Keep telling us, Don Pino, that discovering the joy of this effort, the joy of sharing these steps, even when they are suffered, and of this bread, even when it is poor, is what triggers the rebellion of evil that he wants instead, for bread, to set men against each other: one ready to use the other, to destroy the other, to practice the fallacious arrogance of giving life and death to the other. Evil tries to flatter us, to insinuate us the doubt that this will make us happy: the mafia has been and is for our Palermo, the greatest illusion of happiness.

But we who have known P. Pino, know how to distinguish what is true from what is illusory, we know that true happiness lies in recognizing ourselves for what we are: brothers, humans among humans, creatures that no having or power will make creators.

Here he who lives the Gospel supports the Church in shouting: “To the arrogant I declare: now enough! To the wicked: do not raise your forehead! ” (Ps 74.5). And at the same time he knows how to recognize the fragility of his enemies, he knows how to welcome it and forgive it. Thirty years ago Don Pino, on his birthday, recognized his killer and smiled at him: who is capable of smiling if not who is really happy? Would he have been able to smile in the same way who killed him? Or his principals?

P. Pino Puglisi and with him all the martyrs of the Mafia in this city of ours, in this diocese of ours, are a gift to us: they sing with joy for the whole of humanity the new song – around the throne of the Lamb -, the song of Easter, which is born from the certainty that every victim out of love will win over evil and death and every little one, every poor person will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

“Victor quia victima”. Thank you Fr. Pino: the gift of your life and your smile reopens the paths of hope, faith and fraternity to your beloved diocese of Palermo. To be a joyful and daring Church in the proclamation of the Gospel; Eucharistic in relationships and messianic in the face of suffering and injustices; participant in the travail of this period change, alongside those who are committed to a just world: a fraternal home for all, a fruitful and peaceful garden, full of expert craftsmen in forging swords into plowshares and spears into sickles (cf. Is 2, 4).

Let us prepare and live this thirtieth anniversary of the martyrdom of Blessed Giuseppe Puglisi with intensity. Signs our Church that confidently invokes a renewed leap of the Spirit:

“You pass your Spirit, O Lord,

like a spring breeze that makes life bloom and opens up love.

You pass your Spirit, like the hurricane

that unleashes an unknown force and lifts the sleeping energies.

You pass your Spirit in our gaze

to take it to farther and wider horizons.

You pass your Spirit on our saddened faces

to make your smile reappear ».

(G. Vannucci, You pass your spirit).

 

I embrace you and bless you.

+ Corrado Lorefice

Palermo, September 15, 2022