The Stranger

The Stranger
Easy to say
and hard to accept,
easy to speak,
hard to live with.
For millennia, on this earth,
we have still suspected
the stranger.

The Stranger
is not always
someone from far away.
Sadly, his ways
unsettle our own.
The color of his skin,
a different upbringing,
have a gift for frightening us,
they make us shudder.

The Stranger
is someone you don't know,
whom you pass on the street,
whom you meet here and there,
perhaps a roommate.

The Stranger
might be someone
you don't know at all—
who entered your life
brought by Love;
perhaps your husband.

The Stranger
is "misunderstanding"
between parents and children,
between grandparents and grandchildren.
They bring conflict
and leave disappointed.
They will not return...
When they are gone, they leave us behind
as eternal strangers.

The Stranger
is also my brother
whom we should love;
we come from the same Father,
God who created us.
But how can we
be brothers
if to so many on this earth
God has become
the eternal Stranger?

Alleluja - Arche
(Translation by Valeria Montesi)