To the Heights!

On July 4th, when our minds and hearts were turned to the beginnings of our nation, the Church commemorated a holy individual who has been beatified and someday soon may be canonized.  Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati is a shining example for our own times.
           
He was born on April 6, 1901 in the northern Italian city of Turin.  His family was  affluent and cultured.  Alfredo, his father, was the founder and director of the liberal Italian newspaper, La Stampa, and an agnostic.  He was a member of the Italian Senate and was his country’s ambassador to Germany at one point.  Adelaide, his mother, was a practicing Catholic and a celebrated painter.
           
From early in his life, Pier Giorgio was deeply spiritual and devoutly Catholic.  As a child he sought his spiritual director’s permission to receive Holy Communion daily, a practice that was not common at that time.  He became a member of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostolate of Prayer.  His spiritual life was founded on the two pillars of great devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and a tender devotion to Our Lady.  He freely shared his love for Jesus and Mary with his young friends and all who would listen.   He was an enthusiastic promoter of the faith.
             
He had a tremendous love for the poor since he was a small boy.  He frequently denied himself money and others things to be able to provide for the poor.  At the age of 17, Pier Giorgio joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Through his work in this organization, he was able to channel the great love he received from the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus into the care he poured out upon poor families, orphans of the First World War, single mothers, and all those in need.  For him, it was only logical that love received from Christ present in the Holy Eucharist must be shared with his brothers and sisters who were less fortunate.
           
Pier Giorgio was an accomplished athlete.  While he was an avid swimmer, boatsman, and hiker, his great passion was for mountain climbing.  His life motto came from his Alpine adventures.  “To the heights!” ( in Italian Verso alto!) referred not only to his conquest of peaks in the Alps such as Monte Viso and Grand Tournalin but also to his spiritual life.  His goal in life was to scale the heights of holiness and bring many souls to Christ. 
           
Because his life was centered on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, Pier Giorgio anticipated the Second Vatican Council’s beautiful description of the Holy Eucharist as the “source and summit” of the life of the Church and, therefore,  our life because we are members of Christ’s Body the Church.  He believed that all he was to accomplish in life had to start from his daily encounter with the Lord at Mass when he received Holy Communion.  He knew that he could not do anything without the appointment he had every day with the Eucharistic Lord at Mass. 

He made frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and was a regular participant in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during the night.  He proclaimed that Jesus who dwell in our churches was the reason he did all he did for others.
           
In his late teens he decided to become a mining engineer. He studied at the university in preparation for this career.  No matter what his profession was to be, Pier Giorgio embraced his relationship with Christ and his service of the poor as the vocation he was called to fulfill.  In his early twenties, he became a Third Order Dominican.  In doing so, Pier Giorgio lived in the world but followed the spirituality of the Order of St. Dominic.  He was very attracted to the life and preaching of St. Dominic, the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the mystical prayer and service of the Church  exemplified by St. Catherine of Siena. 

His fervent devotion to Our Lady led him to pray the Rosary three times each day.  He asked her intercession and help for his family, his friends, the poor and anyone who needed prayer.  He never missed an opportunity to bring his friends to Mass and to pray the Rosary with him.
           
At a time when the Church’s teachings were being challenged by Facism and Communism, Pier Giorgio zealously defended the doctrine and social teaching of the Church.  He took to the streets with other concerned Catholics in Turin and Rome to defend the dignity of the human person and the freedom of the Church to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.   

His love for the poor was probably a contributing factor in his early death. After  having visited the homes of poor families where members were sick with polio, Pier Giorgio experienced back pain and fatigue while on a canoeing trip with some friends.  He returned home to find his mother caring for his maternal grandmother who was dying.  Not wanting to add more to his mother’s grief, Pier Giorgio did not ask for attention for himself and rapidly grew worse as paralysis due to polio progressed.  Within a few days, the priest was called for him to receive the Last Rites.  He died in his mother’s arms at the age of 24.  His last request was to have some medicine taken to a poor family he was helping. 

In his short life a tremendous amount of love was received and given.   His funeral was testimony to that love.  Pier Giorgio’s family was shocked to see a multitude of the poor line the streets of Turin to pay homage to their special friend who loved them and helped them in so many ways.
           
Beatified in 1989, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati is an example sorely needed in our times especially for youth and young adults.  Pier Giorgio was an ardent defender of the teachings of the Church.  In our time when Church teachings are rejected and the Church is persecuted because of them, his courageous example inspires us to remain faithful. 

Pier Giorgio kept his eyes on the reality of heaven and recognized the sanctity of human life and the dignity of every person, especially the poor.  At a time when, secularism, materialism, individualism and relativism run deep in our culture, Pier Giorgio shows us how to battle the ideologies that demean and destroy human life. 

Pier Giorgio recognized that the Lord whom he received at Mass was the source of his strength.   In our times time when Christ’s presence in the Holy Eucharist is ignored, denied and rejected, Pier Giorgio’s love for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament reminds us where we find grace, courage and meaning for our life – in Jesus’ Real Presence at Mass.

Pier Giorgio’s life was laid down for the love of his brothers and sisters.  At a time when people are self-absorbed and fixated on their “rights” to the exclusion of the dignity and rights of others, Pier Giorgio, who put God’s will before his own will, inspires us to serve God first and then to turn to our brothers and sisters serving them in love. 
           
“To the heights!” Pier Giorgio cries out even today leading us on to scale the heights of holiness by climbing with him to the summit of our lives - the Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass.  How can we refuse to join him in this climb to the heights of God’s love and mercy and bring that love and mercy to others?! 
           
“To the heights!”  Dear Blessed Pier Giorgio, pray for us and lead us on!

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh