DOCUMENT
from issue no. 12 - 2003
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The blow to the heart
The text of the opening announcement of the TG2-RAI news at 20.30 on 18 November 2003 written by don Luigi Giussani for the funerals of the victims in Nassiriya
by Luigi Giussani
The State funerals of the19 fallen in the terrorist attack on Nassiriya, celebrated in the Basilica of Saint Pauls outside the walls on 18 November 2003
What shame!
“No more will the sun delight you
nor love awaken you again.”
Carducci’s Ancient Lament safeguards in the heart of our history the mystery which leads Dante Alighieri to pray to Our Lady that a richness of new humanity may affirm the victory of good, through her pain as spouse and mother:
“In you is mercy, in you pity,
in you munificence, in you is found
whatever of goodness is in any creature.”
Thus, in us, the blow to the heart is great because of the judgment of Brigadier Coletta’s wife, who spoke in front of the TV news cameras.
“In you is mercy,” because man falls without knowing where, how, and when.
“In you pity,” because man is weak, contradictory, and frail unto death.
“In you munificence” is the communication of a force of victory as the final light.
“Goodness” is the reason for man’s action.
How great a song of the people could rise up again, if the education of people’s hearts became the UN’s horizon of action, instead of the skirmish of death—favored by those who should make it cease—between Muslims and the heirs of the ancient Jewish or Latin peoples or whoever. And this would be the true richness of the life of a people!
If there were an education of the people, everyone would live better.
The fear or scorn of the Cross of Christ will never allow anyone to know the joy of living within a popular holiday or the expression of a family.
Dante’s testimony blossomed again in Mrs. Colletta’s grief:
“In you is mercy, in you pity,
in you munificence, in you is found
whatever of goodness is in any creature.”
