Young people in love with Francesco

Franciscanism

The courage to be yourself

Francis he was simply a young man in love with God; he changes his life, converts his existence into something great, immense and different from the life previously led; he has the courage to be himself at the cost of seeming almost ridiculous in the eyes of the people: this is the extreme synthesis of an existence devoted to the service of God and of the brothers. In everyone’s imagination, Francis of Assisi has a young face. Youth, an important and fundamental season for every man.

Many important choices are made during this period, if we think about it. This is how it was for Francis of Assisi; so it was for many young people of the past and so it will be for many young people of the future. Francesco is a magnet that attracts; he has been, since the beginning of his mission, a light that has attracted other lights; and to this day he continues to do so.

Beginning of his vocation: other young people follow him and it will be they who will be the first traveling companions of the Franciscan adventure; an even more obvious example, Clare of Assisi, young and beautiful, at a certain point in her existence sees Francis and follows him; Chiara, she was just twelve years old when she saw the saint stripping off her possessions and returning them to her father Bernardone; she will become Francesco’s sweet friend and confidant, and seven years later from that strong gesture, she decides to follow him: another young woman who sees in the Poverello an example to follow.

“The wisdom of our fathers thus brings us back, in short words, to stop for a moment to reflect on the meaning of our life that often flows superficially because it is suffocated either by a boring daily “routine” or by frenetic races to which modern living sometimes forces us. Reflecting we realize that often man does not live his life, because he is immersed in times that do not exist: either in memory or in regret (…) In reality, the only time that man possesses is the present moment that goes lived inwardly making full use of it “.

They seem like words written by Chiara or Francesco, and – instead – they are reflections contained in a theme written by Chiara Luce Badano, in 1989. Further on, in the same sheet, there is a sentence that can be considered the symbol of his existence: we must “give meaning to our every action, be it big or small… in favor of others”. Make sense, first of all; and this sense must be “in favor of others”. It seems precisely the lesson-testimony that St. Francis left us who knew well the value of time, the value of human actions and the meaning of life.

Other Chiara, who is light for many young people today: Chiara Corbella Petrillo. The image of him is deeply linked with Assisi, especially with the church of the Porziuncola, the place where the fundamental chapter of his mission began for Francis. The two images – that of Chiara’s smiling face and that of the Porziuncola – overlap, as in the fading frames of a film. This film is called: Love for God, Love for the needy. A young existence, completely immersed in the contemplation of Francis, of God and of the Virgin Mary.

Another young man in love with Francescoour neighbor’s boy “yesterday”, Carlo Acutis who was born in London and lived in Milan, elected Assisi as his city of the heart. Here he breathes all the spirituality of St. Francis; Carlo who divides his time between evangelization via the web and the encounter with the poor: the Message of the Good News to be brought to everyone and embodying that same Message, these are the two poles of his biography. His body rests in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore – Sanctuary of the Spoliation: a sanctuary dear to his soul – as indeed many churches in Assisi – in which he devotedly participated in the Eucharistic celebration, his daily appointment. Three names, those of Chiara Luce Badano, Chiara Corbella Petrillo and Carlo Acutis, but in a journey back in time, we could find another, a symbol of Catholic youth of the early twentieth century.

AND’ Piergiorgio Frassati, also born into a wealthy family, decides that his life should be other than the future envisaged by his father, Alfredo Frassati, well-known journalist of the time, owner of the Turin newspaper “La Stampa”, as well as a close friend of Giolitti from whom he will be sent as ambassador to Berlin. The clashes with the father do not take long to occur, but they are one-sided clashes, in which it is father Alfredo who defines his son as “a useless man”, who condemns his “loitering” around the city to be next to the least; it seems – really – to review a history already lived: that of Francis of Assisi and his father Bernardone. When he reaches his father appointed ambassador in Berlin, he will have – in the German city – the opportunity to meet Father Karl Sonnenschein, who will be defined as “the German St. Francis”, pastor of the Italian Catholics residing in Berlin and spiritual guide of the students.

The religious, known for his great humility and great charity, he established an excellent relationship of esteem and sympathy with the young man from Turin, inviting him to participate in the meetings of mixed circles, made up of both students and workers. Pier Giorgio would have liked to imitate, as a priest, his own Father Sonneschein, mirror of St. Francis of Assisi, but his mission will be another: that of being a witness of Jesus in the midst of young people, in the simplicity of daily life. These are just some of the names known to the faithful people; the following would be even wider.

But, a question arises, almost naturally: how many young “unknown” people have followed Francis in their life? And how many will still follow him? Maybe not known, these guys represent Francesco’s new travel companions; it is the young people of all times who, in the footsteps of the saint of Assisi, move through the streets of our world today to bring hope where there is sadness, love where there is hatred.