THE SEEDS OF HEROD
Featured

05 April 2019

There is a Salesian oratory in Heaven. The door is always open. The latest arrival is Saged Mezher, a "Muslim" boy from our electronics school, who comes from the Dehesha refugee camp in the West Bank. He was studying for his diploma, when soldiers entered the camp to arrest people and began violent gun battles. It's difficult to stop men with submachine guns in hand. People, screaming, ran to hide. The cries of the wounded reached the sky and also the heart of Saged, a member of the Camp's First Aid group. He left school, put on the vest with the group's name and logo and ran to help a few injured men lying on the ground. He was trying to lift a stricken man when a bullet tore through his chest. They took him to the Hussein hospital and then to a specialized hospital. Three frantic hours of intervention. But there was no way to save him.

Saged is dead and like the blessed of the Gospel, he lives in the heart of God.

Shortly before he arrived, a meager message had arrived: "I feel like crying. Two days ago, no one knows who or why, at midnight someone set fire to our girls' dormitory in Tonj in South Sudan. Alerted, the girls ran out, but three girls didn't wake up in time. They were burned alive. It was an act of intimidation against us or perhaps a tribal revenge by parents themselves. In South Sudan, life is worth less than the price of a cow. And the "eye for an eye" principle still applies. We hope that there are no more serious consequences."

Half of the children and adolescents on the planet, recalls a WHO report, is subject to some form of physical, psychological or sexual violence. There aren't even investigations. Almost all of them are brushed aside as "collateral damage", minor incidents.

The Pope's message in the Apostolic Exhortation "Christus Vivit" (in numbers 75-76) is clear:

75. As a Church, may we never fail to weep before these tragedies of our young. May we never become inured to them, for anyone incapable of tears cannot be a mother. We want to weep so that society itself can be more of a mother, so that in place of killing it can learn to give birth, to become a promise of life. We weep when we think of all those young people who have already lost their lives due to poverty and violence, and we ask society to learn to be a caring mother. None of this pain goes away; it stays with us, because the harsh reality can no longer be concealed. The worst thing we can do is adopt that worldly spirit whose solution is simply to anaesthetize young people with other messages, with other distractions, with trivial pursuits.

76. Perhaps “those of us who have a reasonably comfortable life don’t know how to weep. Some realities in life are only seen with eyes cleansed by tears. I would like each of you to ask yourself this question: Can I weep? Can I weep when I see a child who is starving, on drugs or on the street, homeless, abandoned, mistreated or exploited as a slave by society? Or is my weeping only the self-centred whining of those who cry because they want something else?”[31] Try to learn to weep for all those young people less fortunate than yourselves. Weeping is also an expression of mercy and compassion. If tears do not come, ask the Lord to give you the grace to weep for the sufferings of others. Once you can weep, then you will be able to help others from the heart.

We owe it to all human persons, young and old, who in this world are treated only as "things". Because undoubtedly one of the fundamental fears is to be treated as things and not as people.

Handled, pushed here and there by impersonal forces, treated as if we didn't count for anything from those who are stronger, who are superior.

Each of us can be a tiny atom in an immense universe, but we need to delude ourselves that we count ... That our individuality attracts attention. To be completely neglected as a person is a kind of death in life, against which we are forced to fight with all our strength.

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