The last few months have been full of visits from friends and colleagues: «How nice to be able to share what we do for our patients, and also our lives, without fear of being found small»
Winter days are truly special. They allow us to take a breather from the great heat that often oppresses us here in Bangladesh. And then this year the cold wasn’t too bad. They were also days marked by visits from many Italian friends who took advantage of the winter holidays to come and share a bit of our lives with us. It is nice to be able to welcome people who come to our mission for the first time and this year, in a special way, it was a gift to be able to have friends with us who help us from a distance like Franco, Luisella, Tina. And also Father Daniele Criscione of PIME and Michelle who arrived here from the United States. There are also Italian doctors, who for years and faithfully return to lend a hand both here, at the Damien Hospital, and in the hospital managed by the Xaverian missionaries and the nuns of Maria Bambina. And so I can allow myself a little discussion with colleagues and friends who are always willing to help me. Friendships that are consolidated or born later are truly beautiful!
I am happy to welcome every person who wishes to enter our homes and our hospital and share with each of them our daily service to patients. Very often these guests of ours also serve as a “mirror” for us: they make me remember the beauty of giving ourselves to our sick, but also the style and attitude that perhaps they sometimes take for granted and which instead can be changed or remodeled. Theirs are often moved eyes that look with amazement at what we do and which we instead consider so everyday and “normal”; eyes that never tire of searching deep inside; eyes that often shine with tears because they see unacceptable things; eyes that scrutinize our every movement, attitude, word…
How nice to be able to share what we do for our patients! How wonderful it is to be able to share our lives, our relationships, without fear of being found small, without fear of showing ourselves poor like the people we are here to serve. Sometimes I am not capable of solving people’s problems, sometimes I have to stop when faced with this country’s lack of means which does not allow me to act as I would like. And yet we move forward, with the limits of the context and also with our limits.
I say thank you to these friends, with whom I spent beautiful days of profound and unique sharing. We have discovered together the colors of the Gospel in this country, we have them in our hearts and we continue to make a precious gift of them. I know that these friends then take us with them to Italy and the world, with their stories and their testimony. They are friendships that are born like this, because they are wanted by our Father who never ceases to show us his tenderness and desire to never leave us alone. Souls and hearts that, even from a distance, still want to walk together.