Solemnity of All Saints
coming
to Malone later today
to
bless and dedicate Frassati House.
Ever
since I started telling folks about this project,
there’s
been a little confusion surrounding it’s name.
First,
people have had some trouble pronouncing it.
A
few have called it “Frascati” House…
…which
is a delicious Italian white wine,
but
was not the inspiration for this particular endeavor.
And
even more have had trouble spelling it…
…including
my computer,
which
persists in “correcting” the name whenever I type it
by
changing it from Frassati House to Frosty
House.
Our
five missionaries will soon enough
experience
a North Country winter,
so
there’s no need to rub it in like that!
Much
more important than its pronunciation or spelling—
just who is the guy behind
this tricky name?
Blessed
Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in 1901
in
the northern Italian city of Turin
into
a family of great wealth and prestige.
His
mother was a painter and a lukewarm Catholic;
his
father was a newspaper editor and politician
who
wasn’t sure he even believed in God.
Despite
his parents’ lack of religiosity,
their
son was quite pious;
when
Pier Giorgio was sent to study at a Catholic school,
he
asked for and was given permission
to
receive Holy Communion on a daily basis—
something
that was quite rare at the time.
In
fact, he’d sneak out of the house to attend early morning Mass,
and
then crawl back into bed so no one knew he’d been gone.
While
at college, he joined and led several student organizations
that
worked for social and political reform—
always
from a Catholic perspective.
He enjoyed
a good practical joke, appreciated the arts,
but
loved to be in the mountains best of all,
often
organizing trips with his friends
to
climb some peaks or ski down a few.
Behind
the scenes,
Pier
Giorgio was greatly devoted to serving the poor.
He
was always emptying his pockets—
even
the money his parents gave him to pay his bus fare—
in
order to give to the sick and the needy,
to
orphans and the unemployed.
His
concern for the disadvantaged
was
only revealed at his funeral
when,
alongside Turin’s elite and powerful,
the
city’s poor lined the streets by the thousands
to
pay their respects to the young man
who
had cared for them so unselfishly.
His
family didn’t know he’d been visiting the poor;
the
poor didn’t know he came from such a prominent family.
Pier
Giorgio died suddenly at the age of 24.
The
cause? Polio…which he probably
contracted
from
one of the many sick people he’d been helping.
He
was declared “blessed” by Pope John Paul II in 1990—
and
many of us are praying the Church will soon declare him a saint.
You can see that Blessed
Pier Giorgio Frassati is the perfect patron
for
our new missionary venture here at St. André’s.
He
had an infectious joy that still draws others—
especially
other young people—to the Catholic faith.
He’d
sometimes make friendly wagers
with his friends over little things;
with his friends over little things;
while
his friends demanded money when they won,
Pier
Giorgio, if he won, would make them come to church with him.
He
once wrote in a letter,
“I
shall always be cheerful on the outside to show my companions…
that
you can be a Catholic and still be young and happy….”
Blessed
Pier Giorgio Frassati is also the perfect example
at
the start of this Vocations Awareness week.
He
held marriage in high esteem,
falling in love with a young lady at university,
and
dreamed of spending the rest of his life with her…
…but
she was from a lower social class
and
his mother, sensing his intentions,
told
Pier Giorgio he simply could never marry her—
so
he never told the young lady of his feelings.
He
also had great respect for the clergy.
Pier
Giorgio depended on the ministry of priests
for
his regular regimen of Holy Communion and confession.
Because
of his affable character and active spiritual life,
he
was encouraged many times to consider the seminary himself.
But
Pier Giorgio recognized the work he could do
for
his Church and his poor as a single layman,
living
out the promises of his baptism to the full.
The
story of his life reminds us that our vocations—
our
individual places in God’s plan—
are
all interconnected and interdependent,
and
that each and every one of us has one.
Finally,
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
is
the perfect example for us on this All Saints Day.
This
solemnity is not merely a showcase for heroes from the past—
a
parade of the white-robed multitude before the throne of God;
it
is also an invitation—better yet, a challenge or even a demand—
that
we be saints, too.
After
all, “saint” is just another word
for
somebody who’s made it to heaven,
or
who is living in this world in such a way
as
to assure that he or she is heading there.
In
other words, if you hope to live with God forever,
sainthood
is what you’re after!
Pier
Giorgio always aimed for the highest goals.
On
the back of a photo from his very last mountain climb
where
he’s scaling a rocky cliff,
he
wrote, “Verso l’alto”—“To the top”—
which
is how he lived every day.
But
while he urges us toward greatness,
his
example also shows us that holiness is in reach.
His
sanctity wasn’t found apart from the ordinary stuff of life,
but
right in the midst of it.
That’s
why Pope John Paul II called Pier Giorgio
“a man
of the eight beatitudes.”
Everything
he did reflects those first memorable words
of
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:
the
Lord’s counter–cultural rule of life
that
turns this world’s values on their head,
teaching
us that true blessedness, true happiness,
is
rarely found in the places we usually look—
in
possessions or power or prestige;
instead,
we discover it among the poor and the peacemakers,
the
merciful and the meek,
those
who hunger for what is right
and
persevere in the face of persecution.
That
is to say, if you want to be holy,
if
you long to see God’s face, if you desire to be a saint,
then
go where Jesus goes and do what Jesus does.
Spreading
the faith, embracing a vocation, growing in holiness—
these
were not the fruit of Pier Giorgio’s own efforts;
they
are never something any of us can do on our own,
but
are all things God alone can accomplish within us.
We
can only be holy because our heavenly Father is holy.
It
is the work of the Holy Spirit.
It’s
the way grace flowers when we willingly cooperate with it.
It’s
a living recognition of what we already are: God’s children now.
My
friends, along with the holy men and women
of
every time and place,
we
are bound together in a great communion of saints—
in
a chain of faith, hope, and love
that
stretches between heaven and earth.
Let’s
be sure to support and encourage one another
all
along the way “verso l’alto”—“to the
top”
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