Homily of the Apostolic Nuncio, Msgr Luigi Bonazzi

Ottawa, February 20, 2015

Dear brothers and sisters,

If – as affirmed by the evangelist St. John – God is the Word, the Word who creates and gives life, the eternal Word that gives meaning and value to all being, I like to think that every human being, created in the image of God, is like a small word in the Word.  By calling us into existence the Lord wishes to say in us and through us one of his words.  A unique word, irreplaceable.

That is why, on this day when we evoke the memory of the 10^th anniversary of the birth into heaven of the Servant of God Don Luigi Giussani, there springs up spontaneously within me – and perhaps also in you – a question, a holy curiosity:  “What is the word, what is the message that God wanted to say with Don Giussani and that Don Giussani proclaimed by his life?”

Thinking upon the experience I had in my younger years – I am speaking of the years 1965-1968 – , having met some young people of Don Giussani (they were then called GS:  Student Youth) who had come from Milan to spend their holidays in my village, I find an answer that I would like to share with you.  It seems to me that the ‘word’ that God wanted to highlight in the life of Don Giussani can be found in the question and answer of Psalm 8:5:  “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you even care for him?”  It is, moreover, among others, the title of one of Don Giussani’s books:  “What is man that you care for him?”

Struck by the grandeur of the human person, Don Giussani had the grace to understand with all his being what St. John Paul II in his first Encyclical expresses in this way:  “In reality, the name for that deep amazement at man’s worth and dignity is the Gospel, that is to say:  the Good News.  It is also called Christianity.” (cf. Redemptor Hominis, no. 10)

As you know, the essence of the Christian message does not consist primarily in the commandment to love God, but in the invitation to allow oneself to be touched by His redeeming Love through Jesus, in the gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is God, in fact, who loved us first:  the initiative is absolutely his own, totally free, infinitely merciful.  We can only love him in return (cf. 1John 4:10; 19).

That is why Don Giussani has always said – to fully imprint it into our heart – that “Christianity, before being a set of doctrines or a rule for salvation, is the event of an encounter.”  The encounter, he said, between two beggars:  “Christ, who begs for man’s heart, and man’s heart that begs for Christ.”  When this encounter happens, the two beggars become the real protagonists of history.  When the encounter fails, the light goes out and the cold spreads over the earth.

We know that the citizens of heaven continue to care for and focus on the things of earth. And I wonder:  “What is Don Giussani doing in heaven?”  He certainly works! In particular, I think that he works to facilitate and foster here on earth, the encounter between the two beggars. This thought strengthens us and gives us confidence.  But it also challenges us:  what am I doing so that the two beggars, Christ and man, can meet?  What are we doing so that the heart of Christ the beggar can meet the heart of man the beggar, thereby beginning a unique love story?

Today’s Gospel (cf. Mt. 9:14-15) provides us an aid to live well the daily encounter with Jesus.  “Why do your disciples not fast?” the disciples of St. John the Baptist ask Jesus.  Fasting is an ascetic practice that certainly has its value.  Many religions praise and recommend it.  I have known people who, confronting important moments in their lives, have prepared for them by fasting.  A friend of mine, for example, when he knew he was going to meet the Pope, fasted the day before.  But afterwards, when he was meeting the Pope, there was joy.

To the question of the disciples of the Baptist, Jesus answers:  “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” (cf. Mt. 9:15)  The Bridegroom, that is Jesus, the Crucified and Risen One, is always with us.  “I am with you always, until the end of the world” (cf. Mt. 28:20).  There is no day, no moment when the bridegroom is not with us. Therefore the ordinary atmosphere in which the Christian lives is one of festivity:  “With every morning, joy re-awakens within me” Don Giussani used to say.

The Lord’s presence, however, is a gift, and not a possession. His gifts are free and the liberty of the giver must be respected.  We must attach ourselves to God, and not to the gifts of God, and that means leaving the Lord free to come to us when and how he wants, keeping ourselves open and available to the Lord’s continual surprises.  Every day the encounter with Christ is new.  It must be new; otherwise, it is not a true encounter.  A prayer springs up within me:  “Don Giussani, help us to embrace – as you did embrace – the Christian adventure knowing that it is something new every day!”

In concluding these simple thoughts, I like to recall what Don Julian Carron, the successor of Don Giussani has invited us to ask of the Lord on the occasion of the 10^th  anniversary of the birth of Don Giussani into heaven and in preparation for the audience the Fraternity ‘Communion and Liberation”  will soon have with Pope Francis in Rome:  to ask for the grace to “preserve the freshness of your charism…always renewing the ‘first love’…always on the way, always in movement, always open to God’s surprises” (cf. Speech of Pope Francis to Movements, November 22, 2014).