“There were several students who attended class sporadically,” explains one teacher. “During my free time, I used to go to the market next to the school, hoping to find them there because I had heard they worked there to earn some money. One day I finally saw them, and they were amazed that I had personally gone looking for them, and they were struck by how important they were to the entire school community. From then on, they started coming to class regularly, and it was truly a celebration for everyone.”

This fact expresses the inalienable value of every human being. It speaks to us of unconditional acceptance, of a hope that never gives up, and of a shared joy when dignity is restored by being reintegrated into the community as someone unique and irreplaceable.

There are times in life when we can't all keep pace. Our own fragility, or that of others, prevents us from always walking side by side with those who accompany us. The causes can be many: fatigue, confusion, suffering... But it is precisely here that a profoundly human and radically communal form of love is activated: it is the attentive love that knows how to stop and look at those who can no longer keep up, that draws close and does not abandon. It is a love that, like a mother or father with their children, gathers, protects, and accompanies. It is a patient love that looks upon others with understanding, respect, and trust. It is about bearing one another's burdens, not as a duty, but as a lucid and free choice of love that commits to walking more slowly, if necessary, to keep the family and/or social community alive and united.

This kind of love—the kind that cares, the kind that seeks, the kind that includes—doesn't distinguish between good and bad, between "worthy" and "unworthy." It reminds us that we can all, at some point, be lost, and that the collective joy of reunion is stronger than any judgment or separation.

This idea is an invitation to see others not for what they have done, but for the fact that they are unique and worthy of being loved. It invites us to live the ethic of "caring," without leaving anyone behind or abandoning anyone, thus restoring broken bonds and celebrating together our contribution to making the world a little more human.

Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, reflecting on the profound relationship between people as a place of truth, affirms that authenticity is not found in what we do in solitude, but in the encounter with others, especially when it is done with respect and gratuity.