Communion and Liberation

"If there is one crime that a religion can commit, it is that of saying: I am the only way. This is exactly what Christianity claims. It is not unjust to feel repugnance in the face of such a statement. What would be unjust would be failing to ask the reason for this claim."
Fr. Luigi Giussani

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I only recently became aware of the late Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, and invite you to learn more at Chisea, Sandor Magister's incredibly insightful web site.

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The Mystery of Fr. Giussani, Revealed by his Writings
For the first time, a book presents the spiritual biography of the founder of Communion and Liberation. At the center of everything are a "coming" and an "encounter." An extract from the volume's culminating chapter

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, March 4, 2009 – Over the past half century, only a tiny minority of the founders of new Catholic movements have distinguished themselves by their depth of vision, solid spiritual life, charism of leadership, and comprehensive Christian witness.

One of these was Fr. Luigi Giussani, according to what then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said about him in the homily at his funeral in the cathedral of Milan on February 24, 2005.

Fr. Giussani, who died at the age of 82, is known throughout the world as the founder of Communion and Liberation.

Today CL is present in more than 70 countries. About 100,000 people belong to the Fraternity. Then there are the men and women under vows as members of the Memores Domini, four of whom serve Benedict XVI in the pontifical household. There are the priests of the Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo; the Sisters of Charity of the Assumption; the Companionship of Works Association, which links about 30 thousand industrial businesses, magazines, publishers...

But in 2004, in a letter to Pope John Paul II, Fr. Giussani wrote:

"I never intended to 'found' anything. I believe that the genius of the movement that I have seen come into being is that of having grasped the urgency of proclaiming the need to return to the elementary aspects of Christianity, meaning passion for Christianity as such, in its original elements, and that's all."

And it's true. Fr. Giussani always had this burning passion: to proclaim Christianity in its purity and integrity, as being a "coming" before being a doctrine, as a personal encounter with the person Jesus.

He began as a professor of religion at a high school in Milan. His life story – which intersected with that of the Catholic Church at the end of the 19th century – has been recounted in three volumes published between 2001 and 2006 by Fr. Massimo Camisasca, who was always at his side and today is superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo.

But what was still missing, until yesterday, was a synthesis of his thought. This can now be explored in another book that Fr. Camisasca published for precisely this purpose: "to make Fr. Giussani known to those who did not know him, to those who did not have the fortune of hearing him speak, of spending time with him and reading his books."

The book is a spiritual biography of Fr. Giussani, reconstructed through an examination of his writings, many of which had never been published before.

Three of the books that Fr. Giussani published while he was still alive are of central importance. These became the textbooks of the "school of the community," the systematic catechesis that the priest gave to his followers. The trilogy bears the general title of "PerCorso [Pathway]," and is made up of three volumes published in their definitive edition between 1997 and 2003, but under development half a century earlier: "Il senso religioso [The religious sense]", "All'origine della pretesa cristiana [At the origin of the Christian claim]", "Perché la Chiesa [Why the Church]." The first of these volumes was published worldwide, and was translated into 18 languages.

The following is an extract from Chapter 6 of the book by Fr. Camisasca illustrating the thought of Fr. Giussani.

It is the chapter that summarizes the second volume of "PerCorso," entitled "At the origin of the Christian claim."


The "Christian claim" explained by Fr. Giussani

by Massimo Camisasca


The person of Jesus was the intellectual and emotional center of Fr. Luigi Giussani's life. This centrality was the anchor of his existence. In Jesus Christ, Giussani found the only being who, precisely because of his twofold nature, was fully human, capable of understanding from within each person's expectations, and at the same time capable of responding to these like no one else, because he was God. [...]

It is not that Jesus was only the fulfillment of man's expectation, almost as if this were demanded according to an exaggeratedly anthropocentric theology. Christ is not only the answer to the religious sense. Giussani would explain this very clearly: "The most important thing to be built upon, upon which we are built, is not the religious sense, but the encounter with Christ." [...]

In his desire to restore existential solidity to the Christian proposal, Giussani did not fall into the error of seeing God as an element implied by man's needs. His was not a political theology, guided by a preoccupation with building the kingdom of God on earth. He understood well the primacy of grace, but at the same time he wanted to liberate the Christian proclamation from any temptation to spiritualism, to supernaturalism, to detachment from history. [...]

These questions occupy the second volume, entitled "At the origin of the Christian claim," in the Giussanian trilogy "PerCorso." [...] The attention of this volume is focused on what Jesus said about himself, about what he accomplished, about the manner in which he manifested himself. And this focus on Jesus' method of revelation is the most valuable aspect of the work, it is what makes it original, even in the midst of the many and important lives of Jesus written in the past century, or in the one that is beginning. [...]

* * *

The point of departure is a phenomenology of existence, because Giussani was convinced that every one of man's actions contains the fundamental finality that governs his whole life. When man examines himself, in the end his reason cannot help but find the religious sense and call the object of his ultimate desire by the name of God: something or someone that he wishes to know, that he knows exists, but is unable to define in its exact outlines. [...] It can be noted how Giussani assimilated Vatican Council I, and its battle against fideism and rationalism. He wanted to be a defender of reason, of a reason that arrives at perceiving the existence of the Mystery, and more than this wishes to know this, but is unable by itself to give a face to this Unknown.

