Rimini Meeting Reflects on Heart of Mankind

By Antonio Gaspari

RIMINI, Italy, AUG. 22, 2010 (Zenit.org).- At the opening Mass of the 31st Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, those gathered in Rimini were reminded that God's desire for man is that he be happy.

Bishop Francesco Lambiasi of Rimini presided today at the opening Mass of the weeklong conference, sponsored by the Catholic lay Communion and Liberation movement.

Some 12,000 were present today to reflect on this year's theme: "That Nature Which Pushes Us to Desire Great Things Is the Heart."  

In his homily, the bishop of Rimini explained that "happiness is the desire of God."

"Man's heart is like a drop of dew that reflects the whole face of the sky," he continued. "Circumscribed by its limits, unlimited in its aspirations," Bishop Lambiasi added, the human heart is "sick with a grave disease: narcissism."

Sin, he said, "wounded man's heart, making it turn back on itself and deceptively leading him to try to find a happiness only for himself, […] without others."

"When man falls victim to [the temptation] of trying to be happy on his own, he condemns himself to unhappiness," the bishop of Rimini continued.

Bishop Lambiasi noted that Don Luigi Giussani, the founder of Communion and Liberation, was a "[p]erceptive explorer of the abysmal depths of the human heart," and that he "had brought the dynamic of the desire for happiness to light in a magisterial way."

The bishop of Rimini observed that "the kingdom of God is not for the privileged few; it is a gift. And a gift is not merited but received."