|
|
|
The presence in history
Notes from two talks at the Retreat of the Novices of Memores Domini, La Thuile, Italy, August 9-10, 2003
by Luigi Giussani
The ‘Volto Santo’ (Holy Face) of San Sepolcro. It is 2.70 meters high, while the arm span reaches 2.90. Sculpted in walnut, from a single block. The ‘Volto Santo’ was at the center of a recent critical disagreement. It had in fact always been considered a replica of the more famous and much venerated ‘Volto Santo’ of Lucca. Last year, instead, documents were found which attest that it is older. Radiocarbon analyses confirm that the wood from which it was sculpted goes back to a period of time between 670 and 845. But this could be the date in which the tree was cut: critical studies tend to attribute the work to the Carolingian period. From the iconographic viewpoint it is an exemplar of Christ in a tunic: almost an encounter between the crucified Christ and Christ Pantocrator. The Lord is in fact represented still alive, and the center of the work is His look, so much so that the title is precisely ‘Volto Santo’. The relationship between the faithful and the face of Christ is testified to by this phrase of Saint Ambrose’s: “There is no doubt that Peter was again given the grace of conversion through the Holy Face, because those whom Jesus looks upon are always saved”.
Oh Jesu mi dulcissime,
spes suspirantis animae,
Te quaerunt piae lacrimae
Et clamor mentis intimae.
O Jesus, my sweet Lord, my companion! In whatever position we are–this has been said in every way possible by our two “commanders-in-chief”–whatever position we start from, the feeling that invades us is this, and there is nothing that we can say more truly, in whatever condition we find ourselves, than this. Oh Jesu mi dulcissime, the hope of a soul that sighs, is a word from Dante in our memories from when the Italian schools still reflected the values of the past: spes suspirantis animae.
Jesus, You are sweet in my life; sweetness characterizes Your presence, because You are the content of hope. You are my hope! And hope is the continual shaping of the original nature of our being, and that is to be expectation, to be entreaty, because entreaty is identical in form to expectation.
Spes suspirantis animae, Te quaerunt piae lacrimae: The anguish, pain, dissatisfaction seek You, in the unhealthy sinews our life takes on.
Te quaerunt piae lacrimae: My tears seek You in their original state–piae, in their original state.
Et clamor mentis intimae: It is the cry, it is the inner cry of my being, of being. And being is an inner cry; it is a cry, it is a total–more than inner–cry, a total cry, a total clamor: Et clamor mentis intimae.
Therefore, everything is sad and everything is good, since hope is a positive affirmation at all costs, at all costs positive for our being.
I wish for you that you may be able to touch these things with your own hands, not in trepidation but young, childlike, infant-like, like newborns, because in every instant we are just born.
All the best! May you be my companions on the journey, just as you have shown yourselves to be for Pino and Carrón.
All the best, so that we may sustain each other.
Thank you!
