FORGIVENESS

What is forgiveness? The definition that is commonly given asserts that forgiveness is the act by which a person forgets the hurt received, and renounces to hatred and revenge. But if it was really a forgetfulness (whether voluntary or effect of the passage of time) then forgiveness would be reduced to ignorance, that is, to an incomplete knowledge of the forgiven person and of reality, which instead should always be approached with an open mind and never avoided. Therefore forgiveness must be the result of a deep understanding of the person, of his actions and of the motivations and dynamics that led him to take an action that has hurt us or procured harm.

A "deep understanding", that is an act that involves both the intellect and the heart. As human beings we are not always able to see all the reasons that underlie an action and we are even less able to understand those reasons when the thinking is transported by rage and pain; because of this, a man is incapable of always forgiving. However, because it is an act that involves the heart, forgiving can be facilitated by a sincere repentance of the one who harms, and especially by the love for this person. Infact, forgiveness belongs to love because of the essence of the latter: love is the answer to the overall beauty of a person which shines for the one who loves despite the flaws of the beloved.

Because it is a voluntary act of understanding and not just simple forgetfulness, the remembrance of the tort comes back to the memory even with the passage of time, accompanied by the feeling of pain caused by it; therefore forgiveness will never be a once-for-all effort, but an act that needs to be constantly renewed.

THE EUROPEAN CASE AND THE RECOVERY OF THE OTHER'S FACE

In recent years the Italian people often found themselves thinking about illegal immigration, especially after the numerous deaths that took place off the island of Lampedusa. The south of Italy, in most cases, has shown great empathic capacities giving shelter and helping those men and women; but in the rest of Europe we have witnessed a continuous indifference, if not hostility as in the case of Malta that shot at those men in order to keep them far from the shores. This leaves us dismayed especially if we pause to reflect that the western countries are the ones that take advantage of the poverty of the third world countries and that also they often are the cause of this poverty.

A similar phenomenon is becoming a reality even for Italy. For various reasons, infact, this nation was slowly sold off to several foreign countries (directly or through third parties), starting from public services and ending nowadays with the sale of the manufacturing companies that in the past have made ​​the 'Made in Italy' famous all over the world. After 150 anniversary of its unification, Italy today is divided into several pieces and owned by other nations as before the Risorgimento. This situation has given rise to waves of Italian emigration to those countries that are taking advantage of the poverty of Italy (and in part are also the cause of it) and to a consequent increase in hostility towards Italians as demonstrated by the recent killing of a young Italian in Great Britain.

What kind of society is this that takes pleasure in the indigence of others and disregards the human being?! Is this the kind of well-being we are running after?!

We have lost sight of the human being, the other, the neighbor: to borrow the words of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, we have stopped looking at the Other's face. It is the face in its nakedness and irreducibility that recalls us, remind us that the other cannot be cut out or reduced to ourselves. The Other's face makes a demand and puts us in front of the responsibility we have towards each other.

It is the relationship with the other in his dignity as a human being that we need to recover . We live in a system where everything has become 'Economy' : the politics in which the State has become a big company rather than the institution that safeguards the welfare of all the people; the happiness, which has been turned into material well-being; the relationships looking often for an economic advantage; the person become a consumer, customer, and even a product. Let us be builders of a new society that is able to look at the face of the other. We do not need everything that is sold to us in order to be happy: the consumerism has nothing to do with happiness. We work tirelessly to pay for things that we do not really need and doing so, life escapes us. Let us build a society that is able to look at the essential, at what really enriches the life of man : human relationships , nature , family, friends and love. A society with respect for the dignity of every human being. Utopia? As Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has!”.