Five-Day Forecast 10-15-19
October 15, 2019
As many of you know, I enjoy a good book. Regardless of my life's circumstances, I've always needed a book to read for pleasure. My tastes are relatively predictable, but fiction is what I hunger for when the day is ending, or when the front porch has a cool breeze. I read fiction because it allows me to play on different playgrounds and to step into another's shoes. I read fiction because stories feed my soul.
Recently, I picked up a book that reads like historical fiction but is actually a true story told in narrative form. In the introduction to Beneath a Scarlet Sky, author Mark Sullivan describes how he came across a remarkable story of a young man who lived in Milan, Italy, during World War II. Previously untold, Mark Sullivan convinced Pino Lella to revisit a time in his life that he had worked hard to forget.
Pino Lella’s story picks up when he was a sixteen-year-old living in Italy in 1943. The Nazi occupation of his homeland had settled in alongside Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime, and the city of Milan was feeling the weight of Allied forces bearing down on them. When bombing raids reached his hometown, Pino's parents responded by sending Pino to a Catholic camp in the Alps where a priest provided refuge for the children.
It’s not long, however, before Pino is recruited by the priest to be a conductor in the underground railroad that helped to transport Jews from Italy into neighboring Switzerland. Much of Sullivan’s book details the harrowing adventures of a teenager leading Jews through snow-clogged mountain passes to safety in the dead of winter.
As Pino nears his eighteenth birthday, his parents demand that he return to Milan and join the local Italian forces. Remaining in the Alps was a risk that could result in Pino being sent to the western front to fight alongside German forces. His entry into military service opens up new opportunities to support the resistance forces that are working beneath the surface to rid Italy of the fascist regimes.
The Italian Front in World War II tends to take a backseat to the Blitz, the Normandy invasion, or the war in the Pacific. Until I heard Pino Lella’s story, I knew little of Mousillin’s puppet government or the battle of Monte Cassino. And I certainly didn’t know what happened when the Nazis retreated in the spring of 1945, or the Civil War that overwhelmed the Italian masses in the wake of Germany’s surrender. Not surprisingly, this chapter of WW II is often called the "Forgotten Front." Yet, 60,000 Allied soldiers died fighting in Italy, and 140,000 Italians perished during the Nazi occupation.
Pino Lella’s story is indeed extraordinary. It is hard to comprehend how someone, let alone a teenager, could have survived the kind of realities Italians faced in World War II.
In particular, Pino’s story speaks to the power of resiliency and faithfulness. Pino places himself in great danger out of service to others. He is repulsed by what he sees the Nazis doing and is encouraged by the role of the church to circumvent and sabotage evil.
Sullivan’s narrative feels unresolved as it comes to its conclusion. No one in Pino’s story is untouched by the grief and inexplicable sorrow that accompanies war. And yet, Pino does not lose heart, even when this chapter in his life ends leaves far more questions than answers. There is redemption in his story, but it feels indirect and incomplete. Perhaps that is why this story resonates with me. The imaginative, redemptive power of God’s work isn't always linear.
Pino’s reflections as a ninety-year-old looking back seem particularly on-point. They serve as an encouragement to me personally and give me hope in light of the uncertainties that exist. Of all the people I can think of to preach this message, it is Pino Lella who has earned the right.
He says, “Life is…a constant surprise to me. We never know what will happen next, what we will see, and what important person will come into our life, or what important person we will lose. Life is change, constant change, and unless we are lucky enough to find comedy in it, change is nearly always a drama, if not a tragedy. But after everything, and even when the skies turn scarlet and threatening, I still believe that if we are lucky enough to be alive, we must give thanks for the miracle of every moment of every day, no matter how flawed. And we must have faith in God, and in the Universe, and in a better tomorrow, even if that faith is not always deserved.”
Sullivan, Mark. Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel (pp. 508-510). Lake Union Publishing. Kindle Edition.