Going back to the ‘fundamentals of existence’

Published: 2007 - December/2008 - January, Dossier

Consumption is an integral part in the architecture of economic development and growth. However, it appears to lead to commercialization of values which tarnishes the true meaning of life. What could be the antidote?
“Going back to asking ourselves why life is worth living, here in Italy and in the West in general. Christmas, which we will soon be celebrating, is an invitation to do just that: Jesus has come to show us – in His person – why life is worth living: where we come from, where we are going, why we work, why we get married, why we educate, why we suffer, why we die, and what awaits us after death… I believe that in a time like ours, of profound and radical changes, these concerns are pushed to the background. To wait for Christmas means rather to have the courage to look the value of life and value of man in the eye. In my experience of Pastoral Visitations, lasting many years by now, I see that the question of meaning is on the mind of everyone I meet. The point is how to help us overcome a certain confusion produced by the epochal changes we’re witnessing and the obliviousness caused by “obscene” consumerism, of “bad auspice,” that is around us.
In all historical ages when there were sudden and radical changes, man stumbled. And also we are stumbling. Think about how the world of feelings, the world at work, the meaning of birth and death are all changing… We must find fixed points, points that I would call the ‘fundamentals of life.’”

What is the role Christmas plays in this process?
“Christmas represents nothing else but God appearing as one of us to form the way towards truth and towards life, showing us the ‘fundamentals of existence.’ Christmas, in fact, is a concrete historical memory of a person and his existence among us, Jesus of Nazareth, born, died and resurrected, but actually contemporary to any man in his church. A memory that raises, therefore, expectations for consummation, that is the glorious return of Jesus. You cannot separate the memory of the first coming of Jesus from the wait for the second coming. Then the truth will be manifested in a clear and incontrovertible way to all. Our expectation, the Christian waiting, is realistic, it roots us in the present, because it knows to be fully aware of the past – of the events of Holy Christmas – and the future – the conclusion of the story with the return of Jesus – which is to come regardless. This is a theme we often ignore, dismiss.”

What new elements can it offer us?
“The confidence that comes from ‘God is with us,’ a tender, strong presence that resolves the enigma of man, explains who we are. Why we are individual beings. We exist, but we could just as well not exist – that is our contingency. The Son of God incarnate explains why this contingency is not an objection to the positive value of life. ‘God is among us’ tells us that we come from one Father and go to one Father. But at the same time, ‘God is among us’ does not take our place, does not deny our freedom, but launches it into the great adventure of life, encouraging it to cross the vast field of existence.”

The last report issued by Caritas underscored once again the gap between the rich and the poor. A gap that seems to be growing fast. What can we do about this continuing provocation?
“Humanity filled with the love of our God, who chose to be incarnated, teaches us also that a person, any person, wishes for complete and expressed dignity. Christmas in particular calls upon all men, especially us men of the affluent northern hemisphere, with the imperative of choosing lifestyles that are compatible with social justice and safeguarding the creation, which affect not only our pocketbooks or our consumption but which changes profoundly our everyday relationships. And again, the call of Christmas is turned to the powers that be in this world so that they, as Benedict XVI has said, work with urgency on ‘converting’ the model of global development, confronting the structural causes tied to the system that governs the world economy, which today unjustly channels the greater part of our planet’s resources to a minor part of the population. True love is tough, that is why it is filled with beauty.”

Globalization and immigration, which are by now part of our life, force us to revise our traditions as part of welcoming different religions. Is mixing civilizations a practicable course for settling inevitable conflicts?
“The expression mixing of civilizations and cultures is descriptive, not prescriptive: I have used this category to describe a complex, and in a certain sense elusive, historical process, which is by now global, of mixing men and nations. This too, like other historical processes, belongs above all to the order of events, and as such is unpredictable and hardly controllable these days, but it can be better studied and, within certain limits, steered. The process of mixing cultures and civilizations, though tumultuous and often violent in its implementation, should be examined with this positive critical attitude. It relies first and foremost on the conviction that a man’s heart is made for the truth: Every man and every woman, every day, lives through feelings, work and rest. These are the symbols of a universal dynamic language that does not cease to bring man’s family together. And, in the second place, on the certainty that a Father has opened His home creating the entire humanity and lovingly gathers us from wherever we are into His home whose doors are always open. God guides history following a precise design, which the contradictory attitudes of our freedom and the power of malign freedom ultimately are not able to resist. He wants all men to be saved, wants them to be the ‘sons of the Son.’ Humankind’s adventure of every man’s and every nation’s freedom is nothing but an illustration of the depth of God’s love; God who chose, in order to communicate, to pass, with the incarnation and with the cross of Christ, through the finite freedom and His continuous wandering.”