450. Pilgrimage to Rome

From the touch of God, with his forefinger reaching out to the first man in the Sistine Chapel, or mirror ourselves in the clearest of waters at Tivoli, or hear the Pope addressing us as “pilgrims” in the Angelus as he names the parish we are from, are only three of the multiple moments we have experienced on our pilgrimage to Rome, which in effect began with the investiture of the newly elected Archbishop of Loreto, Fabio DalCin, a native of our village Sarmede, in Treviso.

Nor can we forget to find Pope Francesco's secretary in Piazza Loreto among the infinity of priests who accompanied the neo-bishop to take up his new office.

Even though Mons. Fabian is the Pope's secretary, he nevertheless, with kisses and hugs kindly consented to take pictures with and for us, undoubtedly not without nostalgia as we remembered that these were perhaps our last greetings. In the past he was a frequent visitor to Sarmede, since he and Fr Fabio both worked at the Vatican, and accompanied the then Father Fabio, to see his family, but now, who knows if he will ever come again.

Neither can we forget the following morning, see a youthful figure in purple appear in the hotel lobby as if from nowhere to greet us with that familiar, huge smile, as only our "Father Fabio" can give.

So our journey to Rome began again and as mentioned above we found ourselves in St. Peter's Square, in the rain, to listen to the Pope's homily. And what a homily! It was an episode where Jesus, in contrast to those who think differently, is by no means a sweetie! Bluntly, Jesus tells Peter, the Peter, to whom only moments earlier proclaimed a rock on which Jesus wanted to build his church, but now had become an obstacle, and says to him, "Go behind me, Satan, you are scandal because you do not think according to God, but according to men." And all this happened, as the Pope explained, because Peter, in saying to Jesus that he will never die in Jerusalem, like many today, want to teach God what is the right way, that is, they want a Christ without a cross. However, the strongest emotion we felt was when the Pope greeted us, mentioning our parishes and calling us pilgrims-  we took a leap in the air and gave out a cry of exultation.

Then, through one street and another we got to the Pantheon, created to attract the favours of the pagan gods, and now in front of an altar, we honour one single God, the one who created us. So the time came to eat an ice cream, excellent, it was indeed! Even though we had to struggle in long queues of tourists, mainly Japanese and Germans, then we leaned against the railings to admire the Fountain of Trevi. Of course, we did not miss the opportunity to throw in this renowned fountain the inevitable coin from the back of our shoulders with the desire to return.

In the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls, you enter, and like all the first churches there is only a large space surrounded by walls that speak of history, of our history that is made up of people called "Church." This can be seen because the walls depict the story of people who really existed, reproduced by painters and sculptors because in those days there was no digital camera with which we, in turn, use to tell our story today. The story which continues and will go on to continue because Jesus promised us – “I will be with you until the end of the world.”

Paul's life makes us think that in fact we are not the ones who decide the course of our lives and that God does everything to assert his will upon us, and at times, as in the case of Paul, in spite of us.                 

If God had not intervened, Paul would have spent the rest of his days brutally killing Christians with fiery ardour - but no, God wanted him all for himself and he "called" him, as we know, in a spectacular way, and not on tiptoe as he usually does with us. “Yes, because God calls," as the Pope says, "he always calls," he calls us to be his teammate, whether we are the chosen people as the Jews, or pagans, as the rest of the world was at that time. We learn this through Paul's exemplary conversion - that is, God wants us - without ifs and buts, he wants us. But we, unlike Paul, do not always respond to God with our "yes!"

We arrive in St. Peter's Square. Rarely does one think of the original intentions of an architect when designing a building. In the case of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), as shown by the two semi-round constructions surrounding the space in front of St. Peter, when he contemplated the Vatican Square he had precisely this in mind: "the embrace of God."

And this is among many of the things, Sister Agnes, from the Missionaries of Divine Revelation and our guide, explained to us. 

Sister Agnes used simple and meaningful words to make us understand the importance of the passage of God on earth, through people. It highlights the points where God left his mark. And these signs are particularly evident in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel starting with that finger of God stretching insistently to reach that of man - hence, the encounter with God occurs.

Continuing the pilgrimage between mountains, woods and lost trails we think about prayer. Usually when we are gathered for a religious occasion, a celebration, the most sensible thing to do is to pray. On these occasions, we do not meet to discuss economic, social-political problems- but we come to worship, plead, ask for help and forgiveness from our Creator. We do it with rites, symbols and words we have known since we were children - in the end this is the most suitable way to gather together as Christians - to pray with the gestures and words the Church has for two thousand years taught us to put into practice.

But on top of this hill, far from the world and the clutter that it inevitably produces, we realize prayer, if desired, can go beyond defined words and gestures and we discover that in fact prayer has no limits but it is a mysterious, fascinating world and surprisingly handy to anyone. To pray, we do not need to be philosophers, intellectuals, or anything else - because communicating with God is not a complex matter, but simple, very simple. And this can be deducted by a visit made to the monastery of St. Benedict and that of his sister St Scolastica in Subiaco.

Finally, in the Vatican where we celebrated Mass, we contemplate the figure of St. Peter, who, while suffering the most ignominious martyrdom of those times - crucifixion - remembering that his master and Savior, Jesus, was crucified, felt unworthy of dying in the same way and wanted to make his death even more ignominious, so he asked to be crucified with his head down. This makes us think of the remains of that poor body with the feet torn and strapped away as we had seen in a relief we came across during the course of our pilgrimage. This was our first pope... and his death makes us think. And how it make us think!

Going on a vacation is fine, and it is one thing - but making a pilgrimage is much more, because even what is considered worldly takes on the semblance of the celestial. This is precisely because all that is part of creation is seen under another perspective, that of belonging to one Creator which we call Father.