There is a saying of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati that I keep tacked up on the bulletin board above my writing desk. When I get frustrated with revisions, anxious about deadlines, or paralyzed by writer’s block, I return to Pier Giorgio’s words and find renewed enthusiasm and courage:
“The faith given to me in baptism suggests to me surely: of yourself you will do nothing, but if you have God as the center of all your action, then you will reach the goal.”
During this season of my life, God has called me to engage in the lay apostolate as a professional writer, using my talents in wordcraft and storytelling to share the beauty, truth, and goodness of the Catholic faith in my own unique way. In moments of doubt and discouragement, the example of Blessed Pier Giorgio reminds me that any apostolate that remains grafted on the “true vine” of Jesus Christ cannot fail to bear fruit, as Our Lord himself declared to us:
Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)
Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died from polio on July 4, 1925, at age twenty-four in his hometown of Turin, lived a brief but remarkable life. His father was a politician, the owner of the influential liberal Italian newspaper La Stampa, and an agnostic. In many ways, Pier Giorgio seemed little different from other young men of the Italian upper middle class. He made friends easily and was remembered for his lively fraternal spirit. He was known for his boisterous laugh and had a reputation as a practical joker. He loved the outdoors and mountain climbing, but he also applied himself assiduously to his college studies and had ambitions of becoming a mining engineer.
Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith . . .
But from a tender age, Pier Giorgio also displayed a precocious faith, and as a young man, his days were filled with prayer, acts of self-denial, and tireless service among the poor and the marginalized. Perhaps no saint of modern times better personifies the spirit of the Catholic lay apostolate than Blessed Pier Giorgio. Indeed, Frassati foreshadowed the Second Vatican Council’s understanding of the lay Catholic’s unique role by nearly half a century. In the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, the Council Fathers wrote:
[The] laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the Spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope, and charity.
Lumen Gentium further declares that it is “by the sacraments, especially holy Eucharist, that charity toward God and man which is the soul of the apostolate is communicated and nourished.” Devotion to the Eucharist was the capstone of Pier Giorgio Frassati’s spiritual life. He attended daily Mass whenever possible and made time for nightly Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, sometimes spending long hours in prayer before the Eucharistic Lord. Frassati could be so energetic in his apostolate because he knew that his strength did not ultimately come from himself. He was fed and nourished by the Bread from Heaven (see John 6:32-35).
But Frassati’s faith was not an inward-looking piety. No, he spent time in front of the Eucharist to empower his tireless mission to go out and bring Christ to the ordinary impoverished Italian in the street. Frassati embodied the spiritual and corporal works of mercy and dedicated much of his free time to serving the needs of the outcasts at the margins of society: the downtrodden, the sick, orphans, and demobilized soldiers returning home from the front lines of World War I. As Pier Giorgio’s sister Luciana Frassati wrote, “In civilian clothes, but a priest at heart, Pier Giorgio set out . . . on the road of apostleship, which brought him ever closer to the interests of the dispossessed.”
Sanctity is not the exclusive purview of priests and religious. All Christian believers are called to become salt of the earth and light to the world (see Matt. 5:13-16). Furthermore, Lumen Gentium reminds us that by baptism, “every layman, in virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church itself.”
Baptized Christians have a sacred duty, a vocation from God, to Christify our homes, our schools, our workplaces, indeed the entire world, not in the form of overbearing cultural conquest, but by humble, authentic witness to the Gospel life. Lumen Gentium says that the faithful “must assist each other to live holier lives even in their daily occupations. In this way, the world may be permeated by the spirit of Christ, and it may more effectively fulfill its purpose in justice, charity, and peace. The laity have the principal role in the overall fulfillment of this duty.” The apostolate is not optional. Pier Giorgio Frassati knew this in his bones.
But how can we practically live out the apostolate in our own lives? Lumen Gentium has the answer: “Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity.” My own path of bringing the Gospel to the world is by writing and speaking; yours may be through teaching, volunteering at a food pantry, tending to the sick, or just by being an example of lively, authentic Christian faith in your parish, your neighborhood, or place of business. Each of us has a job to do for Christ. Let’s get to work.
Blessed Pier Giorgio, pray for us!