[ad_1]
After a day of waiting, on December 16, the Blood of San Gennaro did not melt. But the fact that is puzzling is certainly not this, but the superstition that runs faster than faith in Naples and beyond.
Some people interpret it as a disastrous event, as if something was about to hit the city. But neither God nor San Gennaro punish man. Let’s try to understand what happened.
The miracle that didn’t happen
Naples, yesterday, waited with “anxiety” the so-called secular miracle, the third liquefaction of the year of the blood of its patron saint. But the miracle did not happen. Didn’t Saint Gennaro listen to the prayers of his faithful? Let’s go calmly and in order.
Popular belief supports the non-liquefaction of blood with possible tragic and disastrous events that, during the next year, could affect the city of Naples. This is because, incredible coincidences, they have seen the lack of liquefaction, for example, in 1980 (year of the Irpinia earthquake) or in 1973 (year of cholera in Naples).
Good luck and faith. What do the Neapolitans think of the non-liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro?
But what we must ask ourselves is: San Gennaro is a punisher for Naples? Is Naples no longer worthy of your protection? There have been many hypotheses, questions … that, throughout yesterday, the faithful asked themselves: “After Covid, what still has to happen? We only miss Vesuvius!”- was the most common phrase heard yesterday.
Let us not fall into the profane and most absolute superstition. Let’s think: could a Saint, who for centuries has been invoked in the city, who has always protected it, especially from Vesuvius and various plagues, could now punish it? And if we really want to trust this “danger”, last year, Saint Gennaro performed the miracle the 3 canonical timesHowever, here we are, in this 2020, to fight against the Coronavirus.
Sepe: “Non-liquefaction does not mean who knows what. Instead, let’s keep praying “
That is why it is necessary to place an order. Let’s start with last night’s words from Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe: “It is he, our Saint Gennaro, who helps us to live and bear witness to the faith, even if the blood does not melt. No liquefaction doesn’t mean who knows what […] Keep praying together, we are his family and he will bless each one of us and our families.”.
Here. Sepe hit the spot right away. After 16 years of leadership in the diocese of the city of Naples, the most important thing he said in his last “speech” for the miracle of San Gennaro was precisely this: keep praying. God does not punish man by sending him misfortunes. God is a God of love and the saints are his intercessors towards us.
Perhaps Saint Gennaro realized that we have become too relaxed and we have let ourselves go, we have lost that compass that always looks at God, in the light, we have lost the love of prayer.
San Gennaro does not punish: the psychological stress of the Neapolitans
What puzzles is how newspapers that, regarding the non-liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro, they have made it almost a “case of real danger”, thus leading the population, already psychologically stressed by various pandemics and CPMD, to look this time at a San Gennaro everyone faces it.
Not even popes have always seen the liquefaction of blood
But this is not the case at all! The blood has not always melted, and not only due to superstition coinciding with tragic events. We remember, in fact, that even when Pope Benedict XVI visited Naples on October 21, 2007, the blood did not melt. The same happened also with Pope John Paul II, in 1990. Pope Francis, on his pastoral visit in 2015, saw the prodigy of dissolved blood.
What does this mean? That the Saint also has preferences with the Popes? Absolutely not!
So: in such a difficult time, instead of wondering why the Holy Protector did not dissolve the blood, let’s better ask ourselves if our prayers were truly sincere and those who are accepted by God the Father through the intercession of San Gennaro.
ROSALIA GIGLIANO
[ad_2]
