One day, says the Holy Scripture (Gen. 4.9), Cain answered God like this: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”. And Cain had killed his brother Abel!
But how could a person, and a Christian one at that, ignore the brothers who are entrusted to him for assistance? The ones he goes to visit and comfort? Those for whom he carries out his professional work?
We are responsible for hope in the small world we frequent, but also responsible for the hope of the big world in which all men are our brothers, everyone. Today. In today’s world. With today’s brothers. With today’s sufferers. At our age. With our capabilities.
If I don’t know how to build a… skyscraper, I will always be able to bring my little stone to the construction of the world, to the elevation of brothers, to the comfort of a suffering person. Even a very small stone, even a grain of sand: but one today, one tomorrow, one the day after tomorrow… and the world rises, is built, is enriched with hope. Just like a fir tree made of many tiny needles!.
It’s difficult: but each of us is capable of an ideal. It costs sacrifice, but let us not fear what it costs, otherwise we would not have responded to God’s call to serve those who suffer. We know that it is a great thing to be chosen among many to do good!
A doctor who died several years ago wrote words like these, simple and profound:
“That I can do good is the hope that comforts me in every bitter trial. It also learns from the grass that is trampled on, yet it has the perseverance to flower your way. Let it be so with you, my soul!
Having the perseverance to flower the way is nothing other than offering hope as a gift. It is nothing more than bringing one’s little stone to the construction of a better world. And we know that only in this way will we realize our ideal, only in this way will we transform not only the few hours donated to service, but our entire life, which has become a gift of hope and love.
(Taken from Short articles by Germana Sommaruga on Hope aimed at those who assist the suffering – Library of the “Associazione Amici Insieme con Germana”).
