“Nothing more can be done for your eyes.” This was the harsh diagnosis that the eye doctor gave Palmira Frizzera a few months after she arrived in the first focolare household in Piazza Cappuccini in Trent. Palmira was 18 when, three years earlier, in 1945, she met the first group of focolarinas. She had had problems with her eyes for some time. Because of this, her dream of becoming a missionary nun in India was also shattered. After various visits to specialists that day, she went to an ophthalmologist in Trent, accompanied by Natalia Dallapiccola, another of Chiara Lubich’s first companions. “The doctor examined me thoroughly – Palmira told a group of girls in 2004 – and then he said: You’ve lost your eyesight on the right eye and are about to lose it also on your left eye.”
It was a shock! “As soon as I left the doctor’s place, still on the stairs, I burst into tears, sobbing my heart out. I thought: at only 21 years of age, I will go blind just when I have discovered the most beautiful ideal of my life, that no one can take away. Now that I have found the joy of living and would like to shout it out to the whole world, I will go blind. And I was crying.” It was raining, and under the umbrella, Natalia held her arm, and silently accompanied her. She continued, “At a certain moment, I stopped in the middle of the road and said: ‘But Natalia, why am I crying so much because I will lose my eyesight? To see Jesus in my brother, I do not need these eyes; I need the eyes of the soul and those I will never lose (…). I’m now making a pact with Jesus, and you are my witness. If I give more glory to God with my eyes, then let Him leave them to me, but if I give Him more glory without my eyes, let Him take them, because I only want to do His will.’ Then I thought: Didn’t Jesus say in the Gospel that it is better to go to Heaven with no eyes than to hell with two eyes? Since that moment, I did not suffer anymore.”
Palmira went on, “Later, full of joy, I wrote to Chiara Lubich to share my experience, and I was happy, I really lacked nothing.” In the meantime, they consulted other specialists, including one who, after having examined her carefully, told her that the disease was serious, but only on her right eye, of which she would probably lose her eyesight, but the left eye was healthy and not at risk.
“And that’s what happened – Palmira continued – I lost my eyesight on the right eye, but all these years, I never had a problem with my left eye. Maybe I would have given more glory to God with two eyes. But to tell you the truth, with this left eye, I have always managed, as if I had both eyes.” And she concluded: “Often, we are afraid to give something to Jesus, an affection, an attachment, something of our studies, while it would be worth our while to always give Him everything, because He does not allow Himself to be outdone by our generosity which is always small compared to His, because God is Love and He always responds with the hundredfold.”
Over the years, Palmira took on several responsibilities in the Focolare Movement in Italy. Then in 1981, Chiara Lubich asked her to go, together with some other focolarinos and focolarinas, to Montet, Switzerland, where a little town of the Focolare was starting. She was only supposed to stay for three days to assess the necessary renovations. After three days, the others left, and she found herself alone, in an apartment in Estavayer, the neighboring town. At a certain point, overcome by despair in front of the great task that awaited her, she knelt down and recited the Our Father. She remembered: “When I came to the phrase ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ I recited it out loud, and peace entered my heart, a peace that has never left me since then.” Those three days then became 40 years. Palmira was indeed one of the builders of the little town of the Focolare. Together with others, she accompanied and formed generations of young people.
In 2017, with her characteristic simplicity and frankness, she asked herself: “Did I make it? I don’t know. I have always tried to love with my heart so as not to make mistakes, because if I only use my head, I can always make mistakes. But not if I love with my heart, ready to give my life… I think that those who love… never make mistakes.”
Carlos Mana
