It sometimes happens that, introducing myself as a missionary who lives in Rome, people ask me: “Ah, so down the road you will leave to go on mission somewhere?”. To which, every time, I respond: “But I am already on mission!”. Yes, even in Rome, in the heart of the Church, there is a need for mission, that is, of someone who wants to work with God so that He can reach every heart. I understood this better because of Angese [invented name].
We met at “Families in the Kitchen,” one of the workshops we host at our home. On Saturday afternoons, about twenty children and their parents gather with two of us to cook. It’s a simple yet powerful activity, one that also draws people who aren’t very involved in parish life, such as classmates or neighborhood friends invited by the children or the parents themselves. One of these is Agnese, who, after her first time, has practically never missed a session. One day, while we were talking with some other children about catechism, Agnese told us, “Unfortunately, I’m an atheist; I haven’t even been baptized.” Her parents, in fact, aren’t very religious, even though they’re open and welcoming toward us. Taking advantage of their openness, and giving space to Agnese’s desire to know God—which shone through in that “unfortunately”—I asked her mom one day if I could tell Agnese something about Jesus: she said yes, and Agnese welcomed the offer with a huge smile and luminous eyes.
“I know that God exists, even if the others tell me He does not, and I speak to Him.”
And so, every month, at the end of Families in the Kitchen, we stop together for five minutes in our chapel to do a brief catechesis. One day, Agnese told me: “I know that God exists, even if the others tell me He does not, and I speak to Him.” Agnese lives with a simple confidence in the relationship with Eternal Love that is at the source of our life. When I told her about the visit of Mary and Elizabeth, she asked me: “So God had spoken to Elizabeth? How did she know that Mary was carrying Jesus in her womb?”. With a bit of fear, I took a risk and told her yes, that we did not know how it happened but that in some way the Lord spoke to Elizabeth to give her this news, just as it had happened to her, to Agnese, who already knew that God existed even if no one had told her before. She nodded with one of her luminous smiles. The week after I learned that every evening she would take a bit of time by herself in her room to pray. How much it must give joy to the heart of the Lord seeing this little girl praying hidden in her room!
I do not know what will happen to Agnese in the future. I do not know what she will decide to do when she gets older. I am certain, however, that the seed that the Lord put in her heart will remain there forever and that, if she lets it, it will continue to grow and to flower.
