Archbishop Pezzi on Ukraine: Each horror opposes any act of goodness

By Archbishop Paolo Pezzi

Not always does the memory of the anniversary of some event bring any novelty, often it is limited to a memory, to a recurrence, but without grasping or deepening its reflection in the present. This becomes more acute as a necessity when the event whose origin is being remembered is still ongoing.

I do not know what the feelings of people in Europe could have been on the occasion of the second anniversary of the outbreak of the first or second world war, what I see and hear here in Russia, exactly two years after that February 24, 2022, with the different ethnicities that make up the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, is a latent question of biblical flavor, which until now has had no answer: "how long?"

It must be said that the Catholic community in Russia is multi-ethnic and multicultural. This means concretely that an answer must be given to that question that takes into account, at least in our communities, the coexistence not only of Russians and Ukrainians, but also of Belarusians, Poles, Lithuanians, just to name a few neighboring countries.

Personally, I have dedicated a lot of space to dialogue on this painful wound in my pastoral visits to parishes. In the first months after the beginning of the conflict, we noticed a growing feeling of hatred, difficulty in forgiving, resentment, anger, and difficulty in resuming, in starting again. Then a certain resignation began to spread, a difficulty in making plans for the future, and some weariness. Our contribution has been to preach forgiveness and never to close the door to dialogue and encounter with the other, because as long as we meet and talk, we can always seek and, God willing, find solutions.

Today I think that the most beautiful thing we can offer is the humble certainty of being in this situation, in this circumstance in which we find ourselves because in this way we bring a seed of hope for everyone. When one "stands" with faith in Christ Jesus in a certain situation, perhaps not easy, then one becomes a home, where it is good to dwell, as I have seen in Azer in Syria, in a Trappist monastery.

Simply staying has become a source of hope even for others around the nuns to build oases of peace, dialogue, active charity among people, even of different ethnicities and religious beliefs.

In the time of waiting, looking forward to Christmas, I was greatly accompanied by reading a beautiful book by the psychiatrist Borgna on friendship. In particular, a quote from the diary of Etty Hillesum, I found it to be well descriptive of the situation we are experiencing, and indicative for discernment in view of that perspective of "standing to bring hope": "Life is a splendid and great thing, later we will have to build a completely new world. For every new crime or horror, we must oppose a fragment of love and goodness that we must conquer within ourselves. We can suffer, but we must not succumb."

The change of perspective comes from the surprise of a little piece of love and goodness that is expanding in our hearts. If the heart does not change, the world will hardly change: and indeed the heart of man is the world that becomes aware of itself: the wonderful skies of the north, the mountains and valleys of the Caucasus, the immense Siberian plains, but also the dramas of refugees, migrants, victims, people and environment, crimes and horrors become aware of existing in my heart, and they hurt it, they cannot leave it indifferent.

In this way, we become "artisans of peace", but of a divine peace, artisans of the only possible peace, that which comes from the Risen Christ, not a worldly peace. The tragedy of the powerful of this world instead consists in striving to seek, and, ultimately, to "impose" a worldly, earthly peace, in its various, and increasingly sophisticated, horrible variants, always tragic and sad, which sees only winners and losers, humiliated and oppressed.

To the crimes and horrors, which unfortunately increasingly accompany our lives, the only possible response remains that of Easter: the mystery of offering, of the Cross, of the Resurrection, of beauty, of mercy, of peace.