‘Theologian’ of the Concern of God

 INTRODUCTION

“Why do I not have a hundred arms to serve the sick?” This was the impulse of concern that marked the life of Camillus who allowed himself to become a credible sign of the healing presence of the love of God in the history of every sick person to whom he drew near. It is precisely the contemplative outlook of this concern of Camillus for the world of suffering that is the fulcrum of my analysis. Compared to the other approaches (1) to the evangelical example of Camillus, I intend to offer a systematic reading that grasps the theological, Christological, ecclesiological and eschatological elements of the diakonia of love to which he bore witness. I would like to attempt to bring out the theology that was lived by Camillus with a charge of theological meanings that were present in his practice of charity, itself rooted in the concern of the God of three persons who greatly loves His creatures and above all man. As regards ‘theological inquiry, relevant help can come to us from the great heritage of the ‘lived theology’ of saints. They offer us valuable indications that allow us to understand more easily the insight of faith, and this because of the special lights that they received from the Holy Spirit or even through the experience that they themselves had of those terrible states of testing which the mystical tradition describes as ‘dark nights’. Quite often saints lived something similar to the experience of Jesus on the cross, in a paradoxical intertwining of blessedness and pain’. (2) My reading, which is based on historical sources on the life of Camillus, has privileged an analysis of his writings, which were for the most part the outcome of practical needs: recommendations to do with nursing or pastoral care to his companions of the mystical vineyard of service to sick people. My study begins with a semantic analysis of the term ‘premura’ (‘concern’) and then focuses on its theological specificity, observing how it was bound up with the spiritual pathway of Camillus who in a holy way interpreted the cognitive value of concerned love to the point of becoming its teacher.

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