Gift, gratuitousness and care. The meeting we want to tell you about goes beyond appearances. It is represented by dozens of young park rangers who are the special interpreters of this story. They spend their days under the sun but smile at everyone. They welcome thousands of visitors with courtesy, a quality that seems to be lost in our hectic cities. But they embody it with simplicity. They have faces and names like that of Cristina Vai, a 21-year-old from Milan. “I always came here with my parents as a child,” she confesses after some urging. “We were asked to provide this service and everyone was expected to say yes. This is how something great is born.”
But where does happiness come from? “I also asked myself,” adds Cristina, “why am I so happy when I’m sweating here in the heat? Maybe because I’m giving something of myself away voluntarily?”
Economist Stefano Zamagni will also speak about gratuitousness at the meeting in his lecture entitled “Right to Health and Charity”. He will also talk about giving gifts. “Giving gifts is an expression of gratuitousness,” says the professor, “and gratuitousness has infinite value.”
In hospices, every day is a gift, says palliative care doctor Marco Maltoni. “The hospice is a place of life,” the doctor dares to say, even when there is nothing left to do. “But there is always life,” repeats Elvira Parravicini, neonatologist at Columbia University (USA), during the meeting organized by Tracce on the theme of “The end of life.” Yes, because there is life for a moment before death. And life always has meaning, whether it lasts a hundred years or a hundred days.
The gift can also be revolutionary, like forgiveness, which sows peace. The seed has yet to germinate in the Holy Land: this is current news. But the story of two fathers, Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin, gives hope. The first is Israeli, the second Palestinian; they are friends, although both have lost their daughters to the terrorism of the other people. They told their story at the “A Hope for All” meeting in the Sala Neri, after being received by Pope Francis a few months ago.
“The first choice is obvious: revenge,” writes Colum McCann in the book about her story. “That’s what is expected of you. The easiest way.” But the encounter with Parent’s Circle, the association that brings together families who have lost a child or loved one in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, changed Rami’s life. “I met Palestinians, and they were people who suffered just as I did. I saw this woman who wore a photo of her daughter on her chest, just as my wife wore one of ours.” Then he understood: “We are not predetermined; it is not our fate to keep killing each other. We can break this cycle of endless violence.”
The poet Rumi wrote: Beyond the notions of good and evil there is a field, there I meet you. “Well, they met there,” notes journalist Alessandro Banfi. “They wanted to kill each other to achieve the same goal: peace and security. They achieved it in a different way.”
The launch of the podcast “Who do you say I am?” by Don Luigi Giussani brings a day full of gratuitousness full circle. “Jesus asks us,” says the Abbot General of the Cistercian Order, Dom Mauro Lepori, “do you love me? He asks us three times. He asks for a moment of love. A moment of love that creates an inseparable union.” Hearing Don Giussani’s voice asking these questions again makes hearts vibrate and brings them closer to Jesus. An audio recording of Don Giussani’s powerful words reminds us that “we are loved more than we err.” Giving one’s life for one’s friends: there can be no greater love.
From the podcast “L’altro Meeting”, curated by Daniela Verlicchi and Francesco Zanotti.
