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Buenos Aires, Sunday, September 10, 2006

Father Oscar Pezzarini

We carry on smattering

In our “modern” world talking about deep issues, about things which are essential to our lives grows increasingly harder, we talk about everything but always in a superficial way, we “smatter”. When faced with limit situations, with great difficulties we must overcome, or with painful moments we may feel the need of talking about deep issues, as if we would need some “heavy blow” in order to realize what is essential in our lives and what gives true sense to them, so we can resort to it. They ask us if we are Catholics, if we believe, and accepting it may cause us some shame, because most certainly we will feel “from another world”.

In our “modern” world talking about deep issues, about things which are essential to our lives grows increasingly harder, we talk about everything but always in a superficial way, we “smatter”.

We talk about thinks we see, about whatever “turns up”, but most probably we are not able to talk about our “innermost things”. And this is true at whichever level.

As believers we talk aobut “structures”, about people, about certain events, but very rarely we talk “about God”, about our relation to Him, or do we share with others our praying experience? Do we talk about prayer? Many times it is as if “shame” or “fear of man” would overcome and we are not able to talk about “spiritual issues”.

The same happens in families, it is quite rare to see that husband and wife talk about how much they love each other, or about the love for their children and the meaning these have in their lives.

Or otherwise I think of young people, who seldom talk about their ideals or their deepest wishes, about their “hopes” which keep their lives up, instead they talk about what they have seen at the movies or on TV, or about how they went out to have some fun this way or the other, about how they “feel”, but very few times about “deep issues”.

When faced with limit situations, with great difficulties we must overcome, or with painful moments we may feel the need of talking about deep issues, as if we would need some “heavy blow” in order to realize what is essential in our lives and what gives true sense to them, so we can resort to it.

I wonder why talking about our innermost feelings is so hard to us, about “essential things” in our lives, and it may be caused by our being afraid of “what others could say”, and we don't want to feel “strange” facing the rest who are contented by superficiality.

Or those young people who believe in lifelong love, they are afraid of putting themselves at stake by telling so, they will feel being “from out of this world”.

Thus we could go on listing many more situations where we are made to believe that everything is “changeable”, so we could also change our faith, our commitment to love, our philosophy of life, our ideology, our deep convictions, everything, since all that is worth is drifting being driven by this superficiality in which we live and which makes us forget that Man was created “to the image of God” and therefore was called to develop in His own essence and depth.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
Provincial Superior of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Mexico

Father Oscar Pezzarini together with Fr. Leonardo Abregú makes us reflect on Saturdays from 8 to 12 AM (GMT-03:00)with "VENTANA A LA VIDA", the Don Orione radio program he conducts on FM PROVIDENCIA, 90.3 MHz together with some residents of the Claypole Cottolengo (Raúl Romero, María Laura Andrada, Alberto Zoroch, Américo Torres), with the production of Roberto Beluzzo and Ignacio Cavalli as technical operator. You can also listen to FM PROVIDENCIA by clicking here.

Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione 0800-333-6746 in Argentina, or +54 (11) 4268-7722 from abroad.

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