"We, all of us, are a 'cry for love'"

It's felt a little weird, a little like being in denial, to have a Catholic blog and not post anything about the horror that took place in Aurora, Colorado last week. Among the many things experience has taught me is not to react, especially in writing in the public forum. I certainly understand all the reactions I have read, which run the range from disbelief, to vengeance, to ideological soliloquies about gun laws, to expressions of grief and sympathy.

Yesterday, in between household chores and chasing my three amazing little boys around, I came across something written by a friend of mine, Riro. It was published by another dear friend, Dario, on Il Sussidiaro's English website ( a site I urge you check often)- COLORADO SHOOTING/What pushes us to do evil?.

Being a Communion & Liberation fellow-traveler, I follow the charism given to its founder, Msgr. Luigi Giussani, even if imperfectly and unevenly. This is how both Riro and Dario, along with many others, became my friends. So, what struck me in Riro's article was this: "We, all of us, are a 'cry for love', a cry, a question, a plea for Good. We live only for this and we are not able either to give it or to receive it, at least not enough. Even James Holmes cannot but be like this, but after a journey of 24 years, it seems that he did not find a better way to express his cry." I was not surprised that when I posted a link to Riro's article headlined by the quote above on Facebook yesterday afternoon, I received only one "Like" and no comments.

But I was also struck by his assertion that public responses, even as heartfelt and sincere as they are, usually only serve to deepen our despair by re-affirming our helplessness in face of horrible circumstances. So, on this the Feast of St. Mary Magadalene, who was the first witness of Christ's Resurrection, I very much like what my friend shared from Don Giussani, which is basically the Gospel, thus requiring faith, which itself results from an encounter of the kind had by Mary of Magdala, but that is most often mediated and not immediate, as was hers:

Do you remember... when Jesus was walking through the fields with his Apostles, near the town of Nai[n], and saw a woman weeping as she followed her dead son to his burial? He went up to her; he didn't say, "I'm going to raise your son". He said, "Woman, don't weep", with a tenderness, affirming unmistakable tenderness and love for the human person! And then he gave her back her son alive. But this isn't the point, because even other people can work miracles, but this charity, this love for man that is proper to Christ is quite beyond compare!

Only He can bring hope that overcomes despair even while He tenderly grasps our human response to such a horror, which mostly stem from fear. He bids us not to be afraid.

My dear brother Frank not only gives me reasons for being alive, but being Catholic by stating that he is Catholic Because Life Goes On, And Is Worth Living.