Rendez-Vous Encounters Massimo Coppo - Missione "ASSISI ASSISI"

Versione Italiana

December 2011

From the magazine "the citizen"

That graduate dressed with jute and barefoot

When D'Annunzio “d’announzioed”, he said that every man in Assisi is a Gray Friar , and every woman a Poor Clare… It.’s true, entering in the town everyone suddenly feels himself a "pilgrim." It’s the immanent charm of this land, unique in the world, where one breathes a joy coming out from the houses, the squares, the terraces overflowing in summer with geraniums and carnations , hung upon wrought iron.

They are in every ogival window or small loggia, in every arch, because the geranium is the flower of Assisi. A city with steep streets, towers, stone walls that are already architecture and wisdom.
Finally, the effects of light which, even in a gloomy day like that in which we were last December, favour great effects of light and atmosphere. If then you close your eyes, you see again the scene of Francis who, before the bishop of the city, strips off his clothes and gives them back to his father.

In a few days it will be Christmas, and while in my mind I hear a soft music, I wonder: what would it happen if the 25th of December all of us would renounce to that affluence which makes us careerists and some of us even Cain? It would be too good to be true. The music now makes me listen to the words of an old song that my father often sang softly.

“Midnight has come, noises turn off, even the sign of that last cafè turns off, the streets are deserted and quiet, a last carriage creaking goes away".

I sing it inside of me, while almost petrified I observe the portrait of a Franciscan very sui generis: barefoot (purple from the cold), in the habit of jute as a medieval penitent , a shoulder strap bag, stopping the few tourists who pass through the square of the lower basilica wrapped in light fog banks.

He is a member of the "Community Families of Bethlehem." His name is Massimo Coppo, 64 years and a degree in agriculture with honors. He writes books and tries to sell them on the street. His latest work is called "Prophecies". The small and singular community, was founded in 1981 on the slopes of Mount Subasio, precisely in a farm at Rocca Sant'Angelo of Petrignano. In the beginning it was called “ Fuming Orient". The name was choosed by its founder, Marcello Ciai a wealthy businessman.

In the seventies, Ciai abandoned his wealth for sister poverty. He was followed only by a few, and even today there are not many persons who found the strength and the joy of living in harmony waiting for eternity. Those few are coming from different countries and cultures.All are joined by the love for God and the neighbour.

And Massimo? In 1998, he appeared in St. Peter's Square in Rome, barefoot and with the only jute cloth.He wanted to demonstrate peacefully, but was noticed by the Vatican police as he raised a placard on which there.was reported the message of the Bishop of Assisi, who declared heretical the "Community Families of Bethlehem."

He was immediately sent back to Assisi with expulsion order and cautioned not to put foot in Rome for a year. A month later also his driving licence was withdrawn from him.

05/04/2011

I'm taking a break in a picturesque corner of the alley of St. Andrew, that from Saint Francis’ way rises to the Church of Saint Marguerite. Many take photographs of this narrow stairway climbing up high, also because where it begins on one part there is the renowned loggia of the Comancini Masters, on the other a beautiful drinking fountain. But it is evening, there aren’t any more passers-by around, just a little later I will descend again the alley to settle under the arcades of the Sacred Convent of San Francis where I am present every night from half past nine on, and where now and then someone comes (from Assisi or tourist-pilgrim), even late at night, to talk a bit , to pray... conspiring that the ancient Assisi may relive, the Assisi of St. Francis.
I see passing by in front of me a young man with a dark jacket, a small guy with glasses (I will then know that his name is Gianfranco, he is from Salerno): he is going to the convent of the Angeline Sisters, where he is a host for a couple of weeks.
Unexpectedly seeing me sitting there on one part, dressed with a sackcloth, with a haversack beside me, he startles up. I joke about this: "I'm sorry you are scared. Imagine that we, I talk about the community to which I belong, greet saying - Love and Peace! - Nothing to be scared ...
We fraternize, I speak to him about the community, the "Prophet" - Marcello Ezekiel - who founded it in 1980, of the prophecies that he received, and how that one that he had in 1995 on the collapse of the economy is coming true surprisingly in these days, the same what regards the North African crisis: "I see a caravan of refugees in mourning" - Marcello Ezekiel had written in 1995, recovering from a serious illness - " sick, injured, hanged ... bring water ! Bring bread to the refugees! Because they do not languish and die ! .."
"But do you know" - Gianfranco tells me - that since some time I'm having apocalyptic dreams? And still I am not a believer - but also some of my friends tell me to have dreams like that ... "
"But how do you say that you do not believe when inside yourself you are experiencing these signs of God's goodness, which warns us of what is going to happen, so that we may repent, and pray, and He may save us? " With these apocalyptical dreams that you and your friends have, is coming true what a biblical prophet, Joel, said regarding the last times: “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams (see also Acts of the Apostles 2:17)”

Gianfranco tells me that those dreams makes him fear, "I believe you" - I say - but this fear is healthy if we transform it into prayer. He then asks me about the prophecy of the end of the world of the Maya, in short, about the forthcoming 2012; so I show him the last chapter of the book that I am divulgating in Assisi - "From the Land of Assisi the Spirit of prophecy on the collapse of economy", where I touch the argument of the Maya, specifying that the end of the world before and more than a series of apocalyptic events, is a "person", the only person in history who could say of himself "I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end "Yes, I mean, the end of the world is Jesus Christ, who will “return to judge the living and the dead": a great final for those who love him by loving their neighbor…
I point out to Gianfranco that Jesus explicitly has said: "as to that day and that hour no one does know", therefore be aware of "certain dates" of the end of the world; but watch for the various warning signs that precede His return of which Jesus has widely spoken in his long prophetic speech reported by the three synoptic gospels.
So with Gianfranco we talk about the increasing number of earthquakes and I quote a passage from St. Luke (21:26) which seems really to talk about the Tsunami, because he speaks of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and its waves.
The conversation had prolonged, Gianfranco seems to have noticed that it was late; but before leaving me he asks my name and tells me that before coming to Assisi he had a premonition that he was going to meet with a person who was alone and that had to tell him important things, just as it happened with me... "But look at the goodness of the Lord" – I conclude - "I'll wait for you one of these evenings to pray under the arcades of the Sacred Convent…”

Massimo Coppo