“The stars are so many, millions upon millions…,” as a song by Francesco De Gregori put it, and we might think of the saints as stars that shine to light our path; they are like so many Pole Stars that the Lord has placed there so that, in our moments of darkness, we could look up at the sky and not feel alone.
A young generation of saints
Our time is giving us a firmament of young saints, from the best-known, such as Carlo Acutis, Chiara Corbella, Chiara Luce Badano, and Judge Livatino, to names that may be less well known but are no less brilliant, such as Gianluca Firetti.
Gianluca, known as Gian to his friends, was studying to become an agricultural technician and dreamed of playing soccer when, in December 2012, he discovered a bone tumor in his knee. During his illness, his life changed forever: Gian discovered Jesus, faced his Calvary with serenity, and conveyed serenity to others. He died on January 30, 2015, but his light is still shining.
And from heaven, the life of Maria Cristina Mocellin, who died in 1995 at just 26 years old, continues to sing. She was already married and the mother of three children. Hers was a journey toward heaven lived out in the ordinariness of an entirely normal life; for many years, she battled and faced a tumor that nevertheless did not prevent her from living: she married, had two children, and, just when she was expecting her third, discovered that the tumor had returned. She postponed chemotherapy so as not to harm the life growing inside her. Her son, Riccardo, was born in July 1994, and she died on October 22, 1995, completely surrendered to God.
“A Catholic cannot fail to be joyful; sadness must be banished from Catholic hearts”, said another young man, Pier Giorgio Frassati. Born into an upper-middle-class family in Turin, he wanted and decided to be a living member of the Church: he was active in Catholic Action and FUCI, was a Dominican tertiary, and had a deep love for the poor. It was precisely while visiting the poor in hospital that he contracted polio, which led to his death at just 24 years of age.
These are just some of the stars shining in the sky that the Lord invites us to look at, lifting our gaze from our everyday lives to discover that, precisely in daily life, there is the key that unlocks eternity.
The saints next door
What we have just outlined is the holiness that Pope Francis calls the holiness of the next-door neighbor: “I like to see holiness in the patient people of God: in parents who raise their children with such love, in men and women who work to bring bread home, in the sick, in elderly religious women who continue to smile. In this perseverance to move forward day after day, I see the holiness of the Church militant. This is so often the holiness ‘of the next-door neighbor’, of those who live near us and are a reflection of God’s presence, or, to use another expression, ‘the middle class of holiness’.”
This holiness is for everyone; it challenges us all, and we are all called to bring it about.
Holiness is happiness here and now
And we are called to bring it about because within this holiness lies a secret of happiness! This is how Pope Francis concludes the apostolic exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, which focuses on holiness: “Let us ask that the Holy Spirit instill in us an intense desire to be holy for the greater glory of God, and let us encourage one another in this commitment. In this way we will share a happiness that the world cannot take away from us.”
The Lord is only waiting to give us complete joy; let us walk along the path with confidence and, from time to time, lift our eyes to heaven: we will discover many friends cheering us on and never leaving us alone!