This is how the religions were born: through them, man sought to imagine, to define the Mystery in relation to himself. The differences among the religions can be explained in part through the different historical-cultural environments in which they were born. Religious geniuses were at their origin. Great dignity can be found in many of them. Giussani was not a fundamentalist. He was moved by and interested in each one of man's journeys in the attempt to give a name and face to that from which he came and toward which he is directed. He knew that many religions emerged from amazement over the harmony of the laws that govern the universe, and which man seeks to obey. He even praised the fact that they contain hints of trust in divine mercy. But in the end, for him the various religions remained an exclusively human effort.

So how can the best, most suitable religion be found? Through a comparison? Or is it better to move toward a universal religion? Giussani's conclusion is surprising: "Everyone should follow the religion of his tradition," he should begin from there, from where God has placed him. This is a practical norm, a surrender to God's wisdom. Rather than a comparison among the religions, what interested Giussani was completely shifting the center of reflection. What if the Mystery wanted to draw near to man in his solitude and confusion, to establish contact with man in order to sustain him? "Reason cannot rule out anything that the Mystery might undertake."

Throughout its history, humanity has had many opportunities to experience the manifestation of the sacred. But with the birth of Israel, something absolutely new came about. With the call of Abraham, God chose time, history, as the privileged venue within which to reveal himself. The process was reversed. It was no longer man in search of God, but God in search of man. It was he who decided to enter history, to manifest himself through events, words and actions. [...] The fact that Christianity is not a collection of doctrines, a catalog of behavioral norms, but something that happened in history, an event, a "coming," is a recurring theme in Giussani; it is the heart of his faith and experience. [...] I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that a certain presence of similar expressions in the pontifical magisterium of John Paul II and of Benedict XVI is due in part to Giussani's insistence. At the end of the millennium, the Lombard priest dedicated an extremely long series of meetings with his collaborators to elaborating the idea of Christianity as coming. [...]

Christianity, therefore, was a completely new path. Giussani understood the radical nature of this statement, and also the distress that it can provoke. He had an almost prophetic vision of the century underway, which in the name of tolerance would like to burn up any idea of truth and difference. He writes: "If there is one crime that a religion can commit, it is that of saying: I am the only way. This is exactly what Christianity claims. It is not unjust to feel repugnance in the face of such a statement. What would be unjust would be failing to ask the reason for this claim."

* * *

This is the meaning of the entire book: to respond to the objection, which would be very widespread during the decades following the publication of these pages, about the salvific unicity of Christ, perceived as an unjust negation of freedom and of differences among men. [...]

Giussani invites us to ask the right question: we should not ask what is just or unjust, but what has happened. Could the Mystery become incarnate, could it become a normal part of history? The only thing to ask is: did this happen, or not? "If it happened, this would be the only path, because it would be the one marked out by God." No longer, then, study, seeking, the imagination of something far away, but "a collision with the present," the simplicity of recognition. [...] Every man can encounter this presence, by grace. The lowly and the poor have the advantage. St. Paul's words come to mind: "Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth" (1 Corinthians 1:26).

"Yes, this happened," says the Christian proclamation. Because of the simple fact that an announcement of this nature has been made to man, there is nothing more important than verifying its accuracy: "Everything is reduced to responding to the question: Who is Jesus?" In every age, society does not want to hear about this proclamation. It is too big, too disturbing. In effect, it is the only case in history in which a man has proclaimed himself to be God. [...]

Where can we find the testimony of this claim by Jesus, by the Mystery that entered into history? In the Gospels, Giussani replies. In his book, he dwells on the historical uniqueness of the gospels, in which we find a record and proclamation of events. Through the Gospels, man can encounter this coming and allow himself to be unsettled by its totality. In Revelation, it is a living person who comes to us: "The object of revelation is not a series of propositions, but is the reality of a personal being." [...]

An event can be experienced. How can it be experienced today? By beginning to experience the memory and the proclamation of Him presented by those who have been drawn to Him. This anticipates a theme that will be developed in the third and last volume of "PerCorso": the Church as the continuity of Christ, as his body, his presence. Through the life of the Church, we can arrive at sufficient certainty about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, adhere to his teachings, and intuit adequate reasons to believe in Him.

Jesus is certainly a fact of history. On many occasions, Giussani gave his all to highlight and defend the historicity of the Gospels, and in particular the resurrection of Jesus, which constitute the heart of these. Nothing was more foreign to his spirit than the opposition between the Jesus of faith and the Jesus of history. And yet, at the same time, he reacted to the reduction of Christianity to something in the past. Jesus of Nazareth is not only someone who lived and died. He is alive. "The Christian proclamation is that God has become a human presence, carnal, within history. God is not something far away that man tries to reach by his own effort, but Someone who came to join in man's journey, and became his companion."

