Of late, as you know, I have discovered a new and close friendship across the barrier of death with young Blessed Carlo Acutis. I don’t consider this to be either a passing fad or a coincidence. In my inquiries with the Lord about all of you and about the way ahead for both parishes in my care, I know that it has been the same Lord who has directed me towards both the Eucharist and to this young saint of the Eucharist, Blessed Carlo.
Being able to see YouTube videos of Carlo in the most diverse moments and circumstances of his short life makes sanctity something so accessible, so real, so down-to-earth, so modern. We can sometimes ruin saints by putting them on pedestals and attributing actions and sayings to them that turn them into angels or even semi-gods. It’s almost as if we think that the more unreal we make the saint, the more he is a saint. The opposite is the truth. When I was sitting amongst the thousands of people gathered in St. Francis’ Basilica in Assisi this past 4th October to celebrate his feast, the voice of a Franciscan priest rang out loud and clear: St. Francis is very famous, but most people don’t actually know him. The real man and his very real struggle with both sin and holiness are covered by this mythical and idyllic picture of Francis talking to animals and singing of peace. We do the same to the Little Flower. We can sometimes treat her as a five-year old who talks in saccharine phrases to God and man. But she, too, was in reality a far more complex and suffering human being, whose psychological and spiritual profile are not for the faint-hearted.
Because of Blessed Carlo, I began back in May to read the lives of the saints of each day as contained in the 12-volume publication, “Butler’s Lives of the Saints”, though I cannot say that I have managed to read them every day. What I will say is that this exercise has opened up the eyes of my mind and heart to the sheer variety of incarnations of holiness which God has raised up. While some are similar, no two are the same, and many are wacky, wild, unpredictable, unlikely, unexpected, enthralling, off-putting, etc., etc.. The only thing that unites them is their passion for Jesus Christ. For some, it’s the crucified Lord, for others it’s the Eucharistic Lord, for others it’s the prophetic Lord, for others it’s the incarnate Lord. They are all defined and identified in the individual reality of their human characters and personalities by their surrender to Jesus. Usually after many struggles, sins, failures and efforts, it ends up as a direct, total, fierce, uncompromising surrender which nothing and no-one will stop or dare to stop!
Those countless millions who stand before the throne of God in white garments and shout in union to the glory of the Lamb, are sublimely and blissfully one in their unfettered love for Him. Yet beneath those white garments lies a myriad of unique and unrepeatable life-stories of men, women and children who grasped that the only true meaning and fulfilment of their human existence is to be found in being loved unconditionally by the Crucified and Risen Lord, and loving Him unconditionally in return. This is the sole ingredient of sanctity even when the recipe for living it is always different. Each of us here has within a unique recipe for serving up the love of the Lamb of God. As Blessed Carlo puts it, we are each born as originals, not to merge into the bland and watery taste of photocopies, but to make the love of Jesus present in an original way in our lives, in our deaths and in our eternal destiny before the throne of God.
As we eat the Eucharist, the DNA of Christ mingles mysteriously with our own unique DNA to enable us to become the true person he has created and redeemed us to be and, if we are honest, to be the true person we know in the heart of hearts that we want to be. When people cry out to be free, to be themselves, to be who I am, what they are really crying out to be is to be a saint. Who we truly are is no some concoction of our own devising, and even less of the devising of social media, fashion, ideology or influencers of whatever nature or claim. Holiness is our identity. And holiness means being helplessly, irresistibly and utterly in love with Jesus Christ. Such is the person we shall finally and eternally be when we see Him face to face. My brothers and sisters, there is no other person we can ever really be if we truly want to live. Every saint has understood this. Do we?