Since this year - 8 December - is the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Second Vatican Council, it was rightly suggested to me to take as the theme of my now usual contribution to this magazine, the conciliar Constitution on the contemporary world, that is to say the Gaudium et Spes. I do not presume to be able to offer a theological-pastoral analysis - for which I certainly feel inadequate - but, as a witness to these fifty years of Church history, I can humbly make a personal, therefore "monastic", rereading of this stupendous document, trying to express at least in part what it arouses in my heart, especially in reference to the service of spiritual guidance that I have been carrying out for a long time now. Precisely this service puts me in direct contact with contemporary man in his existential reality made up of joys and hopes, sadness and anxieties. 

The document presents itself almost as an "open letter" from the Church to the world, having a heart-to-heart dialogue on such important and serious issues as the vocation of man, the common good, culture, the family, peace, work, spiritual combat, freedom... But before delving into individual topics, he suggests considering what the condition of man is in the contemporary world. We can therefore ask ourselves: what is the man of today to whom the conciliar document was and still is addressed? What changes have fifty years of history brought about in man's conception of himself, in his fundamental choices, in his relationship with God, with his neighbor, with creation?

«In our day – we read in n. 3 of Gaudium et Spes - humanity, taken with admiration for its own discoveries and its own power" - which are an expression of its unique dignity of being created in the image and likeness of God - "however, often raises anxious questions... on the spot and on the role of man in the universe", a place and a task increasingly thought of and experienced not as humble and joyful service and as an expression of filial and intelligent cooperation in God's salvific plan, but rather as autonomous dominion, as freedom absolute, almost intolerant of one's own reality as a creature dependent on the Creator. 

The result was a technical and scientific vision of human existence to the detriment of its spiritual and supernatural dimension. In fact, a process is underway that manifests more dramatic implications every day, in a dizzying succession of discoveries and daring experiments, which no longer have anything to do with authentic progress, but which become violations of man himself because he is manipulated and pushed towards roads that seem to be conquered but are actually dead ends. Fifty years later it seems we must first of all note that humanity no longer appears, to a large extent, in admiration for its own discoveries and its own power, but rather conditioned and almost afraid of the consequences of what it experiences. In fact, it clearly appears that technical progress can become a threat to man and the entire world. 

As Pope Benedict XVI lucidly recalled throughout his teaching, and in particular in the Encyclical Caritas in veritate (cf. nos. 68-77), this process and risk does not only concern the single individual in his choice between good and evil, but involves the whole of humanity and also drags all of creation with it, making that dramatic clash between flesh and Spirit described by Saint Paul in the Letter to the Romans very relevant. «The development of the person – we read in the Encyclical – is degraded if he claims to be the only producer of himself. Similarly, the development of peoples degenerates if humanity believes it can re-create itself by making use of the "wonders" of technology. Just as economic development turns out to be fictitious and harmful if it relies on the "wonders" of finance to support unnatural and consumerist growth." Without stopping at the observation of the negative data, the Pope immediately also indicates the path to rebirth: «In the face of this Promethean claim, we must strengthen our love for a freedom that is not arbitrary, but made truly human by the recognition of the good that precedes it. To this end, man must return to himself to recognize the fundamental norms of the natural moral law that God has inscribed in his heart" (n. 68).

I too can affirm that, in these last fifty years, I have also seen an internally "fragmented", torn man knocking on the door of the monastery, fighting against God, against others, against life itself; a man who now presents the traits of a contemporary Job who shouts out all his pain and his rebellion; now tragically aware of his own sin, therefore with a contrite heart, like a new David. However, more and more frequently I seem to meet a disillusioned and tired man, a man with dull hope who seems to no longer love life, not to grasp it as a new and wonderful gift every morning, but rather as a senseless burden and fatigue, like «vanity of vanities» (cf. Ecclesiastes 1,2.8).

Despite living in a monastery and on an uninhabited island, there are countless people who arrive there almost by chance, like castaways tossed by the stormy waves of history... They ask for continuous "first aid" which we can offer both with prayer and with listening and the word of advice and comfort. The house of God, as the monastery is defined, must be hospitable to all, without distinction, both in a direct and visible way through hospitality, and, and even more secretly, in the praying heart, that is, through a life of offering in silence and prayer, in work and communion, feeling, as Gaudium et Spes says, truly and intimately in solidarity with the human race and its history. 

We who live physically separated from the world, but for all our brothers, are asked to bear witness with our lives to the primacy of God, the passionate love of Christ, aware that, as Pope Francis continually repeats, only if men meet with Jesus and "they allow themselves to be saved by Him, they are freed from sin, from sadness, from internal emptiness, from isolation". In fact, with Jesus Christ, man is always renewed and rediscovers joy and hope.