So in order to verify the claim of Jesus, it is not enough to go back to the texts that talk about Him. And an interior experience is not sufficient either, as in Protestantism. Christianity is, instead, "an entirely human reality, according to all of the factors of human reality, which are interior and exterior, subjective and objective." Encountering Jesus means encountering those who believe in Him, the unity of believers, the body that the Spirit creates by assimilating to Jesus every person who entrusts himself to Him.

Here Giussani revisits the themes of traditional apologetics, which was developed to explain the reasons why one can or should believe. But his manner of speaking is completely new in comparison with that of the past. His apologetics becomes an extremely refined description of human psychology, identified in the analysis of the relationships between Christ and his contemporaries, because "the Mystery chose to enter human history, with a story identical to that of any man." [...]

The reader is thus led to follow Jesus on the roads of Palestine, but above all to follow the psychological, affective, and intellectual journey of those who were closest to Him. [...] The question that arose among the disciples about the identity of Jesus emerged precisely from the daily life that they lived together with Him. They entrusted themselves to Him because they understood that this abandonment made sense for their lives. It was an almost unnoticeable journey by their awareness toward an increasingly clear certainty. Jesus had no need to assert his divinity dogmatically with them. "It would have sounded ridiculous, rather than like blasphemy." He revealed himself slowly, in order to prompt a gradual evolution in others.

* * *

Giussani must have meditated for a long time on the teaching method of Jesus. In fact, he tried to duplicate it in his relationship with young people. [...] In this volume, he talks about three factors in the teaching method of Jesus. Especially the aspect of following. Jesus is a master to be followed. In the same way, in Christianity it is necessary to follow someone who lives the original event concretely in his own life. Then there is the need for renunciation. Christ asked his followers to leave everything, although he promised a hundredfold to those who would do so. There is no Christianity, for Giussani, if there is no sacrifice, acceptance of trial, detachment. Finally, the third principle, it is necessary to proclaim one's allegiance to Jesus in front of everyone: so that men may know that He is the center of our affectivity and our freedom.

Only love can explain and enable this process, can usher us properly into this inconceivable claim by Jesus. Otherwise, the only result can be opposition. What could the Jews do in the face of someone who identified himself as the source of the law, who maintained that he had the power to forgive sins, to judge between good and evil, to be the way, the truth, and the life? We must say either that Jesus is insane, or that He is truly God. But in order to arrive at this conclusion, in order for this possibility to appear on our horizon, we must have an openness of soul, a sense of discomfort with our own evil, a genuine discovery of Jesus and his infinite humanity.

There is a seal, a particular sign in the preaching and life of Jesus that for Giussani is the most enlightening sign of his divinity: the conception of man that He proclaimed.

Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, to tell us that we are children, that in each of us there is a reality higher than any other reality subject to space and time. Every person contains within himself an original, irreducible principle, the foundation of inalienable rights, the source of values. It is this that we call soul, spirit, that level of our personal being that is in immediate relationship with the infinite. Already in the first volume of the trilogy, entitled "The religious sense," Giussani dwelt on this theme, which was extremely important to him. It could be said that it was the keystone of his entire cultural position, the reason for his opposition to all power, and of his veneration of the Church as the guardian of the intangible truth of man. "Jesus concentrated on this problem, the relationship with the Father. Without that relationship, the individual man does not have the possibility of having his own face, he does not have the possibility of being a person."

With Jesus, the discovery of the person enters the world: He is the messenger, Giussani says, of the exclusive and total dependence of the individual man on the Father, He is the great educator of religious piety. This is the most suitable attitude for man, the one that leads him to discover prayer, his awareness of his fundamental dependence on God, that constant dependence that involves every moment and every slightest aspect of our lives. In this way, existence is realized as a dialogue with the great presence, the Being who is love, who gives himself constantly. [...] Our dependence on the being who creates us is fulfilled in our complete self-donation, in sacrifice, in "giving ourselves" [...].

Giussani's vision of salvation absolutely does not avoid the topic of sin, much less that of original sin. He was well aware that man by himself constantly falls into the temptation of referring everything to himself: he needs another, he needs to accept the love of another, to be liberated from being free. All of this creates tension in his life, a struggle, a search. If his immersion into the Eastern tradition led Giussani to feel that the divine transfiguration is already at work in the world, his closeness to modern man and in particular to the Protestant world – with which he became familiar during his studies in America – made him feel that he shared in the entire drama of fallen man. In the Church, he saw the path of redemption. Ever since God became man, He has saved man through other men, in order to make salvation possible everywhere and for all time. These will be the themes of the third volume of "PerCorso," entitled: "Why the Church."

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The book:

Massimo Camisasca, "Don Giussani. La sua esperienza dell'uomo e di Dio", Edizioni San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo, 2009, pp. 168, euro 14.00.

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The complete transcription of the homily delivered by then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the funeral Mass for Fr. Luigi Giussani, at the cathedral of Milan on February 24, 2005:

> "Ferito dal desiderio della Bellezza"