Letter

PASTORAL: THE BREAD OF VALUES

IN HONOR OF SAINT ANNE, PROTECTRESS AND CO- PATRONESS OF JELSI

for the feast of Saint Anne, protectress, and since last year also co-patroness of Jelsi, I would like to give you these thoughts, that I wrote some time ago, as a token of friendship and thankfulness for all the beautiful things that God allows us to do.

These thoughts deal with me, with Jelsi and with the value of the bread, as I already mentioned in the last Pastoral. They talk about God and about who, receiving him, does good.

When I wrote these thoughts I dedicated them to my father, in occasion of the anniversary of his death. Now I would like to dedicate them to you, who are my spiritual family.

Let’s now share the marvelous, but also demanding path of mankind towards God.

These short reflections, as a desire of my heart, were caused by the combination of the rain that started when I reached the crossing of Via Riccia a day of January, coming back from the Capozio Chapel, and the smell of fresh bread from Cianciullo bakery. All at once I felt a great joy, that soon became sadness. I compared this feeling to life: a beautiful present wrapped by fog, a shining dawn, that becomes grey and opaque. I started to think about the sun, undefeated by Greeks and Romans, at the churches addressed to the West, where the sun rises. I thought about the importance of the light of the sun for many communities and cultures, about the unconscious desire to meet God, about the heat, about the achievement of happiness, serenity, about the meeting with others.

I started thinking about the sun that ripens ears of wheat, which are offered from 202 years to Saint Anne, “Great mother of Harvest”. The light is in our lives from more than 2000 years and we put it under the table of our sophistications and illusions. Although the light became flesh, it became known, touchable and eatable, Word and Bread, now it is unknown, it does not have a face, it does not have importance in our lives. What happened to the dream of God given to Adam e then through Christ, as splendor and icon of the face of each of us? Where shall we look for the nostalgia of the pure children flesh of which all of us are made of, for the nostalgia of Abel from Eden, for the nostalgia of Isaac on the mountain, of Joseph, the son of Jacob, sold by his brothers but faith of Israel, the place which symbolizes the completeness manifested by the Child? The answer I found was in bread, in the importance of bread. The hot and fragrant bread is a product of the earth and of the human work. Still nowadays for many people bread means everything. Bread is so simple, so normal, so humble. But bread is also divine, as Rodolfo Papa, an academic papal artist, represented it in the first painting called “Jesus was born in Jelsi” which is positioned on the presbytery of our church.

I thought it was necessary to discover again the taste of bread, the taste of life, of the true and essential things. That was the starting point. I remember that when I was a kid, I was able to enjoy and to be enthusiastic of simple things. I remember the birds in the square of my town, the sound of the instruments of the craftsmen who called me by name, the song of the ladies, the little streets, the bridges where I used to go with my friends, the joyful noise of the market place, the cakes like the traditional bucellato, the football field, the carobs of the big tree, the lupins that the old priest bought for us at the fairs, the horse rides, the ending rain that enlightened the street lamps. Although my town was magic for all these things, for me, the concrete symbol of all these memories is bread, it is the essential experience, the perfect synthesis of the importance of life, from past to future. We are losing the taste of bread, of the true and common one, the one made of hard wheat. Many things are becoming more refined but also more sophisticated and weaker. Thing are attractive mostly because of their outer shell, just like money and investments. Our heart and our senses have been seduced by other scents different from earth, sky, sea and flowers. The flavours are now chemically produced in laboratories, we live in a test-tube but we are not aware of it. Exalting our liberty made us become presumptuous and consequently the harmony started to get weak and drove us towards the ordinary homologation. Originality, which is the spark of the Creator, abdicated in favor of magicians, histrionic and cunning people, witches and manipulators who know the weakness of men. They use us and kill us in the name of wealth.

Bread. Bread is the sign of life. It is the path of mankind away from the barbarians from the caverns till now throughout hard work, tears, but also joy, dignity recovered for weak people, for slaves, for women, for ignorance, for illness. Bread is a noble product of humanity manifested by its best sons, by humble people, by coherent people, by the lovers of liberty who consider it as a duty to share in solidarity without interests and glories, by the ones who live as grains of wheat that gives life to bread. Bread: which is mixed and cooked through the tears of the martyrs, under the sign of sad but providential revolutions. Bread: the tears of mothers of the South of the world, that becomes larger each day, assist the death of their children caused by hunger, by thirst while the shops of the Christians are full of futile objects. We can listen to the cries coming from Africa and other parts of the world just like the cries of Abel killed by his respectable brother Cain, selfish and powerful. Bread: mothers with handicapped children, often feel alone, young people unemployed, are sad and despair about their condition. Bread: desire of fidelity, and hidden love inside of each of us, sometimes sold for a few coins, like Jude did, which generates horror, bewilderment, delusion and desperation in those who are weak and sensitive and let them fall in the arms of the Evil. Bread: the young side of each of us who decided to commit suicide because unable to show through our lives the meaning of our pilgrimage on earth which we often betray. Bread will judge all of us and will transfix us if we continue pretending not to understand. It is necessary to discover again the true bread that receives, that does not judge but forgives; the LIVING BREAD , that became flesh, the Verb of God that is addressed to all of us, like the light that enlightens the minds, warms the hearts, gives strength to the wills during the path. Let’s open to him, a piece of our heart so that our lives will renew through his love.

Save us, Lord from the collective foolishness and self - destruction. Let us become friend and live in solidarity. Let us become fond of the human path. While the bombs and the war destroy the sky and the barbarians prepare the last assault, let our heart become wise. Let us see your face, the reflection of your face in the faces of our beloved. Let us be aware of the importance of the city of mankind, give us more sincere words, so that we are not ashamed of our feelings sometimes rough but simple as smiles or as tears. Lord of love, give us the bread of joy, give us bread that we can put on our tables of life. Give us back the taste of the wheat and of the true bread and let us walk beside you with the example of Saint Anne to change our lives in fragrant bread for our brothers and sisters. Amen.