I am waiting for the results of my medical examination that should confirm whether the operation has definitely freed me from the tumor, but in general I am fine. "We are friends, helping each other in the yes that each is called to say to Christ, each having at heart the destiny of the other!” These words which closed the Beginning of the Year Day would have been enough to awaken our conscience, to remind us of the grace of this journey that accompanies us in our lives. The relationship with the Father, as the fifth chapter of The radiance in your eyes reminds us, also passes through the painful events in our lives. Indeed, the concreteness of reality, when you struggle the most, lays bare the truth of your life.

Whilst in hospital, I read Testimone privilegiato [Privileged witness] by Ignacio Carbajosa, a Biblical Studies scholar, who was catapulted into the whirlwind of a Covid hospital ward and bewildered by the pain that filled that new experience of reality, and who rediscovered that the only relationship that saves you is the relationship with the Father.

In recent days, I have also rediscovered, as Carrón says, that the relationship with the Father is not sustained if we do not see the Son. Christ has also manifested himself to me in these days through friends who have not taken away my physical suffering, but have sustained me in my yes to Him.

Read also – What saves me from nothingness

This is what those who are around us see, like my roommates in hospital, with whom a friendship has flourished that has laid bare our humanity, in the simplicity of meeting our needs or in giving them the latest issue of Traces as an explanation of what sustains me in life. You realize how privileged we have been in encountering this companionship in the midst of a society pervaded by nothingness.

Norberto, Gubbio, Italy