Every time it’s the same thing. The colors, the faces, the emotions, the song… The song that continues to play in our ears.

There’s nothing we can do. A soccer World Cup inspires in us something that defies explanations: even people who are not fans or who haven’t even watched a match suddenly become coaches of the national team and are willing to watch games even late into the night. It happens to me too. Every time I become an expert in kicks, overheads, break-backs and assists and take my place next to the best sports commentators. I, who for the entirety of the year only play the sport of getting up and sitting in front of a screen

And then there’s the music… The World Cup official song becomes the backdrop for my days in the office. Yet this year the championship’s song struck even more than usual. We are one. That’s the title of an infective container of rhythm and sounds that strike some saudade into me and that touch the heart. This time I was taken especially by the lyrics. Lines that strike a goal in the mind.

At the Opening Ceremony, there were three sings on stage (Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez e Claudia Leitte) and simple lyrics that proclaimed:

Put your flags up in the sky (put them in the sky)
And wave them side to side (side to side)
Show the world where you’re from
(show them where you’re from)
Show the world we are one (one love, life)

We show the world what we are, not what we aren’t. That’s what the text seems to say. We live for what we feel and fight for life, or love, for being united. It seems that Pitbull (the name makes me wonder about his other songs) exhorts us to it. Who are we truly? How often have we suppressed our identity, what we think or believe in?

Life is made of moments, like in soccer. Moments that happen once and there never again. If we miss the chance of singing to the world, “we are one in God”, jumping and shouting our will to fight and live expressing our love for each other and for life, it could be our last chance to do so.

Moses built an altar and called it “The Lord is my flag.” It was a place to announce a victory but also to receive instructions and tactics for battle. We should do that too, to “how the world we are one, one love, one life.”

I carry still in mind the colors, faces and images of those moments. Then the music and the lyrics make me want to live my life, continue to be me with enthusiasm, the enthusiasm only Jesus has managed to give me. He lived for me, for us till the end, raising his flag, dying for my sin and raising again for my salvation. He lived for me till the end, without missing the occasion. The occasion that makes me say today, we are one.

Enzo Bifano