To be able to say at the end of life: “I’ve always loved.”
“There is the Christian life and Christian life”, wrote Chiara Lubich, shortly after the death of Renata Borlone. “In her, a bit like in the saints, there was the presence of a particular dimension of the Christian life, I would dare to say a mystical dimension, a dimension such that it was her person, her being, her silence, her smile that worked more than her words. Renata loved. At the end of her life she could say: “I’ve always loved.””
“How many times have we passed by the saints? Have we been aware of it? I’ve seen people younger than me become models of the gospel life, I have lived during their time, breathed the same air and I ask myself: why them and not me?” These words of Mgr. Mario Meini, Bishop of Fiesole, in whose diocese the little town is situated, express well the feelings of the crowd of people present in Loppiano on 27 February 2011, on the occasion of the closing of the diocesan phase of the beatification of the Servant of God Renata Borlone. And whoever had known her knew that Renata would have been stunned by so much attention, she who always put herself in the last place and considered the other better than herself.
«Quante volte i santi ci sono passati accanto? Ce ne siamo resi conto? Ho visto diventare modelli di vita evangelica persone più giovani di me, ho vissuto il loro tempo, respirato la stessa aria e mi chiedo: perché loro sì e io no?». Queste parole di mons. Mario Meini, vescovo della diocesi di Fiesole, nel cui territoriofa parte la cittadella, esprimono bene i sentimenti della folla di persone che il 27 febbraio 2011 aveva raggiunto Loppiano, in occasione della chiusura della fase diocesana del processo di beatificazione della serva di Dio Renata Borlone. E chiunque l’aveva conosciuta sapeva che Renata si sarebbe stupita per tanta attenzione, lei che sempre si metteva all’ultimo posto e riteneva l’altro migliore di sé.