For the young PIME animation team on their way to Lisbon, the stop in the Catalan capital was dedicated to listening and reflecting on their own desires and those of those in difficulty, material or spiritual
Mission is (also) listening. The evangelist recalls this, speaking of the first missionary in history: “In the beginning he was the Word”, immediately referring to the semantic sphere of communication. Listening is one of the primary tasks of every missionary, and ultimately of every Christian: whoever believes is sent to listen in order to discover the treasure that each one holds, as built in the image and likeness of God. Listening was the hyphen of our Catalan stage: we listened to our desires, we met those who make listening the first weapon of “dignification” for those who struggle even to feel like a person.
On the morning of Saturday the 30th we set off from Marseilles to Barcelona and stopped in Narbonne, where we were guests of the Franciscan convent of San Bonaventura for lunch. Together with Father Ivan we reflected on the figure of Zacchaeus and on him and our desires for him: “Zacchaeus’ desire to see Jesus is an“ impure desire ”, also tainted by a certain taste for gossip. Yet even an ‘impure desire’ can generate an extraordinary encounter. Zacchaeus decides to find a creative solution for his obstacles (short stature, the crowd that blocks his view): he doesn’t avoid them or force them, he simply finds creative solutions. In short, the desire for him saves him: Jesus comes to save us more than to cure us ”.
Once in Badalona, near Barcelona, we took lodgings in the parish of Santa Maria della Salute, where we celebrated Sunday Mass together with the local community. Listen to your own desires but also to those in difficulty, material or spiritual. On Monday the 31st we were gifted with the testimony of don Luigi Usubelli, a priest of Bergamo origins who now works with the diocese of Barcelona and with the Parish of Sant’Anna to help the over eighty thousand Italian residents and those who are most in need of care and listening: «Barcelona is a city with a clear identity. In a way it reminds a bit of the cities of northern Italy: full of good people but certainly not warm. It is not Spain: even the Catalan Church is in open opposition to the central Church of Madrid. I am here to help spiritually the more than eighty thousand Italians who live in Barcelona: we have a widespread pastoral care which covers the entire territory of the city. The greatest challenge is to offer high-level listening that helps the spiritual lives of those entrusted to us, especially in an anti-clerical city like this. Here in Sant’Anna we have created a very important social reality: for management we get help from those we have welcomed in the past. It is a way of making them responsible and recognizing them as people: it is the thing that anyone who lives on the street is looking for the most, even more than a roof or groceries».
In the afternoon, then, we visited the canteen Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity: a refectory that manages to offer over two hundred hot meals every day thanks to the contribution of the volunteers who live in the center alone: a brilliant example of how listening opportunities can arise even in the simplest sharing, in front of a hot dish. To close the day “in glory” we went to the sacred Family to celebrate Mass together with the boys of the Salesian Youth Movement who are also on their way to Lisbon.
Beauty also opened our second Catalan day: on the morning of Tuesday 1st August we visited the cathedral of Santa Eulalia, and in the afternoon we moved towards the Citadel Park to share resonances and thoughts, and then in the evening to the beach of Badalona for a well-deserved Mediterranean bath, for dinner and for the recitation of compline. Our journey restarted in the direction of Madrid, the last stop before the final destination Lisbon.