Dear Brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, “the
disciples rejoiced to see Jesus.” These words of the Gospel
just read indicate the centre of the personality and of the life
of our dear Fr Giussani.
Fr Giussani grew up in a home—so to say—poor as far
as bread was concerned, but rich with music, and thus from the
start he was touched, or better, wounded, by the desire for beauty.
He was not satisfied with any beauty whatever, a banal beauty,
he was looking rather for Beauty itself, infinite Beauty, and
thus he found Christ, in Christ true beauty, the path of life,
the true joy.
Already as a boy, along with other young men, he created a community
called Studium Christi; their program was to speak of nothing
else but Christ, because everything else seemed to be a waste
of time. Naturally, he was able to overcome the unilaterality,
but the substance always remained, that only Christ gives meaning
to the whole of our life. He always kept the eyes of his life
and of his heart fixed on Christ. In this way, he understood that
Christianity is not an intellectual system, a packet of dogmas,
a moralism, Christianity is rather an encounter, a love story;
it is an event.
This love affair with Christ, this love story which is the whole
of his life was at the same time far from every superficial enthusiasm,
from every vague romanticism; really, seeing Christ, he knew that
to encounter Christ means to follow Christ, that this encounter
is a road, a journey, a journey that passes—as we heard
in the psalm—through the “valley of darkness.”
And in the Gospel, the second Gospel we heard of the last darkness
of Christ’s suffering, of the apparent absence of God, when
the world’s Sun was eclipsed. He knew that to follow is
to pass through a “valley of darkness,” which means
to take the way of the cross, and to live all the same in true
joy.
Why is it so? The Lord himself translated this mystery of the
cross, which is really the mystery of love, with a formula in
which the whole reality of our life is explained. The Lord says,
“Whoever seeks his life, wants to have his life for himself,
loses it and whoever loses his life, finds it.”
Fr Giussani really wanted not to have his life for himself, but
he gave life, and exactly in this way found life not only for
himself, but for many others. He realized what we heard in the
first Gospel: he did not want to be served but to serve, he was
a faithful servant of the Gospel, he gave out all the wealth of
his heart, he gave out all the divine wealth of the Gospel, with
which he was penetrated and, serving in this way, giving his life,
this life of his gave rich fruit as we see in this moment, he
has become really father of many and, having led people not to
himself, but to Christ, he really won hearts, he has helped to
make the world better and to open the world’s doors for
heaven.
This centrality of Christ in his life gave him also the gift of
discernment, of deciphering correctly the signs of the times in
a difficult time, full of temptations and of errors, as we know.
Think of 1968 and the following years, a first group of his followers
went to Brazil and finds itself face to face with this extreme
poverty, this extreme misery. What can be done? How can we respond?
And there was a great temptation to say, “for the moment
we have to set Christ aside, set God aside, because there are
more pressing needs, we have first to change the structure, the
external things, first we must improve the earth, then we can
find heaven again.” It was the great temptation of that
moment to transform Christianity into a moralism and moralism
into politics, to substitute believing with doing. Because what
does faith imply? We can say, in this moment we have to do something.
And all the same, in this way, substituting faith with moralism,
believing with doing, we fall into particularisms, we lose most
of all the criteria and the orientations, and in the end we don’t
build, but divide.
Monsignor Giussani, with his fearless and unfailing faith, knew
that, even in this situation, Christ, the encounter with Christ,
remains central, because whoever does not give God, gives too
little, and whoever does not give God, whoever does not make people
find God in the Fact of Christ, does not build, but destroys,
because he gets human activity lost in ideological and false dogmatisms,
as we have seen all too well.
Fr Giussani kept the centrality of Christ and exactly in this
way, with social works, with necessary service, he helped mankind
in this difficult world, where the responsibility of Christians
for the poor in the world is enormous and urgent.
Whoever believes has also, as we have said, to pass through the
“valley of darkness,” the dark valleys of discernment,
as well as adversities, opposition and ideological hostilities
that even take the form of threats to eliminate his people physically,
so as to get rid of this other voice that is not content merely
with doing things, but brings a greater message, and thus also
a greater light.
In virtue of the faith Monsignor Giussani passed fearlessly through
these dark valleys and naturally, with the novelty he carried
with him, found it difficult to find a niche inside the Church.
Even thought the Holy Spirit, according to the needs of the times,
creates something new, which is really the return to the origins,
it is difficult to see one’s way and to find peaceful harmony
in the great communion of the Universal Church. Fr Giussani’s
love for Christ was also love for the Church, and thus he always
remained a faithful servant, faithful to the Holy Father and faithful
to his Bishops.
With his foundations he also gave new interpretation to the mystery
of the Church.
1. Communion and Liberation brings to mind immediately this discovery
proper of the modern era, freedom. It also brings to mind St Ambrose’s
phrase, “Ubi fides est libertas.” Cardinal Biffi drew
our attention to the near coincidence of this phrase of St Ambrose
with the foundation of Communion and Liberation. Focussing on
freedom as a gift proper of faith, he also told us that freedom,
in order to be true, human freedom, freedom in truth, needs communion.
An isolated freedom, a freedom only for the “I,” would
be a lie, and would destroy human communion. In order to be true,
and therefore in order to be efficient, freedom needs communion,
and not just any kind of communion, but ultimately communion with
truth itself, with love itself, with Christ, with the Trinitarian
God. Thus is built community that creates freedom and gives joy.
2. The other foundation, the Memores Domini, brings to mind again
the second Gospel read today: the memory that the Lord gave us
in the Holy Eucharist, memory that is not merely a remembrance
of the past, but memory that creates present, memory in which
He gives Himself into our hands and into our hearts, and thus
makes us live.
Through valleys of darkness. In the last period of his life, Fr
Giussani had to pass through the dark valley of sickness, of infirmity,
of pain, of suffering, but here, too, his eyes were fixed on Jesus,
and thus he remained true in all the suffering, seeing Jesus,
he was able to rejoice; the joy of the Risen One was present,
who even in the passion is the Risen One and gives us the true
light and joy, and he knew that—as the psalm says—even
passing though this valley, “I fear no evil because I know
that You are with me, and I will dwell in the Father’s house.”
This was his great strength, knowing that “You are with
me.”
My dear faithful, dear young people above all, let us take this
message to heart, let us not lose sight of Christ and let us not
forget that without God nothing good can be built and that God
remains enigmatic if he is not recognized in the face of Christ.
Now your dear friend Fr Giussani has reached the other world,
and we are convinced that the door of the Father’s house
has opened, we are convinced that now this word is fully realized:
they rejoiced to see Jesus. He is rejoicing with a joy that no
one can take from him. In this moment we wish to thank the Lord
for the great gift of this priest, of this faithful servant of
the Gospel, of this father. We entrust his soul to the goodness
of his Lord and ours.
In this hour we wish to pray particularly, too, for the health
of the Holy Father, taken once more into Hospital, with great
trust that the Lord will accompany him and give him strength and
health. And let us pray that the Lord enlighten us, give us the
faith that builds the world, the faith that makes us find the
path of life, true joy.
Amen
Milan Cathedral, February 24, 2005.
Funeral Mass for Fr Giussani
Ireland
