Message for XXXV pilgrimage to Czestochowa

“The greatest joy of a person’s life is feeling Jesus Christ alive and vibrant in the flesh of
one’s own thought and one’s own heart” (Fr. Giussani). Nothing turns our world upside
down like seeing Christ vibrate in the core of our being, not as a devout remembrance, but
as a Presence that plows into our life.
Dear friends, as you go to Czestochowa, ask Our Lady that Christ may be the center of
your life.
Pope Francis reminds us that “the pilgrimage is a symbol of life; it makes us reflect that
life is journeying, is a journey.” And with this boundless gesture of charity, he warns us,
“If a person does not walk, but remains still, it doesn’t do any good, it doesn’t help at all.
Think of water: when water is not in the river, it does not go forward but is still and
becomes stagnant. A soul that does not journey in life doing good, doing many things that
must be done for society to help others, and also that does not walk through life seeking
God and for the Holy Spirit to move you from within, is a soul that ends up in mediocrity
and in spiritual wretchedness. Please, do not stop in life!”. What a gift to be able to walk
supported by such a trustworthy companion!
Thus, you will have something truly crucial to ask for: that your life never stay still,
because you are entirely taken by the Risen Christ: “The culmination and the apex of the
intensity of our Christian self-awareness is in the mystery of the Resurrection, therefore of
the new self-awareness of myself, of the way I look at all people and all things” (Fr.
Giussani), beginning with myself.
May His presence in our gaze, cherished in our memory, become ever more familiar in us,
so that we may look at everything with that Presence, even our failings. “All of us have
fallen in life, made mistakes, but if you have made a mistake, get up right away and keep
on walking. ‘Sing and walk,’ said Saint Augustine to his faithful; walk with joy and also
walk when your heart is sad, but always walk. And if you need to stop, let it be to rest a bit
or to catch your breath in order to keep going forward later. Sing and walk! Always, sing
and walk! You do this pilgrimage ‘caressed by mercy.’ The mercy of Jesus forgives
everything, always awaits you, always loves you so much” (Pope Francis). Ask Our Lady
for this familiarity with Christ, to testify in any environment in which you find yourself
living–university or the world of work–the newness that He has introduced into our life.
But since we are fragile, and you could get discouraged or distracted during the
pilgrimage, the Pope invites us not to be shocked by this, supported by the light of these
words: “Christian morality is not the titanic, voluntaristic effort of those who decide to be
coherent and who succeed, a sort of solitary challenge in front of the world. No. This is
not Christian morality; it is another thing. Christian morality is the response, the moved
response to the surprising, unexpected mercy, even “unjust” according to human criteria,
of One who knows me, knows my betrayals and loves me anyway, esteems me, embraces
me, calls me again, hopes in me, expects of me. Christian morality does not mean never
falling, but always rising, thanks to His hand that pulls us up.”
Who could continue walking without this certainty? Who could look at their own life with
its burdens and the load of their own mistakes without this certainty? Immersed in this
great Mystery, walking together truly can be a grace for everyone. And yet so often we
would like to have everything clear before we begin, and this blocks us. Imagine a young
man who falls in love with a young woman, if he said, “Should I throw myself in or not
throw myself in? Before doing it I have to clarify my ideas, I have to be certain…”. How
could he hope to reach certainty about that relationship without risking? He has to begin
taking some steps. Already in the initial moment he has the light necessary for taking the
first step, because that girl has kindled his interest. With others, he does not have the
desire to see them again, but with her, he does. So then he sees her again, and thinks that it
is really beautiful to spend time with her, and so he takes another step, and then another,
and still another. And over time things become clear. But we forget that life is like a seed
that develops over time: John and Andrew did not know where Jesus would lead them, but
they could not resist the desire to go seek Him the next day. In that first encounter they
perceived something exceptional that made it reasonable to follow Jesus; adhering to what
they had seen, walking with Him, over time, everything became clear.
At every step toward the Black Madonna, on the sixtieth anniversary of the beginning of
the Movement and ten years from the birth to Heaven of Fr. Giussani, ask for yourselves,
for me and for all our friends throughout the world, that we may live our charism
according to what Pope Francis has asked of us: as the way Christ invites us to follow
Him today, acknowledging that He is the center. Praying for the Pope, ask to be so simple
that you may follow him affectively and effectively.

Together with you on the journey,

Julián Carrón