On the eve of leaving for Cervinia for the International Meeting of Responsibles I had a conversation with Fr. Jerry, a good friend from Minnesota. I recounted that after ten years of attending this meeting I still felt like an outsider, someone who was watching other people talk about something that was very interesting but still rather distant. It seemed that those who intervened during the assemblies had experiences that were vastly different from my own, leaving me dutifully taking notes but with every word feeling more disconnected from the reality I was attempting to capture in writing.

This conversation, which brought no attempt at advice or resolution, set me on the path of begging. And along this path I discovered a number of things.

First, I discovered that there were many who sat next to me at meals or had a drink with me at the bar who had the same sense of being something of a spectator. Thus, with many people I discovered not only a sense of accompaniment, but also a renewed desire to beg together for a response to this desire to belong. And this was a great gift: that in acknowledging with others my desire to belong, my belonging grew.

Second, I became more attentive to the opportunities that the Mystery offered to help me adhere to the event that was unfolding. For example, I found myself struggling through a lunch conversation in English-Spanish-Italian with an Argentine woman whom I had never met. After 45 minutes of beautiful conversation and seeing her tear-filled eyes, she seemed to me a sister with whom I had been walking for many years but whom I had never met. There were many such encounters that served as a reminder that it is not sufficient to beg; it is also necessary to respond to what the Mystery offers.

Finally, Fr. Carron’s emphasis on the figure of Abraham served as a synthesis of my entire experience at Cervinia. Here is this man, Abraham, called by God to leave what is familiar and allow God to generate a people through him. God did it by reawakening the I of one man. It is a method almost too simple to take seriously. But it happened to me. I am not the father of many nations, but I am part of this people. Those who seemed so distant, like actors on a stage, became my people, my friends, my companions on this path. If this is what the Mystery can do with a simple desire to belong, then may God help me to be attentive to every desire so that I can learn to truly live.