MILAN, Italy, MARCH 2, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The archbishop of Milan is recalling the humble and audacious way in which Monsignor Luigi Giussani promoted the encounter with Christ.
Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi addressed members of the Communion and Liberation movement Monday, marking the sixth anniversary of the death of their founder.
«Christian life is not a simple idea, precept or initiative, structure or organization,» the prelate noted, «but, in its original essence, it is a personal encounter with Christ.»
«Fascinated and conquered,» Monsignor Giussani did nothing other in life than put himself at the service of this encounter, «in turn fascinating and conquering for Christ the persons and realities he met on his path,» the cardinal affirmed.
He asked, «Who or what could awaken in us the desire, the aspiration, the need of a wisdom that opens to us the real meaning of living and loving, of working and resting, of suffering and dying?»
Cardinal Tettamanzi noted that «the lack of knowledge and of sharing this fundamental ‘meaning’ is the most important and decisive cultural problem for our present and our future.»
He added that the answer to this «unsustainable need» cannot be other than «a living, concrete, person who can be found and experienced: Christ Jesus.»
«We have been urgently asked to act, to undertake, to make fruitful the talents that nature and grace offer us, to be able to influence the multiple social, cultural and political realities, to be protagonists of man’s and the world’s integral development, but always acting with the logic of Christ and not with that of the world,» the cardinal stated.
The prelate noted, quoting Monsignor Giussani, that «the secret of Christian life lies in living with Jesus.»
He continued, «One who reads the Gospel every day, one who goes to Communion every day, one who says: ‘Come, Lord,’ one who looks at friends for whom this has become more habitual, can begin to understand what it means to live with him.»
The cardinal concluded, «To live with him can be said another way: to live like him.»
