Christoph Matyssek, on mission in Vienna, in the company of a few university students during a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Mariazel (Austria)
“It’s not like I become friends with the first person I come across: I decide to love, I choose. And when I choose, it is forever.” Speaking is Michele, a mathematics teacher and protagonist of Bianca, the best film of Nanni Moretti: his words, on the one hand, affirm the breath of the infinite that is characteristic of every true friendship; on the other, they also contain within themselves the seed of a tragic decision that will bring that young and intransigent professor to eliminate whom he retains does not merit any longer to be called ‘friend.’
What is the root of his error? Believing that friendship, like love, can be the result of a decision made at a roundtable, of a choice made by a cool head and not, instead, the welcoming of a gift received: on the contrary, friendship is the recognition of a grace of which one was the object. Friendship is always a miracle.
Reading the Gospel, one intuits that the very apostles struggle, initially, to be friends: they are too preoccupied with determining who is greatest among them, of gaining the esteem of Jesus, of obtaining for themselves a post of prestige in the kingdom that would have soon arrived…Then comes the last supper with Jesus, with that declaration of His, after having washed their feed: I no longer call you servants, but friends. A couple more days will be necessary for that rag-tag group of men to begin to understand that he was speaking about the greatest gift that they could have imagined receiving in their life: the love of God, the friendship of Christ, who loved them to the point of sacrificing Himself for them on the cross, so they could understand that there is truly no greater love than to give one’s life for one’s friends.
The Holy Spirit will be necessary so that they can begin to recognize one another as gifts for the other and to become aware that their unity is the sign that the world awaited to be able to believe: to believe in the existence of a good God and of His Son made man for the salvation of all.
From here begins the adventure described in the Acts of the Apostles: it is the beginning of the history of the Church, that is founded on the friendship given by Jesus Himself. A friendship that those men are called to recognize and to understand one step at a time, by means of moving encounters, fraternal embraces and reciprocal help, but also by fights, discussions, and incomprehension. Peter and John, Paul and Barnabas, and then Stephen, Ananias, Mark, Apollus…Theirs are stories of friendship in which the discovery of the gift received deepens even through contrasts brought about by fiery tempers, reckless attitudes, differing points of view and judgements still immature about their own task and the mandate they received. A judgment remains, however, like a stable point of departure: friendship, which is at the base of their being together, is the most precious gift, because it is the legacy of Christ Himself.
Our friendship lasts forever not because of a decision of ours, but because of the faithfulness of the One who gives it to us
It is not by chance then that at the Meeting of Rimini this year, the seminarians of the Fraternity and the Missionaries Sisters of St. Charles chose to recount one of these stories of friendship: that between Barnabas and Paul along the first missionary journey of history. Their friendship was, for the apostles, subject, content, and method of their mission, of their announcement. It was subject, because the mission is never only of the single person, but always of that reality that is called the Church and that was born with them. Friendship constitutes, furthermore, the content of the first Christian proclamation because what the apostles were called to communicate to the world was precisely the friendship of God with man, that which Jesus came to reconstruct and that was rendered visible in the communion of those who had been chosen by Him. Friendship was, finally, the method of their mission, because Christianity always begins in a personal encounter in which my humanity is engaged with the life of another.
Looking at the experience of our houses, friendship that is born with the persons to whom we are sent is certainly the most beautiful fruit of mission, together with conversion, ours and theirs.
This friendship truly possesses that characteristic of inexhaustibility of which Michele spoke, the unhappy protagonist of Bianca: with the difference being that our friendship lasts forever not because of a decision of ours, of we who are limited by our errors and our incoherences, but because of the faithfulness of the One who gives it to us. And that does not stop even before our sins and betrayals, if it is true that He is capable of calling “friend” even the one who betrays Him with a kiss.
