Friday of the Twenty-FifthWeek in Ordinary Time
The story of Piera and Luigi
On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: Tell this to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel … and to the high priest Joshua … and to the remnant of the people: Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes? But now take courage, Zerubbabel … Joshua, …take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work! For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts … One moment yet, a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will come in, And I will fill this house with glory … Greater will be the future glory of this house than the former, says the Lord of hosts; And in this place I will give you peace, says the Lord of hosts. Hg 2,1-9
Piera and Luigi, a very nice couple, in which we have not understood who takes the lead, few years ago invited us for a lunch at their villa in Tuscany. By the half of the afternoon we greeted them: we were not yet exited from the gate when, in the rearview mirror of the car, we have noticed that they were furiously arguing. In the past they did it often, but lately we have met them being in agreement with love as newlyweds on their honeymoon. “What did it happen?” We asked. “We have renewed our marriage”, Luigi answered. “We see this, but how did this happen?”. “It happened during a meeting of prayer with our friends, to whom we asked to pray for us. At one point one of them opened the Bible and started to read the beginning of the book of Haggai”. It was the passage of today, which speaks of the reconstruction of the temple of Jerusalem: “Who is left among you that saw this house in the former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes? But now take courage…take courage.. and work! For I am with you”. “We looked at ourselves each other – added Piera – because we realized that the Lord was speaking to us: the temple to be rebuilt was our marriage. We have been back home and for all the night we pondered on that passage of the Holy Scriptures. Now – said Piera – we started to pray together and our marriage was reborn”. In front of such testimony it must be recognized that only the Lord can lay out certain situations. The lawyers and judges cannot do anything. Piera and Luigi, though, have had the humility to ask the prayer of the fellow believers and to start to pray together. If a married couple, who lives with difficulties their marriage, began to pray, the Lord takes the lead of the situation and begins the restoration work.