TO GIOVANNI PAPINI 1885-1956

Fierce debating lion mane of stupidity in perpetual struggle with Satan reading your book Il Diavolo auras come to me from youth you found christ with the word and the pen your diaconal voice is raised today singing the passion of the Innocent nailed to the cross by the deicides between Annas and Caiaphas, between Judas Herod and Pilate have come to me this morning the whispers of Livia Placidia the praetor's wife Let go of that man, he is not a perjurer I had a disturbing dream last night jesus meek lamb the mob screams meanwhile loudly wounding the slabs of the gafilacio crucify him What evil has the king of the Jews done? he pretended he claims to be the son of God Regem vestrum crucifigam? Crucify your king? let his blood fall on us and our children awful apostrophe voice that echoes in history curse to wandering doom muñendo wars., blood tribute, haceldama fields hand and foot baths pilate was stunned when the mobs uttered the worst threat if you don't kill him Don't be a friend of Caesar the praetor feared the wrath of Tiberius he really wasn't guilty Great Papini your story of Christ in it I find what the evangelist narrates in his conciseness and succinct hidden the best told chronicle excellent and sublime, insightful today I fly with Dimas and Gestas to Paradise I hear the voice of the centurion Cornelius Truly this was the son of God the crying of the holy women I stay with Maria at the foot of the cross I drown in the bitter hour of tercia Velum templi scissum est et omnis terra tremuit, tremuit[1] The dead rose from the rocks of their graves trembled all jerusalem I perceive the aroma of Magdalena's tuberose Noli me tangere[2] that word of the Savior and the sinner counts many things I forgive the jews but never to the Sanhedrin breed of hard-eared vipers I walk with the two of Emmaus and I put my fingers with Tomás in the sore on the side we want to know we would like to know more the evangelical silence increase our faith Giovanni Papini is a true Dante revived that from the depths of atheism he flew to the heights of mysticism That's why they accused him of being a fascist. they burned him in effigy Today his prose inspires us and urges us not to give up His Story of Christ is the fifth gospel the dead will rise from their graves to tell what happened that good Friday and they will listen to the divine words Father forgive them for they know not what they do -------------------------------------------------- ---------- [1] the veil of the Temple was torn and the whole earth trembled, trembled [2] Don't touch me. Is it that he touched it before? Christ the man of sorrows was a man, the most beautiful in creation. This leads us to the question of whether the sinner was in love with Him.