WE ARE COMMITTED

 

 Volunteer, the army 

of "despite"

On World Volunteer Day, we dedicate our website's homepage to them, with the "ten words" that are the driving forces of volunteerism today. It's our "thank you" to the 4.7 million Italians who give freely for others and for the common good: today, despite everything. The ten words are taken from the November magazine, "Volunteer, why do you do it?": a forceful issue that forcefully defends the rationale and meaning of "we commit ourselves." Together, they represent a sort of modern-day rewriting of the beautiful text written by Don Primo Mazzolari in 1949, which we reproduce here in its original version.

 

by Sara De Carli

 

Research has been telling us for some years now that voluntary action is no longer motivated by solidarity. In an age marked by impotence, "wanting to change the world" mostly sounds like utopia. And if there are those who choose... Rage -bite as "word of the year , " we say that volunteering is the most powerful antidote to anger, cynicism, and resignation. As Riccardo Guidi writes in VITA , "volunteering is one of the most valuable collective strategies for responding to frustration through care." And as Andrea Cardoni reminded us , quoting the poet Angelo Maria Ripellino during the magazine presentation we held in Florence, "we are all 'despites,' buffeted by the wind, trying to resist the suffering of life."

The issue of VITA dedicated to volunteers, "Volunteer, why do you do it?" , is a stand-up issue: a choice of sides and a huge "thank you" to the millions of volunteers in Italy who, every day, dedicate themselves to others and the common good. On World Volunteer Day, we dedicate our website's homepage to them, featuring the "ten words" that today represent the driving forces of volunteering: from "community" to "frustration," from "desire" to "imagination."

Ten signatures reflecting on the new drivers of volunteering

Together, they represent a sort of modern-day rewriting of the beautiful and ever-timely text that Don Primo Mazzolari wrote in 1949, "Our Commitment ," here in the original version shared by the Don Primo Mazzolari Foundation. Let's start from here, let's start from ourselves.

Our commitment

We are committed

us and not the others

only us and not others

neither he who is above nor he who is below

neither those who believe nor those who do not believe.

We are committed

without expecting anyone else to make any commitment to us or on our behalf, like us or otherwise.

 We are committed

without judging those who don't make an effort

without accusing those who don't commit themselves

without condemning those who don't commit themselves

without trying because he doesn't commit

without giving up because others don't.

We know that we can do nothing about anyone, nor do we want to force anyone's hand, devoted as we are and as we intend to remain to the free movement of every spirit rather than to the success of ourselves or our convictions.

The world moves if we move it changes if we change it becomes new if someone becomes a new creature it becomes barbaric if we unleash the beast that is in each of us

We can do nothing about our world, about this reality that is our outside world, poor as we are and as we intend to remain, nameless. If we feel we have power over something—and we firmly desire it—it is over ourselves, over ourselves alone.

The world moves if we move

it changes if we change

it becomes new if someone becomes a new creature

it becomes barbaric if we unleash the beast that is in each of us.

The new order begins if someone makes an effort to become a new man.

Spring begins with the first flower

the night with the first star

the river with the first drop of water

love with the first dream.

We are committed 

Why…

We know exactly why we are committed : but we don't want to know, at least at this first moment , according to a reasoned procedure, the only one that satisfies many even when they don't understand , precisely when they don't understand.

We know this and we say it to ourselves more than to others:

We are committed 

because we couldn't help but try.

There is someone or something within us—an instinct, a reason, a calling, a grace—stronger than ourselves.

In the most dire moments, we orient ourselves by calls whose origin is unclear, but which constitute the surest certainty, the only certainty amidst the general disorientation. The spirit can also open a path through the resistance of our selfishness in this way, preparing us for those new, continuous obediences that can be imposed in each of us by conscience, reason, and faith.

We are committed 

To find meaning in life, in this life, in our life, a reason that isn't one of the many reasons we know well and that don't capture our hearts, a usefulness that isn't one of the usual traps generously offered to young people by practical people. We only live once, and we don't want to be "tricked" in the name of any petty interest.

we are not interested in career

we don't care about money

We are not interested in women if you present them to us as females only.

We are not interested in the success of ourselves or our ideas

we are not interested in going down in history.

marble scares us. 

We are not interested in being heroes or traitors before men if it costs us our loyalty to ourselves.

We are interested

to lose ourselves for something or someone who will remain even after we have passed and who constitutes the reason for our finding each other.

we are interested

to carry an eternal destiny through time

to feel responsible for everything and everyone

to set out, even through long wanderings, towards Love, which has spread a smile of poetry over every creature, from the flower to the child, from the star to the maiden, which makes us pensive before a cradle and waiting before a coffin.

We are committed not to rearrange the world, not to remake it to measure, but to love it.

We are committed

not to reorder the world

not to remake it to measure

but to love him

to love

even what we cannot accept

even that which is not lovable

even the one who seems to refuse love

because behind every face and under every heart there is, together with a great thirst for love, the face and heart of Love .

We are committed

because we believe in Love,

the only certainty that fears no comparison,

the only one that is enough to make us totally committed.

 

The source of the quotation is P. Mazzolari, Impegno con Cristo , critical edition edited by G. Vecchio, EDB, Bologna, 2007