What can I do?

Every day, terrible events occur, on such a scale that they make us feel powerless: migrants facing journeys of death in desperate conditions, populations experiencing the daily tragedy of war, or the dramatic social injustices afflicting the planet.

“What can I do?”: This question can paralyze us and trap us in a resigned individualism.

The first challenge for one's own conscience is to allow oneself to be challenged by that very question: "What can I do?"

The fishermen off the coast of Lampedusa in Italy asked themselves this question, forming, together with the generous local people, veritable human chains, reaching out and trying to save, one by one, at least one (and then ten, a hundred, a thousand...) of the desperate shipwrecked people abandoned to the waves of the Mediterranean. The same question was asked by communities on the borders of war zones (in Europe, Africa, Asia...), who opened the doors of their homes not out of political or economic calculation, but out of a natural choice of compassion and welcome.

Precisely in these situations, it is possible to observe small or large everyday "miracles," which are not utopian dreams, but rather gestures that build the society of the future.

Seek hope, don't wait for it to come to you: Professor Russell Pearce emphasizes.[1] from Fordham School of Law in New York. She conducted interviews with two organizations that promote dialogue and peace between Israelis and Palestinians—Parents Circle and Combatants for Peace—with the aim of understanding how their members managed to maintain their relationships after October 7, 2023, and during the subsequent war in Gaza. Why did these groups maintain their ties, and why did they even strengthen them? Both Palestinians and Israelis claim that their dialogue has been transformative. They say theirs is a dialogue of love. A Palestinian participant observes: “The transformation we have undergone has been a very sacred experience for each of us and has left an impact on our souls and a deep bond. It is a journey and a process that transforms the other into a brother.” An Israeli similarly observes: “We worked to build trust and become a family—years of sacred work with all its challenges, dynamics, and doubts.” Pearce concludes: the Jewish sages teach that “if you save one life, you save the whole world.” A Palestinian who runs the Parents Circle youth program explained: "If you change one person, you change the whole world."

Chiara Lubich said: "The most visible aspect of unity is fraternity. This certainly seems to me the most appropriate way to go against the current (...) to more fully achieve freedom and equality. (...) It is a valid path for those who hold the destiny of humanity in their hands, but also for mothers, for volunteers who bring fragments of solidarity to the world, for those who make part of their company's profits available to eliminate spaces of poverty, for those who do not surrender to war. The fraternity that comes "from above" and that "from below" will thus meet in peace."[2].