Life Reflections
Written by Renato Vanuzzo
Dedicated to all who have loved and supported me during this life journey of understanding where we
are directed and which are the only thins worth to collect in this journey.
A definition of History is given by Cicero who advocated “Historia Magistra Vitae”, History is a life teacher, so, we can say that all our personal and daily experiences we lived have contributed to the definition of our story. Reflecting on my past, after moments of great ideals and energy, I look back to what I did, to what I have been for myself and for the others, in a nutshell, I want to make an evaluation of my life and, if possible, to find an answer to all the fundamental questions of my life.
The nowadays bustle, in which we concentrate mainly on the production of our needs, and not only on the primary ones, prevents us from posing ourselves profound and intimate questions concerning the human origin, the meaning of life, and especially the one regarding the after death.
I did not escaped this perverse trap, and now, on my older age, I can consider myself grateful for my life and all I have received in these years, for the time that I have left, in which, considering all my experiences and knowledge, I will pose to myself further questions.
I want to start from the prerequisite that anyone choose to live, but everyone has the opportunity to die keeping, in the deep of our essence, the meaning of our life as it was a passport that permits us to bravely face the “dark of death”.
Not even our knowledge or our faith can alleviate the pain of this passage. Nothing but the balance of human and cosmic relationships, meant as the harmony with the universe, thanks to which we experienced love, equality, limits and hopes, can alleviate the “dark of death”.
I have transformed my thoughts into a project that goes through a portion of human experience. The Israel’ peoples has, in the centuries developed a global vision of life completely related to the Other, a transcendent being that we name God. Many times we discuss both political topics and political figures concluding that politics is a failing attempt since it lacks of a vision of life. For believer like us, the Revelation of God, shared with the Israeli history gives us all the premises to face a religious and intercultural dialogue, even if we do not consider this vision totalitarian and absolute with respect to the others. In any case, I would love to try to express my own vision of life and of the world according the trappings of this Revelation.
Many civilizations elaborated their own vision of life related to other entities considered transcendent, or related to natural elements. We will make reference to Saint Paul’s discourse to the Athenians Areòpago to highlights the differences:
“Athenians I can see that you are religious in everything. Passing by your holy monuments, I have also found the inscription “to an unknown God” inscribed on a aisle.
Here, the evidence of pagan symbols is pointed. This, besides the dialectic contrast between epicurean and stoic philosophers, symbolizes that for Athenians there was a holy figure.
Paul explication is simple:
I am announcing to you what you venerate without knowing. The God that created the world and what it is inside of it, Lord of the sky and earth, does not live inside man-constructed temples and it does not let men serve him like he needed something, he, by himself, gives life to everything.
Evangelize a city such as Athene, was for Saint Paul a crucial mission.
This attempt remains still today an important massage. If we question ourselves on the initial point of everything, we can realize how small can appear our life in this world. History and cosmos are the two paths followed by the man in this enquire in order to give a meaning to his proper existence.
With these premises I fixed to myself an aim: spreading with images and stories the history of our faith, representing characters and episodes with little sculptures made of terracotta.I went back to crucial historical moments, trying to rebuilt human relationships and trying to figure out a new equilibrium among different cultures.
Thank you for your attention.