*Translated by Sara Pasino
I have always been struck by a beautiful observation that Benedict XVI expressed in his first encyclical, “Deus caritas est”: in the text he affirms and reiterates repeatedly that “faith purifies reason”. The statement is simple, but deeply true and there are few true and splendid confirmations, like the last Popes themselves. I returned to this question because I was struck by the message of a friend who was, in the last few days, in a meeting with Pope Francis in Kazakhstan, on the occasion of the VII Congress of the leaders of world religions. The testimony she sent me is, for me, the confirmation of what the late Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, former president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, who, after the disasters caused by religious extremism, used to say that “Religions are not the problem but part of the solution of problems”. He was so right!
The testimony of my young Kazakh friend, whose name I will not mention for understandable reasons, is truly touching. I allow myself to tell this story because it deserves to be known: the young Muslim, converted to Christianity, was received a few minutes by Pope Francis and writes: “Act of boundless love towards me… we ran to him, and he was already there, to wait for us, to welcome us… I ran to the Pope as I usually run to a friend… and I found myself in a dimension of absolute openness … of a human and divine presence at the same time, all-encompassing embrace of his gaze, of his clear and deep blue eyes that penetrate you to the depths of being, eyes grateful to be, to exist , to welcome … Eyes that reflect a cosmic maturity and at the same time pure eyes as a child … I have been caught, seized, dazzled by this Superabundant Presence. No one can take it from my eyes, from my memory. It is forever! (…) We had less than a minute to be with him. And so we were forced to be essential in talking about ourselves. The only thing I could tell him about myself, about us was this: “Thank you Holy Father! We are children of the Charism of Don Giussani”. And he immediately responded with even brighter eyes “how beautiful, you are that gang there!”. “Yes, we are from that band there, and I come from a Muslim tradition and I met a great faith right in the great company of Don Giussani! And thanks to You who testify to us a living Faith with your life”. And the Pope, more and more enthusiastically, replied: “Great Father Giussani!”.
“The friend who led the group was very thankful that the Pope had come to visit us in our country, on our land, and the Pope continued to be happy, answering that it was an honour for him. And when the eldest daughter told him: “Thank you for your great faith,” he answered, with the eyes of a child: “Thank you, dear”. It seemed that we had ended in an eternity that nourished us, fed us with true Joy, of total abandonment to Being, of certainty that He is everything, and everything is in Him! I went out of the meeting with the Pope and my heart had broken down to a thousand, jolted, trembled, I was moved to tears that were tears of purification, all the fullness that I received embraced me from within and this fullness and gratitude were revealed through those tears of emotion … The presence of God is really a Great Mystery, it is mysterious how He enters in us, how he allows us to experience it, and I am increasingly realising that the Mystery of God is Human, it is carnal, it is touchable and embraceable … As he came into my life in 1998 through the faces of friends who shone with the light of a real life and were full of hope, in the same way he continues to enter into my life today allowing me to open wide my heart and eyes even when I am not able to. What a great story! What a great company!”.
I wonder if the Pope, to provoke these effects, uses more faith or reason and I see that it is true that we need to use both. Returning to Italy, in the press conference held on the plane, the Pope acknowledged that for Ukraine “it is licit to defend its territory”, but he added that “dialogue is also needed with the aggressor”. This is what we mean with “Reason is purified by faith”. Reason, left to itself, does what Putin is doing and those who supports him!
Luigi Patrini