of Mother Anna Maria Cánopi
Throughout history, Israel, the chosen people, has found itself in very difficult situations several times; it has known wars, oppression, slavery, deportation, sieges and invasions. At the origin of many evils there was always a sin of infidelity to God: in times of prosperity he gave himself to idolatry, and then he was oppressed by powerful and outrageous pagan peoples.
In this experience of anguish and darkness, the voice of the prophets punctually rose. With heartfelt tones, Isaiah shouts in the night:
«“Sentinel, how much of the night remains?
Sentinel, how much of the night remains?”
The sentry replies:
“The morning comes, then also the night;
if you want to ask, ask,
repent, come!” (Is 21,11-12)
The answer is a "suspended" word that reveals a necessity, a commitment to be made: we emerge from the night by turning to the Lord who is the Light. In conversion the darkness of the night gives way to the dawn of a new day.
The prophet Habakkuk is also a sentinel in the night who, making the pain of the people his own, dares to ask God for reasons for his way of acting. It's true, the people have sinned, but why subject them to such a heavy, interminable, almost unjust punishment? Why leave him at the mercy of a violent, usurper enemy, worse than the people? He transforms the most hidden questions of the heart into a cry of prayer, those which, when suffocated, often burst out as protest, rebellion, desperation. It is urgent, therefore, to give them a voice.
«Until when, Lord, will I beg for help
and you don't listen,
I will raise the cry to you: “Violence!”
and you don't save?
Because you make me see the iniquity
and remain a spectator of oppression? (Hab 1,2-3)
The Lord responds promptly to his prophet, but the response is only a confirmation of the drama experienced by the people; the trial that oppresses him is willed by God; at the hands of pagans He strikes him for his infidelity, and because of his idolatry he makes him the object of ridicule and ridicule.
The prophet does not give up and replies; as a true intercessor, he uses all the accents to touch the heart of God and move him: «Have you not been from the beginning, Lord, / my God, my Holy One?» (v. 12). Are you not the God who loves life? Are you not the One who chose us because you loved us freely? Why do you want to be tough now? However, even if the test to which you subject us is beyond our strength, it is against all logic – the prophet seems to say – you remain my God, our God. And this is enough for us to be certain of our salvation: «We will not die !» (1,12).
However, the prophet does not hide his bewilderment - which is the bewilderment of the people themselves - at the action of God who chooses an evil and violent person to carry out justice:
«You with such pure eyes
that you cannot see evil
and you can't look at the oppression,
because, seeing the perfidious, you are silent,
while the wicked swallows those who are more righteous than him? (Hab 1,13:XNUMX).
Why do you put up with this? What do you answer, how do you justify your action?
Like a sentry in the night, the prophet waits for an answer, ready to face his God head-on:
«I will stand sentry,
standing on the fortress,
to spy, to see what he will tell me,
what will answer my complaints (2,1).
And again the Lord promptly responds to his prophet:
«Write the vision…
It is a vision that attests to a term,
he talks about a deadline and doesn't lie;
if she delays, wait for her,
because he will certainly come and will not be late.
Behold, he who does not have an upright soul succumbs,
while the righteous will live by his faith" (2,2-3).
The Lord asks us to know how to wait patiently, to resist the test to receive - in due time - consolation and salvation. He repeats to his prophet that the present trial is not for death, but for life: for a life purified from sin, re-established in love.
How can we transfer this drama of faith put to the test to our personal experience and current history?
A very interesting book was recently published called When Will Suffering End? (Ed. Lindau, Turin 2016). Collects letters and poems written by Ilse Weber, a Jewish woman, born in Czechoslovakia and died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
When the first signs of Nazism and the Shoah began, she wrote to a friend: «Dearest, how much we must fear Hitler who persecutes us like this! Until today I have believed in God, but if he does not demonstrate his existence in a short time I will no longer be able to believe in him. This persecution of the Jews is inhumane... If God does not quickly demonstrate his existence by saving us, I will no longer be able to believe it."
Dramatic test of faith, which in 1940 still led her to write:
«We have no homeland,
we can't find peace anywhere...
Why, O God, why?
And yet:
«When you redeem us, O Lord,
from the evil weight of time,
When will you avenge innocent blood?…
Spring has already arrived twice...
When will the long-awaited day arrive?…
When, when will the suffering end?
For her the cry was suffocated in Auschwitz in the crematorium together with one of her children.
This is how history repeats itself for the Jews, for many other peoples and - let's face it - also for families and individuals. There is a question of faith, a cry of faith, which runs through all of history and passes through all hearts.
Even Jesus cried out on the cross, taking on the cry of all humanity: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Mt 27,46). This cry expresses the mystery of pain that no reasoning can explain. However, since Jesus on the cross cried out his and our pain, and in this pain he gave himself up for love, suffering has been transfigured, it has been given a meaning, a purpose. It has become a labor for a new life.
For this reason we must learn to stand firm in trials - like Mary at the foot of the Cross - hold on, resist; do not say: «I no longer believe», but: «I believe more; I believe for myself, I believe for everyone", to make up for gaps in faith, to support wavering hearts.
When asked to Slovakian Cardinal Jan Korec what had most enriched his priestly life, he replied: «I could say today – after fifty years – that communism has enriched me more than all of communism... There are situations that purify us, make us more humble, they open us to the mystery of life and bring us closer to God. He brings us closer to himself in those moments. There is a purifying suffering that becomes a blessing for us" (The clandestine bishop, p. 61).
Lord, faithful God,
us too as sentinels
who stand guard in the night
of this world threatened by evil,
we beg you to protect us
watchful while waiting
as long as the test of the present time lasts.
Give us night and day
the strength of faith
who sees the invisible,
the breath of hope,
the fire of love
to face every obstacle
along the path of life
and finally reach You
in the kingdom of endless peace. Amen.