Dear brothers and sisters,
In the first reading we heard a question: "[Lord,] who would have known your will, unless you had given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high?" ( Wis 9:17). We heard it after two young Blesseds, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis , were proclaimed Saints, and this is providential. This question, in fact, in the Book of Wisdom , is attributed to a young man like them: King Solomon. Upon the death of his father David, he realized that he had many things at his disposal: power, wealth, health, youth, beauty, the kingdom. But precisely this great abundance of means had made a question arise in his heart: "What must I do so that nothing is lost?" And he understood that the only way to find an answer was to ask God for an even greater gift: his Wisdom, to know his plans and adhere to them faithfully. He had realized, in fact, that only in this way would everything find its place in the Lord's grand plan. Yes, because the greatest risk in life is wasting it outside of God's plan.
In the Gospel, Jesus also speaks to us of a plan to which we must adhere completely. He says: "Whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple" ( Luke 14:27); and again: "Whoever among you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (v. 33). He calls us, that is, to throw ourselves without hesitation into the adventure He proposes to us, with the intelligence and strength that come from His Spirit and which we can embrace to the extent that we strip ourselves of ourselves, of the things and ideas to which we are attached, and listen to His word.
Many young people, over the centuries, have had to face this crossroads in life. Let us think of Saint Francis of Assisi: like Solomon, he too was young and rich, thirsty for glory and fame. For this reason, he had left for war, hoping to be invested as a "knight" and covered with honors. But Jesus appeared to him along the way and made him reflect on what he was doing. Coming to his senses, he asked God a simple question: "Lord, what do you want me to do?" And from there, retracing his steps, he began to write a different story: the marvelous story of holiness we all know, stripping himself of everything to follow the Lord (cf. Luke 14:33), living in poverty and preferring love for his brothers, especially the weakest and least, to the gold, silver, and precious fabrics of his father.
And how many other saints we could recall! Sometimes we portray them as great figures, forgetting that for them it all began when, still young, they said "yes" to God and gave themselves to Him fully, holding nothing back. Saint Augustine recounts, in this regard, that in the "tortuous and tangled knot" of his life, a voice, deep within him, told him: "I want you." And so God gave him a new direction, a new path, a new logic, in which nothing of his existence was lost.
In this context, today we look to Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati and Saint Carlo Acutis: a young man from the early twentieth century and a teenager of our time, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for Him. Pier Giorgio encountered the Lord through school and church groups— Catholic Action , the Saint Vincent de Paul Conferences, the Italian Catholic University Federation (FUCI), the Dominican Third Order—and he bore witness to this with his joy of living and being a Christian in prayer, friendship, and charity. So much so that, after seeing him roam the streets of Turin with carts full of aid for the poor, his friends nicknamed him "Frassati Transport Company." Even today, Pier Giorgio's life represents a light for lay spirituality. For him, faith was not a private devotion: driven by the power of the Gospel and by his membership in church associations, he generously committed himself to society, contributed to political life, and devoted himself fervently to serving the poor.
Carlo, for his part, encountered Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia—here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele—and then at school, too, and especially in the Sacraments, celebrated in the parish community. He grew up, thus, naturally integrating prayer, sports, study, and charity into his days as a child and young man.
Both Pier Giorgio and Carlo cultivated their love for God and their brothers through simple means, accessible to all: daily Holy Mass, prayer, and especially Eucharistic Adoration. Carlo said: "In the presence of the sun, one gets a tan. In the presence of the Eucharist, one becomes a saint!" and again: "Sadness is looking inward, happiness is looking toward God. Conversion is nothing more than shifting one's gaze from below to Above; a simple movement of the eyes is enough." Another essential thing for them was frequent Confession. Carlo wrote: "The only thing we should truly fear is sin"; and he marveled why—in his own words—"men are so concerned with the beauty of their bodies and not with the beauty of their souls." Finally, both had a great devotion to the Saints and to the Virgin Mary, and generously practiced charity. Pier Giorgio said: "Around the poor and the sick, I see a light that we do not have." He called charity “the foundation of our religion” and, like Charles, he exercised it above all through small, concrete gestures, often hidden, living what Pope Francis called “ the holiness of the ‘next door’” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate , 7).
Even when illness struck them and cut short their young lives, this did not stop them or prevent them from loving, from offering themselves to God, from blessing Him and praying for themselves and for everyone. One day Pier Giorgio said: "The day I die will be the most beautiful day of my life"; and on the last photo, which shows him climbing a mountain in the Lanzo Valley, his face turned toward the goal, he wrote: "Towards the Highest" . Moreover, even as a young man, Carlo loved to say that Heaven has always awaited us, and that loving tomorrow means giving the best of our fruit today.
Dearest ones, Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to waste our lives, but to direct them upward and make them a masterpiece. They encourage us with their words: "Not I, but God," said Carlo. And Pier Giorgio: "If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end." This is the simple yet winning formula of their holiness. And it is also the testimony we are called to follow, to savor life to the fullest and go to meet the Lord in the celebration of Heaven.
Article published on azionecattolica.it