This article appeared in issue 19 of Insieme in 1978
Have you ever struck a match in a dark room? A match is small, its flame smaller still. Yet somehow the darkness is no longer quite so dark. One lit match can light a candle, a taper, and on it goes, until the dark room fills with light. Have you ever smiled at a class of frightened, silent children? You need not speak. Little by little, a smile answers yours, then another, and soon everyone is smiling together. A smile is a small thing, but it says so much: it tells, it speaks, it lights up, it shines.
The world around us is often dark—full of sadness, serious faces, far too serious. Inside ourselves, we often find darkness, oppression, weariness. When I think of hope, I see it as a small light piercing the shadows, like the smile of a child that opens the heart wide. And so I believe we must all become bearers of hope—especially because we have ourselves known darkness within. Hope is a fragile thing, flickering and fading, coming and going. Yet without it there is no trust, no love. Without trust and love, we cannot live at peace with one another. The person who is discouraged, exhausted, without hope tends to withdraw, to see only evil in themselves and in others. And this way of looking at the world makes sure that hope vanishes from within us and around us. Without hope, life loses its meaning. Hope makes me look forward, pulls me out of selfishness, lets me savor small good and beautiful things, makes me want to live, to share with others the strength and the will to live, makes me walk willingly with others, in spite of everything. Let us take each other's hands, then. Let us keep our feet on the ground and look each other in the face: in silence—words are not needed—let us ask each other, "What do you need from me?" How many answers, if we had the courage to voice them, would sound like this: "Stay near me." "Don't leave me alone." "Give me courage." "I am in anguish." "I am afraid." "I need to believe." "I need to love." "Alone I cannot do it. I cannot manage."
Then let us hold hands. Let us become together a communion of people who believe, who love, who hope that beyond our poverty, beyond our weakness, there is: someone who will never leave us alone, someone who loves us, who knows us, someone who gave his life for us.