Carnival all year round?

We live in a country where by now carnival (that festival when people wear masks and stuff themselves with everything because then, so they say, there should be a solemn period of Lent, etc.) is not just once a year but has become a "permanent festival".

Why do I say this?

Because it has become easier to wear a mask to survive on false balances, alongside what we should be in order to really live.

How many times have we been told we are people who say the truth to your face, and for that reason considered people to avoid?
How many times have we made remarks that didn't conform to the opinion of "others", and for that reason been considered dangerous, so to be silenced or pushed away?
How many times have we felt judged for what was right to say at that particular moment, and told ourselves: "next time I'll keep quiet", just to win the famous "approval of others"?

Both in Giving and in receiving, many times we prefer a hypocritical silence; many times we want to see A truth but not know The Truth; many times we consider an "enemy" someone who only intends to help us (differently from how we would like), just because grabbing hold of judgement is more comfortable and reassuring.

We ask ourselves...

– Is there a way to face a system that forces you to conform so as not to find doors slammed in your face?

– Is there a way to tell the truth and still be well liked?
– Is there a way not to be "persecuted"?

To all three questions I gave myself one answer: NO!

I read the story of a man who entered what was once called the temple (which today corresponds to a church building), where he overturned the stalls used to trade the animals to be sacrificed (Mark 11:15-17
... entering the temple courts, he began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers'.");

Another time the same man was very severe with the teachers who knew the "law of Moses" well, and addressed them with this sentence: "Hypocrites! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel";

Yet another time, to a man who told him he wanted to follow him but only after waiting for his father to die so he could bury him, he answered:"Let the dead bury their own dead..." and I could write many other expressions that this Man used to counter appearance and convenience , and not only this...

Let's ask ourselves why we call righteous a man who reacts with "fury and presumption". Indeed! Because in a society where it is always carnival, such a man would be called exactly that, furious and presumptuous; yet this same society remembers him by celebrating twice a year, for his birth, for his death and also for his resurrection. Today, I'm sure, they would put him back on the cross if he were here among us in flesh and blood.

But this same Man did not insult in the face of insults. Beaten, abused, whipped, spat on, nailed for having committed no crime, persecuted because considered one too many, one who with the truth was destroying the income earned with lies, who was dissolving their charming masks and would bring every mystery to light, this same  Man did not open his mouth in his own defence before his accusers.

Do you think that if today we too are fighting for truth and justice, we won't be persecuted? Do you think that if they persecuted the only righteous man, they won't persecute us too, who need to be forgiven 24/7?

Telling the truth and practising it has a price; how much are you willing to pay?

Few will love us, many would like to keep us as far away as possible because they will feel uncomfortable in our presence, many might even wish for our failure. Perhaps the first to persecute us will be those of our own family, our friends, relatives, neighbours. Without losing heart, we know it's worth fighting like that Man mentioned above, because in suffering he managed to sow an Eternal Truth.

Wide is the road that leads us to "comfortable" choices and narrow is the way that leads us to practise a True life, lived with the courage to "lose" , for a Just Cause , a reputation built over the years, a false ideal that many had seen in you, baggage of security and approval, because on that WAY, called Narrow, there is room to let through only and exclusively you, without "clutter". That's why choosing a mask is equivalent to a life that many consider "peaceful", because it doesn't answer back, it conforms to the masses, goes unnoticed, follows the current.

The reason for this article is the daily fight against a force that wants to push us towards what would compromise the TRULY Good we are called to be. I underline TRULY because giving the adjective GOOD to a person who has hidden their image behind the silence of a "shop window", without making their own considerations, without dialogue, hiding from "noises" foreign to their own opinion, is only an appearance of GOODNESS.

I hope this article has helped to recognise what we are really fighting to improve ourselves and, as a result, to sow something pure and eternal around us.
Thank you for reading.
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