Greeting by Julián Carrón at the end of the Easter Triduum of GS

Dear friends,

I’m thinking of each of you, dominated by your desire to become an adult. Growing up means taking the reins of your life into your own hands. But this isn’t always easy. Sometimes we even want to go backwards. It was easier, less demanding when other people were thinking of how to face problems for us. Often, we go back to the question: do I really want to grow up, or would I prefer to keep being a child?

Following this desire to become an adult takes a real love, a passion for our self. Living at the height of our desire takes work. And it’s only for the audacious, as I often tell you; it’s for those who want to be protagonists, on the front lines, not offloading our freedom onto other people.

It’s I who desire to discover how beautiful it is to live, what intensity of experience my life can reach. Discovering this, Fr. Giussani reminds us, is “a goal which is possible only for the individual who is involved with life seriously,” not leaving anything out: “love, study, politics, money, even food and rest, excluding nothing, neither friendship, nor hope, nor pardon, nor patience.” The reason for this audacity is Fr. Giussani’s unshakeable certainty that “within every […] gesture lies a step towards our own destiny” (The Religious Sense, p. 37).

It gives you chills to think of it: to wake up every morning, curious to discover how every gesture can be revealed as a step toward our destiny, in every challenge that we face! We can only live this because of our certainty that we have a traveling companion like Jesus. “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:20).

With His companionship, we can boldly face any challenge, as one who was not afraid to become an adult, Pope Francis, witnesses to us: “Let us not be imprisoned by the temptation of staying alone and disheartened, of feeling sorry for ourselves, for what happens to us; let us not yield to the pointless and inconclusive logic of fear, resigned to repeat that everything is wrong and nothing is like it used to be. This is the atmosphere of the tomb; the Lord wants to instead to open up the way of life, that of the encounter with Him, of trust in Him, of the resurrection of the heart, the way that says ‘Get up! Get up, come out!’ That is what the Lord asks of us, and He is next to us as we do it” (Homily in Carpi, Italy, April 2, 2017).

Happy Easter! Your friend Julián