When Antonino placed the Fede e Luce scarf around Pope Francis's shoulders during the June 2016 jubilee, I felt overwhelming emotion. Tears came without warning. Why? I found myself asking the same question.
It was certainly a beautiful gesture—a warm welcome from Pope Francis. Yet it was something more than that.
It felt like a fulfillment. A confirmation. As if we were all there in that scarf. All of us. Those present, those at home, those in heaven, those at work: the entire community of Fede e Luce.
In that instant, I saw again all the embraces, the smiles, the moments of sharing, the celebrations, the nights spent watching stars and talking…talking…
There are bonds that last years, decades. Friends with whom you continue to grow, to stand beside, to walk alongside, to love with infinite tenderness.
There are young people who are always your comfort, your "camomile," who love you without condition, who find you years later and never forgot you.
There are parents whose eyes light up when they see you, who have closed distance with a handwritten letter that carries the taste of eternity.
There have been moments made of something beyond, moments of enchantment.
It was all there in that gesture. We were all there in that scarf resting on the shoulders of Christ's successor.
But there is another reality that sometimes overwhelms us. A reality made of struggle, the kind that can discourage, that we want to turn away from. Yet it is precisely through this struggle that we move forward. It is a vital struggle, rooted in faith.
Then there is a third reality—one of misunderstanding, of seeking to dominate, of losing what is essential, of hearts growing harder and less attentive…
We work for our own extinction—a WWF slogan, and my own prayer for Fede e Luce. What does this mean? Our hope is that the world no longer needs Fede e Luce's message: that no one feels abandoned, misunderstood, alone. But I do not believe that time has come yet.
So a plea rises naturally from within: let us care for one another. It is far too important to go on.
Enza Gucciardo, 2016