Padre Teobaldo’s 90th birthday
FROM MY NINTY YEARS
Posted at: www.lecelle.it
When people ask you what has been the harvest of ninety years of life, you realize how difficult it is to give a general evaluation, and still there is something to say about such a long path.
For instance: that life has been a continuous discovery. I was only 7 or 8 years old when I read in a book of geography : “You, children, who are at the beginning of your lives…” and understood for the first time that until that moment I was living without being aware of it.
Or, that after planting a seed in the ground and having forgotten about that, great was the surprise of seeing the little plant grown almost out of nothing. Or, after engraving my name on a trunk of a poplar I was enchanted to see it getting bigger and bigger day after day..
When at the age of 13 I entered a convent for the first time, while I was waiting with my mother, a guest friars of that community said to me: “Hey child, Friars are smart!” Then I said to my mom: “I’m smart too!”. Eventually as I was getting wiser I realized that “being smart” wasn’t really the point and that competing for a better place doesn’t add anything to your inner freedom and that we are still able to do our best even standing at the end of the line..
When I was 20, I discovered that Christ is not a King to be venerated; indeed I had found out all the details of his humanity in a book, in many respects close to who I am and at the same time so different…It will be a never ending confrontation that will get me to publish two books on His Person.
Later on, I discovered you learn while you teach. For many years I’ve been teaching philosophical subjects and I discovered that while lecturing others I was actually improving myself. At the beginning, teaching Metaphysics seemed to be a “brain emptier” but by the way my students responded to the higher and most complex concepts, I became aware of the fact that I was getting to understand what humankind is about..
My students’ favorite subject was Psychology, probably because its laws are a way to disclose the secrets of our behaviors; so doing it together was magical and enjoyable.
And what a great discovery I made when I introduced my 85-year old friend to an audience, still able to remember his birth day, and only a few months later celebrated his funeral! The clear and essential notion of the powerful alternation of a generation after the other in our planet, such to capture the true nature of who we are.
Among the great discoveries we can surely include the “Law of Gravity” of Newton, the Radio of Marconi, the Antibiotics of Fleming, the Computer of Gates; but if I put together my own discoveries I am not feeling less lucky.
Father Teobaldo Ricci, Capuchin at the Hermitage Le Celle in Cortona
