Perhaps the astonishment of his father, Alfredo Frassati, in front of the unexpected crowd present at his son's funeral should have prepared us: yet one always feels a sense of astonishment when discovering the renewal, generation after generation, of devotion towards Pier Giorgio.
Pier Giorgio Frassati has been indicated several times as the Saint of the young, a patron for all boys and girls, a model of youth to look up to: "Joyful and enthusiastic apostle of Christ", Saint John Paul II called him on the day of his beatification; Pope Francis today never tires of entrusting young people to him (most recently last Saturday when meeting the National Youth Council) and encouraging them to imitate his coherence, his courage and his joy.
The announcement of his canonization on the occasion of the Jubilee of Youth is today a reason for great joy and hope because Pier Giorgio embodies in a surprising and current way the dreams and desires of our generation. In the society of performance, from which we young people have seen since the Paris Olympics this summer how we want to free ourselves, Pier Giorgio is such a great inspiration because he was above all a normal young man: the life of Pier Giorgio Frassati shows us that Holiness has to do with normality and with the fullness of an authentic life. Because Pier Giorgio's was a story lived in the daily routine of study, charity, relationships cultivated in frequent walks in the mountains; a holiness that speaks of a profound relationship with the Lord, expressed through the generosity and authenticity of his gestures. Pier Giorgio spent his life expressing a faith woven with evangelical gestures of service and charity towards the poor but also with a spiritual search for good and justice. He was able to dedicate not only a little of his time but everything he had to the service of the poorest and the least fortunate.
Frassati embodied, well before his pontificate, that structurally outgoing Church that knows how to joyfully announce the Gospel indicated by Pope Francis. From the beginning of his pontificate, in fact, the pontiff who came from the ends of the earth has reminded us of the inseparability between discipleship and mission (we are all disciples-missionaries) and Pier Giorgio himself helps us remember that youth and responsibility also develop together. It is possible, then, for us young people to discover the right measure to take care of the good of "All of Us" and of the community, and Pier Giorgio shows us the luminous figure of such measure. His life, short but passionate, reminds us that our passion and youth (which can sometimes rhyme with inexperience) are a sign of hope and can help the Church to announce Christ! The care of relationships and friendships, social and political commitment, the desire to choose a professional path that becomes an instrument of transformation of social life combined with a beautiful and passionate Christian life tell us of a life of Pier Giorgio capable of giving himself, of being a welcoming Church, that makes the heart expand and allows the encounter with the Lord.
Pier Giorgio reminds us a little of the parable of the Good Samaritan, because he was willing to take on the miseries, poverty, pain and needs of the most needy, helping us to see how our life as believers cannot fail to hold together Eucharist and charity. The American writer Susan Sontag once said that "being serious means being there, feeling the weight of things". Pier Giorgio was, all his life, a serious smiling boy: finding God in the faces of his brothers, he in turn made himself an opportunity to Encounter with the Lord, trying to serve with the Word in his heart and a smile on his lips. In the time in which we are called to be Pilgrims of Hope, then, it will be exciting to entrust ourselves to a young man who lived his pilgrimage in the daily routine of life with his gaze turned towards eternity and his hands kneaded in service.
Lorenzo Zardi
National Vice President for the Youth Sector of Italian Catholic Action
Article published on C.V. the 21 November 2024