And the Pope went to meet them, in the street, near the favorite places of the homeless, with the cars of the Almshouse: if you don't come, I will go. Because the protagonist of my good is the one who is in need. In Rome it is said: "tie the donkey where the master wants". And if the master is a homeless man who does not want a roof over his head but only a way to protect himself from the cold, the Pope lends him a car. It is helping by serving, that is, helping by loving.
When we make the resolution to be better we do not have to think first of the object to give, but to whom we want to do good. If I want to give a roof to a homeless person, it may happen that the homeless person does not want it. Then I don't explain to him why he is wrong, but I take the car out of the garage and lend it to him for the night. If we lived this way in service to the other, we would have real authority, we would be real".regios"We would truly live the ordinary priestly ministry of baptism: to serve.
We should not strive to improve ourselves, but to love the other: this is - paradoxically, Viktor Frankl would say - the only authentic way to improve ourselves. If my attention is directed to the ultimate recipient of my action, in the end the true beneficiary of the purpose is me, my soul, my heart, my life. To enter into the order of ideas of helping now, in the small, concrete, to the other, with what I have, is also the only way of not transforming good intentions into windy fritters. A good resolution is fulfilled quickly. A good purpose is made with what we have, with what we are.
