Join the Revolution!

If you have read the moving account of the death of Pier Giorgio Frassati in the book by his sister Luciana ("His Last Days"), you know that one of the last things he did in his hours left on this earth was show compassion for the poor and sick whom he served.

It was Friday, July 3, 1925. He would have normally gone that day to the regular weekly meeting of his conference of St. Vincent de Paul. Instead he was bedridden with a fatal diagnosis of polio and surrounded by his grieving family. Almost completely paralyzed at this point, he asked his sister to bring him his jacket and then wrote these instructions:

The barely legible note reads, "These are the injections for Converso. The pawn ticket belongs to Sappa; I had forgotten it, renew it on my account."

Requests like these wouldn't have been a surprise to his friend who received this note. After all, this was how Pier Giorgio spent so much of his life - doing one unnoticed act of charity after another. Providing medicine, school books, bus tickets, food, clothes, patient listening, time, prayers, love, whatever was needed, was nothing extraordinary for him. He began exercising the virtue of charity as a young boy and it was a well-defined spiritual muscle by the time of his early manhood.

Walking the streets of his hometown Torino, he would have passed by often the inscription, "Charitas Christi Urget Nos."  (The charity of Christ urges us.) Taken from St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians, this passage marks one of the entrances to La Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza, known commonly as the Cottolengo hospital. In fact, it could have been here on one of his visits to the sickest of the sick that he contracted the disease that took his life. Nobody knows. 

Quoting this same phrase of Saint Paul in his speech to the youth of Pollone two years before his death, Pier Giorgio added "...and without this fire, which little by little must destroy our personality so that our heart beats only for the sorrows of others, we would not be Christians, much less Catholics." His personality was certainly consumed by the charity of Christ and that was what drew so many to him both in life and in death. The pictures from his funeral show the crowds pouring out in the street by the thousands - a loving response to the love he poured out on them.

Twenty-nine years ago this month, during his homily at the Mass of Beatification, Pope Saint John Paul II reflected on the life and example of Blessed Frassati:

"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."

It's time to join the revolution of charity. Do something kind today, tomorrow and every day after that. You won't regret it. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us!

Verso l'alto! ///cmw