377 - IN THE HEART OF THE YOUNG THERE IS EVERYTHING

First Encounter with Father Piamarta - By Pier Giordano Cabra

Chapter Two

The Heart of the Young Overflows With the Fullness of Life

1. God is also there. In the heart of this little boy, John Baptist, God's light had begun to shine and was beginning to outshine everything else. “If God is everything,” reasoned John, “why not focus everything on Him? If He is everything, what more do I need?” One day John left home with a friend, in essence running away. They were off on a great adventure to be hermits. Near Brescia is Mount Maddalena, an elevation of one thousand meters on which are many caverns that were once the dwellings of hermits; there, these hermits had lived alone with only the presence of God. The two young adventurers climbed steadily, stopped a little and enjoyed the beautiful panorama. “What now?” they soon asked themselves. Darkness was approaching, they had nothing to eat, and it was getting cold. “Why don’t we climb down?” they decided, and running home they made it before nightfall. From this experience, little John understood that being a hermit was not his calling but pointing “everything” to God was.

2. Young John had a lot of free time from school and was very lively, vivacious and even rambunctious. He liked playing outdoors with the neighborhood boys. They would play war games. They threw stones at each other and would hurt each other. Out on the street, they were at the mercy of unscrupulous people. Later, as an adult, when John would look back on that time he said he would have become a rascal had he not found the oratory of Saint Thomas. The oratory gave him the right direction in his life; it gave him healthy entertainment and most importantly it helped him to discover Jesus as his best and most trustworthy friend. It was here that John came to understand the importance of spending time with the young and helping them to grow in an environment where they feel good and learn how to do good and make the right choices.

3. Meanwhile, his father and grandfather began to think about what young John, lively, a dreamer, delicate and even sickly, would do as adult. They agreed to send him as an apprentice to Zanolini, a good mattress maker. This would be good preparation for a future job. The boy was happy to go and his employer liked him.

4. However, the job was repetitive and the strain of working many nine and ten hour days while living off a meager salary began to take its toll. His loss of strength soon became apparent. Was he malnourished? Was it an unhealthy environment? The job was not for him? Was his health poor? His employer, Zanolini, a caring and paternal person worried about his health and sent him to Vallio, a village twenty kilometers from Brescia in a healthy valley in the middle of the woods, where the change of air could help him recover. There, far from his friends and his job, he started to explore the woods with only his stick and his thoughts. He felt that there was somebody inside him—that it was his friend Jesus who was near him and with whom he could talk of the things he cared about most. Without noticing, his walks began to stop in the beautiful parish church, where he would enter to be close to his friend Jesus and better feel his presence. He was glad for the birth of this friendship and he was nurturing this one with care.

5. The Pastor of Vallio noticed those repetitive visitations in the church by that boy from the city, skinny and vivid, who was as much at ease in a cluster of boys as in the silence of the church. One day he stopped him and spoke to him. He became convinced that he was in front of a wonderful boy of ordinary appearance. He could see that this boy was called to do great things and so he asked him a question.

  Traduzione a cura di Mary Levine e Matteo Toschi