"Serve" is a word that in many contexts may seem outdated. Certainly, servitude is unworthy of human beings when it is imposed or suffered due to poverty or discrimination.

On the other hand, the "spirit of service," especially when it is reciprocal in a community of any kind, becomes evidence of a change in social relations, because it breaks old patterns or new hierarchies. Moreover, living service with humility characterizes the true protagonists of authentic progress.

Nitin Nohria, senior dean at Harvard Business School, asserts that in a future that has already begun, it will be necessary to learn humility to be a good leader. According to him, humility will have to become a key word in the profiles of future candidates for management positions. He is not naive. He says this because he realizes that the current trend toward ever-increasing competitiveness is producing results that are the opposite of those expected; it is creating psychologically fragile, attention-seeking, appearance-obsessed, and narcissistic people.[1].

After all, great women and great men are recognized by small gestures, as ancient Eastern wisdom reminds us: "The greatest tree grows from a small sprout. The tallest tower grows from a mound of earth. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."[2].

Living like this requires a conscious and free choice: to stop living withdrawn into ourselves and our own interests and to "live for the other," with their feelings, bearing their burdens, and sharing their joys. We all have small or large responsibilities and positions of authority: in the political and social spheres, but also in the family, in the academic environment, and in the community. Let us take advantage of our "positions of honor" to place ourselves at the service of the common good, building just and supportive human relationships.

This is how Igino Giordani—writer, journalist, politician, and father—lived during a historical moment marked by the dictatorship in Italy. To express his experience, he wrote: "Politics is a servant and must not become its master: it must not be abused, dominated, or even dogmatic. This is where its function and dignity lie: in being a social service, a charity."[3] in action: the first form of national charity.

It was probably partly because of her personal relationship with this man, rooted in his time and at the same time a precursor projected beyond barriers and walls, that Chiara Lubich recalled more than once that when politics is an authentic experience, it is "the Love of Loves," because it is where the most authentic and selfless service to humanity is given in fraternity.

[1] Michele Genisio, Umiltà
[2] Daodejing, 64
[3] Giordani uses the word charity not in the "welfare" sense, as it is usually understood, but in the Christian sense, which indicates the highest form of love.