If you meet an atheist, who puts a lot of if and but to the signs that God allows in our lives and in the nature, talk him about voluntary work. Voluntary work is a vertigo: the world is watching from above. If you meet an atheist, ask him: why do you think that millions of people around the world, ordinary people, with their flaws and injustices, neither supermen, nor heroes and not all saints, are devoting the most precious thing they have (ie self and their time) to others? Why and for whom, in a hectic and a bit selfish time as that which we are living, it has established this successful staging of men among other men, making them brothers and friends? And only in Italy is engaging 1 million 125 thousand persons (data Fondazione Roma - Terzo Settore), of which more than half in a systematic way, that is a true unpaid work that dovetails with the real work?

I fear that the atheist has no answer, because the voluntary work, the gift of self that is free and passionate, is inexplicable without God. If, in fact, the man was able to so merciful proximity, we would live in peace from thousands of years and if all depended only by man, without even a spark of God to illuminate this widespread self-giving, which logic accounts for the fact that, while millions of unknowns are helping one another, volunteers in soup kitchens, hospitals, parishes, near to the elderly, immigrants, the unemployed, at the same time there is a mother who decides to kill her child, only her so that she is the only guardian. One is reminded of that wonderful, terrible question of Mother Teresa: "If a mother can eliminate her own child, how can we pretend that there is peace among men?". I think that there are too many contradictions in the human heart, because the mystery of the gift of self, that is voluntary work, can be explained by looking in the mirror on own.

Volunteering is a piece of Paradise left on the earth, as a pledge and proof that Heaven exists seriously. It is a great contradiction, when compared with the evil in the world, a madness. How can an atheist explain volunteering? He can say that it is only an interlude of love lost in a nihilistic universe. What a sadness! The Christian, however, knows. He knows that behind every suffering there is the suffering Christ, and then he can not get tired of serving the suffering humanity. But he also knows that the gift of self, in itself, appears as a small drop, but really great, seeing what Jesus said: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew: 25,40) Only Christ gives full meaning to voluntary work because he is the first of the suffering and at the same time he is the first of the volunteers: he could have avoided the Calvary and the Cross and he did not do so.

Christians have great credit and a terrible responsibility. The merit is that they never pulled back: if it exists - and there is- a fantasy of the Spirit, they have run up, invoked it and even bent with sweet power of prayer (the great saints, the great founder, masters of the gift of themselves were often great mystics). This dialogue between Heaven and earth has permitted that the world know the hospitals, pharmacies, schools, even before that they were state's social services, and when "for all" did not exist, Christians have opened the doors to the poor and in their structures charity, justice, scientific research (the first schools of surgery were born in the monasteries) have given space.

"Come and eat" has been applied literally: the gift of self. Do we want to recognize the miracle of the thousands of tables scattered in our parishes, managed to relay by dozens of moms, dads and boys, with the help of priests, religious, and that are perfectly working? But how? Banks are failing, but have been the tables of the parishes going on? Rounding out the companies, multinationals, but the tables of the parishes and dioceses are there, to guard the road? Yes, I cite the case of Radio Maria. Without advertising and government grants, with the power of volunteering and offerings, is the Italian radio with the best coverage, with the highest number of repeaters. No other broadcaster, nor the Rai nor the private, behind the publishing giants, can take the rhythm and pace. And it is simultaneously the leader of a Worldwide Network that is unmatched on the entire planet. These are signs, signs of blessing, roads and bridges that should lead us to a happy and bitter reflection. Happy: God is with us and when we realize good things, He is a shield and an invincible armor.

And here we come to the terrible responsibility that I said earlier. Bitter responsibility: but we make this right? We confined volunteering in one type of social, of materials poverty, and instead there is another poverty that we struggle to recognize: that of the heart, of the Truth. To make charity of Truth is becoming the new emergency. Today's man is bewildered by thousand of chatters that are repeating in his head: sometimes it's the banality of lectures and empty performances (not necessarily dirty or bad in itself, but inconsistent) to make him a robot incapable of reflecting on the great values, often it is the charm of theories listen to from various pulpits listened to impoverish the mind and heart.

And finally there is the great mystery of the received gift. God can not be beaten by anyone in generosity and for this volunteering is never really free: God doesn’t call us without giving us a just reward. We understand by the experience of those who say: "I've got more than I gave." "I'm not tired, in fact: I can regenerate," so the most enthusiastic volunteers are speaking. What pay is this? How come? How do I feel? How do I change? What have I got? Jesus' promise of a hundredfold already here on the earth (Mark: 10, 29-30) is maintained. And there are millions of witnesses, in every age and every time, watching their generous hand, they find it not empty and consumed but rich and flourishing, as a vigorous plant, as the mother of many children, if not generated in the body, certainly in the spirit.

Rosario Carello
Responsabile di "A Sua Immagine"
posta@rosariocarello.it