Italy - "I saw with my own eyes": the testimony of Salesian Matteo Rupil

16 August 2019

(ANS - Turin) - The vocational history of the Salesian Matteo Rupil is a source of inspiration for all those who face difficulties. Matteo is visually impaired, but despite this he was accepted into the prenovitiate and is now a second year theology student.
His story is an invitation to look at life from a different perspective.

Below is his testimony:

"During these years, looking into the darkness and beyond the darkness of my lost sight, I saw with my inner eyes that the Light really exists and can win on every dark night, against all kinds of blindness.
I could see before and I want to say that sight is a wonderful and priceless gift. Contemplating a sunset, looking into the eyes of a person who loves you ... this is a great gift.
But today I know that I can see the world if I choose to trust and entrust myself to others, asking for another gift, which is to let myself be guided. Without trust in others I could not live and I would only be a blind person.
Today, my desire is not to see, but to be seen, recognized, loved. In fact, the strongest concern, I would say even the strongest fear, which hurts my soul, is that of being transparent, forgotten, abandoned, left alone, in a word: not to be seen! I know some of those who look at me really don't see me. They give me looks of curiosity or compassion and they don't see Matteo. They only see my blind eyes.
But I also saw that the gaze of the Love of God really exists and manifests itself in various forms: it is the look of a mother, who loves you as you are, it is the gaze of a father who sees in you a hidden beauty. It is the look of young people who take me by the hand every day and help me overcome difficulties. It is the look of the Salesians, who helped me to discover that I can become a gift for others. It is the gaze of God himself that gave me the gift of becoming a Salesian.
I have seen with my own eyes and I would not like to exchange them, not because they are beautiful, but because without these eyes I would not simply be myself, I would not be Matteo!
Thanks to these eyes, God makes me discover what really matters. Through these eyes, God also makes me discover that we can trust others and, again thanks to my eyes, God helps me to discover the only true joy: to be seen by His gaze of Love".

Source: AustralAsia 

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