On 30th May, 1998, in St Peter’s Square, Fr Giussani said
before John Paul II, “For me the grace of Christ became
the experience of a faith from which…I saw happening the
formation of a people, in the name of Christ.” Here, today,
is this people that was born of Fr Giussani’s experience
of faith. This fact, this people, speaks more eloquently than
any comment of what God has done through him.
This is why we are all here today to express our sorrow at his
departure, to proclaim before everyone our gratitude for his life.
The importance of his person for each one of us is as great as
the sorrow we feel today. Dearest Fr Giussani, friend, we carry
you with us, in our memory, for the whole of our lives! We shall
never be able to forget the fever of life we have experienced
beside you. Your gaze can never disappear from our sight. That
look in which we felt looked at by Jesus. Yes, because it is really
Him, Jesus, who gave form to the look with which we felt you look
at us.
In contact with his experience of faith, we saw happening in us,
to our astonishment, something we could not imagine, but secretly
desired. We were forced to give in before a novelty that no one
could have imagined before and, like the disciples, we were surprised
to find ourselves saying, “We have never seen anything like
it!” (Mc 2:12). Thus we learned from experience what Christianity
is; an event; the event of an encounter that gives fullness to
humanity, a density to time, an intensity to relationships, and
a capacity for initiative and construction elsewhere unknown.
Yes, it is really true. We have encountered Christ and we have
experienced and still experience the hundredfold here below. This
is why Fr Giussani always wanted to stake everything on our freedom.
This is how he taught us to know and love Jesus, not merely by
talking, but by communicating Him through his experience, inviting
us to share it so as to find out if his claim is true. Christ
became more fascinating for us every time, the dearest Presence,
and each of us found himself repeating, “Though living in
the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). This is how he generated
us in Christ.
It was a real “generation”, a fatherhood! So we are
no longer able to live the relationship with Jesus, to make memory
of Him, the consistence of the whole of reality, without thinking
of Fr Giussani; now more than before. We shall think of him always
beside Him, Jesus, when we get up in the morning, when we go to
work, when we see the sunset, when we meet out wife, our husband
or our friends. Our faith in Jesus has been and is moulded by
the presence of Fr Giussani, his look, his impetus of life.
A faith that exalts reason, man’s reason, that conceives
it as its fullness, that flowers gratuitously at the summit of
reason. A faith that, in obedience to the Church, becomes a new
way of looking at and judging the world, truer affection for the
destiny of man, whether neighbour or stranger. Openness to every
seed of truth, impetus of communication in our craving that everyone
know Christ.
“What is man that you should keep him in mind?” (Ps
8).That such a fragile creature like man can, by saying Yes to
Christ, become so decisive for thousands of people throughout
the world cannot fail to surprise us! Some may find this method
disconcerting. That the meaning of life, of our most meaningful
relationships, of time and space, of creativity and of rest should
pass through and be communicated through the flesh, something
that dies, seems scandalous to the wise of this world.
It is, however, a sign of the infinite mercy of the Father who,
in order to make himself known and accepted by man and thus save
him, through the life-giving power of the Spirit arouses a preference,
a charism, so powerful and fascinating as to have people adhere
to Christ. This is the most capillary realization of the method
of the Incarnation. Only the Mystery become affectively attractive
presence can give man the clarity and the affective energy sufficient
to accept it.
This method implies renewed astonishment before the initiative
of another. This is why, as Fr Giussani always taught us, our
companionship is a companionship guided towards destiny, within
that great riverbed which is the Church’s life. The unity
among us is the most precious gift that is born from accepting
this initiative. Given the responsibility entrusted me by Fr Giussani,
I ask for the grace to serve this gift of unity. I am sure that
if we are simple in following, we shall feel Fr Giussani more
than ever a father.
We entrust our history to Our Lady “the certainty of our
hope.” “Veni, Sancte Spiritus, veni per Mariam.”
Milan Cathedral, February 24, 2005.
Funeral Mass for Fr Giussani
Ireland
