Advent Reflections with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Part 2: Peace

12-08-2024Weekly ReflectionJen Arnold, M.A.

We’ve reached the second week as we continue our Advent reflections with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati for the youth. The theme for the second week of Advent is peace. When Pope John Paul II beatified Blessed Frassati on May 20, 1990, he called him the “Man of the Eight Beatitudes” because he lived his life according to Jesus’ roadmap to happiness in the Beatitudes (cf. Matt 5:1-12). In 1975, Pier Giorgio's sister, Luciana, wrote about her brother in a book called A Man of the Beatitudes: Pier Giorgio Frassati, in which she devoted a chapter to describing how her brother lived out each of the Beatitudes. Let's take a closer look at Luciana's perspective on her brother's living witness of the beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

As I said in last week’s reflection, Blessed Frassati lived during tremendous social and political unrest. Fascism was on the rise in Italy, World War I was about to begin, and the Catholic Church was being oppressed. Like today, college campuses were ground zero for protests from opposing sides of many social issues. Essentially, young men and women found very little peace in the world around them. However, Blessed Frassati knew better than to seek peace in the exterior world and understood that it had to come from something greater: his faith in God. He wrote to the youth of his day:

The times we are going through are difficult because cruel persecution of the Church is raging. But you bold and good young people should not be afraid of this small thing; remember that the Church is a divine institution and cannot come to an end. She will last until the end of the world. Not even the gates of hell can prevail against her.

Blessed Frassati is speaking specifically about how God will care for the Church in tumultuous times, but Luciana explains that he applied that level of faith to all matters in his life. For example, knowing that God would take care of everything enabled him to accept his father’s dislike of his religious practices, his “continual humiliations,” his difficulties as a student, and all of his other sufferings up to his untimely death at the young age of 24. Knowing that God was in control of everything helped Frassati find an inner peace that could never be found externally. Luciana said, “Once he had understood and mastered this truth, Pier Giorgio felt really at peace.”

Think about the things that cause you anxiety in your own life. You may worry about the big things happening in the world, like poverty, politics, war, or social justice issues. Maybe there are personal things that affect you more instead, like relationships, friends or family drama, or grades. If God can protect the entire Catholic Church through the end of time as he promised, certainly he can take care of you through whatever difficulties you face. What if you followed Blessed Frassaiti’s example and put all of your faith and trust in God, shared the deepest parts of your heart with him, and allowed yourself to trust that everything will be okay in the end? Then, like Pier Giorgio, a sense of peace will wash over you.

Luciana then explains her brother's other source of peace, the Eucharist. Again, quoting him:

Feed on this Bread of Angels and from it you will gain the strength to fight your inner battle against passion and all adversities, because Jesus Christ has promised to those who feed on the Holy Eucharist eternal life and the graces necessary to obtain it. And when you are totally consumed by this eucharistic fire, then you will be able more consciously to thank God who has called you to become part of that multitude, and you will enjoy the peace that those who are happy in accordance with this world have never experienced, because true happiness does not consist in the pleasures of the world or in earthly things, but in peace of conscience, which we only have if we are pure in heart and mind.

This is an extensive quote, but it’s important and full of wisdom, so let's unpack it. Frassati is talking about an “inner battle against passion and all adversities,” which we all have. We all must fight against sin and temptation, and very often, something inside of us tells us we are doing something wrong, but we do it anyway. Sometimes, we do it because we cave into peer pressure, don't want to look bad in front of our friends, or it brings us pleasure. Maybe we do something just because someone told us we shouldn't, or we want to see if we can get away with it. There are many reasons we do things we know we shouldn't do, and all the while there is that voice inside telling us not to do that thing. It’s sort of like the old cartoons where there was an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other fighting to get you to listen to them and ignore the other. The more you tell the angel to hush and be quiet, the softer his voice becomes until all you can hear is the devil’s voice on your other shoulder and you lose your sense of what’s right and wrong. In reality, you don’t ever want the inner battle to stop because it’s a sign you’re still fighting off bad influences, trying to be holy, and doing the right thing.

Moving on in Frassati's quote, Jesus promised that the Eucharist would give you the graces you need to fight that inner battle so that the right side would win. As you increase your reception of the Eucharist, the voice urging you to stop making those bad choices will get louder and stronger. Blessed Frassati says you become consumed with the “eucharistic fire,” which will be our ultimate source of happiness. Why is that? When we seek the pleasures of the world, we continue to have an internal battle within us that disrupts the peace in our conscience. When we are consumed with the “eucharistic fire,” there is no longer a battle inside of us; we have peace in our conscience and are “pure in heart and mind.” When you are at war with yourself in your own heart and mind, you are not at peace, and it's a lot harder to relax and be happy. When you are at peace within yourself, happiness is easier to find.

Think about your biggest inner battles regarding your sins and temptations. Don't worry; we all have them. Identify them and name them. Resolve to fight against them, and don’t ignore the voice inside of you telling you to “stop.” Remember what Blessed Frassati said and “feed on the Bread of Angels.” First, make sure you go to reconciliation, receive the forgiveness and absolution of Jesus Christ, and know that he always loves you. Then, each time you receive the Eucharist, ask God to give you the graces you need to fight that inner battle and win. It may take time and practice, but he will help you, and you will find more and more peace each time. Also, as Blessed Frassati reminds us, consciously thank God, because the peace you have comes from him.