Raoul Follereau's Testament to Young People: "And here I am in the twilight of an existence that I have led as well as I could, but which remains unfinished. The treasure I leave you is the good that I did not do, that I would have liked to do and that you will do after me. May this testimony just help you to love. This is the last ambition of my life, and the object of this testament.”
Young people of the world, either war or peace is for you. Twenty-five years ago, I wrote: "Either men will learn to love each other, or, finally, man will live for man, or men will die". All and all together.
Our world has only this alternative: love each other or disappear. A choice must be made. Now. And forever. Yesterday, the warning. Tomorrow, the hell.
The Great Ones - these giants who have ceased to be persons - possess, in their vile collections of death, 20,000 hydrogen bombs, only one of which is enough to transform an entire Metropolis into an immense cemetery. And they continue their monstrous industry by producing three bombs every 24 hours. The Apocalypse is on the street corner.
Boys, Girls of the world, it is you who will say "no" to the suicide of humanity.
"Lord, I would love to help others live". That was my prayer as a teenager.
I believe I have remained, all my life, faithful to it... And here I am in the twilight of an existence that I have led as best I could, but which remains unfinished.
The treasure I leave you is the good that I did not do, that I would have liked to do and that you will do after me. May this testimony just help you to love. This is the last ambition of my life, and the object of this 'testament'.
I proclaim all the youth of the world my universal heir. All the youth of the world: right, left, centre, extremist: I do not care!
All the youth: those who have received the gift of faith, those who act as if they believe, those who think they do not believe. There is only one heaven for the whole world.
The more I feel the end of my life approaching, the more I feel the need to repeat to you: it is by loving that we will save humanity. And to repeat to you: the greatest misfortune that can happen to you is that you are of no use to anyone, that your life is of no use.
Loving or disappearing.
So, it is not enough to sing of the praise: "peace, peace", for Peace to cease deserting the earth.
Action is needed. By dint of love. By loving blows.
Pacifists with truncheons are false fighters. Attempting to conquer, they desert. Christ repudiated violence, accepting the Cross.
Turn away from the scoundrels of intelligence, like the sellers of smoke: they will lead you on roads without flowers and that end in nothingness.
Be wary of these "deified techniques" that St Paul already denounced.
Know how to distinguish what serves from that which subdues.
Renounce words that are as empty as they are sound.
You will not heal the world with exclamation marks.
What is needed is to rid it of certain 'advances' and their diseases, of money and its curse. Turn away from those for whom everything is resolved, explained and appreciated in relation to banknotes.
Even if they feel intelligent, they are the stupidest of all. You do not make a trampoline out of a money safe. You must master the power of money, otherwise almost nothing human would be possible, since with it everything rots. Make this Corruptor, become Servant.
Be rich in the happiness of others.
Remain yourselves. And not another. No matter who. Flee the easy cowardice of anonymity. Every human being has a destiny. Realise yours, with open, demanding and loyal eyes.
Nothing ever diminishes the dimension of man. If you lack something in life, it is because you have not looked up enough.
All alike? No. But all equal and all together!
Then you will be a true person. A free person.
But beware! Freedom is not an all-purpose maid that you can exploit with impunity. Nor a stunning screen behind which fetid ambitions swell.
Freedom is the common heritage of all Humanity. He who is incapable of passing it on to others is unworthy of possessing it.
Do not turn your heart into a storeroom; it will soon become a dustbin.
Work. One of the misfortunes of our time is that work is regarded as a curse. Whereas it is redemption. You deserve the happiness of loving your duty.
Also, believe in goodness, in the humble and sublime goodness. In the heart of every man there are treasures of love. It is up to you to discover them.
The only truth is to love one another.
Love one another, love everyone. Not at fixed times, but throughout all life.
Love poor people, love unhappy people (who are very often poor beings), love the stranger, love the neighbour who is on the margins of society, love the stranger who lives near you.
Love. You will only pacify people by enriching their hearts.
Witnessing all too often the deterioration of this century (which was for a short time so beautiful), frightened by this gigantic race towards death of those who confiscate our destinies, asphyxiated by a dazzling, devouring and paralysing 'progress', with our hearts shattered by this cry 'I am hungry!' rising incessantly from two-thirds of the world, only this supreme and sublime remedy remains: To be truly brothers.
So, ... tomorrow?
Tomorrow, it is you.
See, Domani, siete voi!
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