Dear friends: The opposition has organized a march protesting the Russian troops entering Ukraine, in which I intend to participate. I do not have high expectations for the effectiveness of this initiative, since, in our country, not much happens as a result of people taking to the streets–apart from innocent people ending up in jail. I don’t know how much of an impact a march can have on the current political situation. But this is not the reason why I want to go. I keep going back to the text of School of Community, specifically to the Page One section of the March issue of Traces. Quoting Father Giussani, Father Carrón says, “What we see now is nothing other than the documentation of the failure of the attempt to affirm values without Christ. The issue is how we stay within reality to the point of allowing this reawakening of the ‘ ,’ without which the powers that be can let us go on in our struggle for values, meanwhile emptying us from inside. Only a Presence can order instinctiveness toward the goal, responding to human disorder.” The “disorder” around us is out of control, therefore I can’t avoid asking myself a few questions. Is my “I” awakened in the midst of this situation? Do I have something to oppose the omnipotence and unaccountability of the power? I think about my Ukrainian friends, for whom clearly hope resides with the One who can change the heart of men, not their power. I am certain that their hope is not a utopia. There are many ways to look at the situation in the Ukraine, and we could endlessly discuss it, trying to establish who’s right and who’s wrong. Yet I believe there are two considerations that we all agree upon. First, we all want peace and we all want the reciprocal hate and the threat of war to cease. Second, and most importantly, I hope we all desire the glory of Christ, His presence, His justice, and His gaze. I hope we desire this for ourselves and for everyone. For this reason, in this complicated situation, I believe it’s important for us who have this awareness to stand side by side with those who will march for peace. I am certain that even a few men and women who are aware, and who remember the heart of all things, can do a lot in a crowd of fifty thousand people.

Sasha, Moscow, Russia