A couple of weeks ago, while I was watching the video of the Rimini Meeting of the witnesses of Fr. Douglas and Fr. Ibrahim, a question irrupted in me: how is it possible to bear the unbearable? How is it possible that these two priests, one of which was even tortured, and both who are in danger for their lives, to not only stay where they are, but to grow more and more in thier affectionate for the Mystery? How is it possible? It seems so inhuman.

My problems, all of a sudden, don’t even seem problems, as my life is not in danger--that is a real problem! I asked this question during School of Community, while we were working on Recognizing Christ, when Giussani says that everything that happens is for our vocation. How is it that the unbearable is for our vocation? And most importantly for me, how can this sentence not remain a moralism by saying that all I’m going through is okay because, in the end, there is Christ? How does His recognition and affection become like the one Fr. Douglas and Fr. Ibrahim have? Their circumstances are much more difficult than mine and yet they don’t have doubts, and I do?

During SoC I was reminded of two things. First, what happens to me, even if less dramatic, is given to me, so I have to face with it. And second, if those priests were and are able to bear the unbearable, it’s not because they suddenly became strong; they have a personal history, a personal path that brought them there in that precise moment when they could be happy and stay--even in front of the unbearable.

I realized that I do forget my personal history; what happened to me and what I’ve met and see, my circumstances, are like "silos", completely separated from anything else that I have encountered in my life.

Then the terrorist attacks happen in Paris and I found myself weeping in front of these events, with all of the answers to the questions I'd previously “set aside” coming back. Here I was again, confused by what is going on and unbearable to bare it. I thought of what I was reminded of at SoC and looked back at what happened to me, Who I have encountered, and I realize that, like Carron said in Rome in March, “What would a morning be like without encountering Him again, without being able to recognize Him present, a morning in which distraction or formalism prevailed? What would life be without You, Christ? It would be truly unbearable.”

This is what makes my life worth living, because my life without recognizing Him would have no meaning, there would be no difference between good or bad, everything would be the same without Someone showing me the truth of myself. So the only way to bear the unbearable and to fight against terrorism is to remember and be aware of who I am. My sacrifice of bearing my personal and daily circumstances, as well as living in a world where I could be killed at any given moment, makes sense only in light of my true nature: that I am is this relationship with Christ. My life is worth living because of Him. What I’m asked to do is to take my life seriously, this is the only adequate answer to the Paris attacks.