'Serviam / Non serviam': still on 'The Heroic Minute'
"Non serviam" ("I will not serve you" in Latin) are the words that Christian tradition attributes to Lucifer, when he rebels against God and lets him know that he renounces him. James Joyce uses this expression in his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, when his Stephen Dedalus decides to live an artist's life and, as he puts it: "No longer serve that in which I do not believe, be it called home, family or Church" (you can read the work in the Catalan translation by Teresa Vernet; I don't think there is a more recent version). Generally, "Non serviamIt is considered an expression of rebellion that can be invoked by all those who rise up against the dominant way of thinking.
The women of Opus Dei, on the other hand, lead a life governed by the expression "We served"I'll serve you." I'm relatively late to watching the documentary series. The heroic minute, directed by Mònica Terribas and released in Max two months ago, with a more than considerable impact: it is available the article Mònica Planas wrote in this newspaper. But I'm only relatively late to this, because the series is fortunately far from being a novelty with an expiration date. The issues it addresses are fundamental, as is the debate it seeks to promote.
In four chapters—impeccably executed, as expected—the series collects the testimonies of thirteen women who belonged to Escrivá de Balaguer's Work but left it. They recount, in great detail, a life of renunciation and mortification, under a clearly sectarian lifestyle and behavior. It has been objected to The heroic minute To present only one side of the story, but it's the victims' side: in times of so many false victims, these thirteen women can rightly say they were. If anyone wants to know this institution's version of itself, they can go to many places. And, in any case, the series also serves as a reminder that the Church persists in the vice of explaining itself little and poorly. Organizations, and the Catholic Church is one of the most important in the world, are always reluctant to show their weaknesses. But given the results, and now that Francis' papacy is facing its end, perhaps the Church would do well to try it, if only to break out of the depraved routine that allows events like those explained in this series. The heroic minute, and that these acts are committed as a way of seeking the best way to serve God.
Beyond the specific event, the series also points to two constants of human nature that are especially relevant today, and which are in some ways intertwined: on the one hand, the need to establish order and give meaning to one's own life, and on the other, fanaticism. These are the foundations upon which certain leaders, like Escrivá de Balaguer, or so many others we now hear shouting proclamations, end up destroying the lives of countless others in the name of concepts like God or country. It's hard to know what they want, because until now they've never said anything to anyone.
