God’s Place of Work
Simone Riva - There are works in progress on the street: barricades, dust, confusion. I ring the intercom and go to a friend’s house. I walk in, and after greetings, I immediately recognize a familiar voice with a clear Bergamasque accent in the distance. It was coming from the room of the eldest daughter, a tetraplegic in a wheelchair, connected by “Zoom” to hundreds of other sick friends: the “little squares.” He meets with Don Eugenio Nembrini daily and, that evening, with the Bishop of Rimini, Monsignor Nicol Anselmi. I stayed with her to listen to the meeting.
Those who spoke told of their discovery of the last period, and one heard things that had never been heard before. Some gave thanks that the illness was an opportunity to rediscover the presence of Christ. Others joked nothing was wrong, although their suffering tested them. The Bishop, amazed, didn’t miss a word. The friend with whom I was staying was full of joy when she heard something that struck her. Then we all went to the garden to eat. On my way home, I pass the bumpy road again. Even during construction, there’s always a flow of life that never stops.
Often, many people may worry about the end being late during construction. Others complain about the trouble. Some even use the situation to change plans, taking down everything to rebuild according to a different plan. But the great artisan always works hard, making his work great. An old song comes to mind that says, “If the Lord doesn’t build the city, we lay stone upon stone in vain. If our way isn’t His, we walk in vain and together.
By what do we understand that it is He who builds? There’s an unmistakable sign: he is the one who can give a task to everyone, leaving no one at home. Indeed, God’s “building site” has a different atmosphere than in the world. Everyone finds his place. Everyone is needed, and no one is replaced. One builds, one demolishes, one agitates, one rests, one clashes, one makes peace ... but, sure that he is the author, no one thinks of abandoning the project.
Today’s liturgy says this with the image of the shepherd, and in the first reading, we read these words: “I will gather the remnant of my sheep from all the places where I have scattered them, and I will bring them back to their pastures; they will be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them to tend them so they will not be afraid or dismayed; not one will be lacking” (Jer. 23:3-4).
It sounds like a pipe dream, a pure-hearted child’s fantasy, but it has all the hallmarks of an infallible promise. “Not one shall be lacking”: this is God’s concern. You and I are there, just like we are, on life’s often uncertain construction site, to do the work for which we were born: to be ourselves.
It’s almost a prayer that can’t be missed that God addresses us in the exact words that a great Church Father wrote years ago: “Man, understand your greatness by acknowledging your dependence! Reflect on the splendor you carry within you. Don’t deny the light that has been given to you, but don’t attribute to it its source!
Learn to discover your mirror and your reflected reality! Learn to know yourself by acknowledging your God! Begin, as far as it is possible for a mortal, to contemplate His Face by gathering yourself within yourself! Learn” (H. de Lubac, On the Ways of God, Jaca Book, 2021, p. 15).
The author did not revise the translation. The article was published on Subsidiary.net. Download.
