July 04th - Pier Giorgio Frassati

Sometimes, when we speak of a young person we say "they have an old soul", meaning that they act and think like someone much older and wiser beyond their years.
I think that when we say that me may also point to the lack of wisdom displayed by the older folks who surround them!
Sometimes we adults, in our "wisdom" think we know better, but it is often our own fears, insecurities, and ignorance that we foist on the young. We think we understand the world and make decisions, moral, religious, and political, and expect our children to feel the same way. Often it is the innocence of a child that pulls us out of our narrow view of the world to see again the wonder and the power of God.
Pier Giorgio showed a wisdom beyond his years and in the face of opposition from those around him, especially in his family. He enjoyed life and could have been mistaken for a ne'er-do-well but it was the joy for life that he exuded not selfish self-indulgence.

---

Pier Giorgio, pray for us that we may once again see life as a "little one", as Christ admonishes us to do.
Today's celebration invites all of us to receive the message which Pier Giorgio Frassati is sending to the men and women of our day, but especially to you young people, who want to make a concrete contribution to the spiritual renewal of our world, which sometimes seems to be falling apart and wasting away because of a lack of ideals. By his example he proclaims that a life lived in Christ's Spirit, the Spirit of the Beatitudes, is "blessed", and that only the person who becomes a "man or woman of the Beatitudes" can succeed in communicating love and peace to others. He repeats that it is really worth giving up everything to serve the Lord. He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone, and that only the revolution of charity can enkindle the hope of a better future in the hearts of people...He left this world, but in the Easter power of his Baptism, he can say to everyone, especially to the young generations of today and tomorrow: "You will see me, because I live and you will live" (John 14:19). These words were spoken by Jesus Christ when he took leave of his Apostles before undergoing his Passion. I like to think of them as forming on the lips of our new Blessed himself as a persuasive invitation to live from Christ and in Christ. This invitation is still valid, it is valid today as well, especially for today's young people, valid for everyone. It is a valid invitation which Pier Giorgio Frassati has left for us. Amen.

-- beatification homily, John Paul II