S. Messa XXVII Dies Natalis Enzo Piccinini

On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, ‘From his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” (John 7:37-39)

Jesus spoke these words in Jerusalem, during the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, a liturgical moment closely linked to water and the invocation of rain. But it is also the promise of the Holy Spirit, as living water that will be given to humanity after Christ’s glorification. Those who welcome Jesus not only quench their own thirst, but are in turn transformed into a source of living water for others. Enzo was like this: his life was like a river in flood, a tireless passion for humanity, a vital energy capable of satisfying the thirst for meaning of the people he met in the ward and in everyday life.

Enzo was a man captivated by Christ, and this expressed itself in a thousand ways. A compelling passion that led so many people to change their lives, to open themselves to Christ’s presence. Don Giussani always reminded us that from the intuition he had in dialogue with him, “he said his ‘yes’ to Christ with an astonishing dedication, intelligent and integral in perspective, and made his life completely focused on Christ and his Church. And his adherence to Christ was so all-encompassing that not a day went by that he did not seek in every way the human glory of Christ.” “His stature as a man, invested with the humanity of Jesus, had expanded, suddenly communicating itself to everyone he met, with that impetus of life that characterized him and which we could not do without—when he was not there, something was missing from our gatherings—so that anyone who approached him even for a moment—colleague or patient—immediately felt the impact of an exceptional human presence, which restored hope and thus raised the question of why he was like this.”

As time passes, we must truly ask for what happened to Enzo to happen to us again. Experiencing what Enzo encountered is the greatest gift that can happen to each of us. The challenge of life, then, is to find the great thing that fulfills it. The secret of life is all here! It’s not the things we do that can fill our lives.

How many times has he reminded us of the path we must take? For example, in one of the last meetings with health workers in Cesena on March 12, 1999: “You have to put your heart into what you do, it’s not a question of superficial humanitarianism, it’s not a question of technique. Putting your heart into what you do means putting your irrepressible desire for happiness into everything. To do this, however, you need something bigger than yourself in life to respond to. Otherwise, evaluating what they give you, what they don’t give you, the outcome of issues kills any desire for happiness. It takes something bigger, so that even situations you don’t understand have meaning. It takes something bigger so that you have to admit that you may not understand, that it may even go the way you don’t want. […] It takes something bigger to be free. Life isn’t in our hands, I don’t make myself, and so for this reason there’s something bigger, and I’m starting to admit that even what I don’t like has a meaning, can have a meaning. But it’s not enough. […] You can’t resist, after a while even the The best-intentioned cannot do it. This “something greater” must be an experience one has. But let’s say more: this “something greater” must be Someone or Something to whom one responds, that is present. Sometimes I close my eyes, see the faces of my friends, and I collect myself. There is a present reality to which I refer and return. […] But even this isn’t enough, not even a Christian sense of life is enough. Because situations are such that it’s truly shocking how humanly we can’t escape them. We become petty, without wanting to. What is needed then? It’s the ultimate condition. We must not be alone.

And it is the great promise of Jesus at the Last Supper: “The Father will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17)

May the Lord grant us, in this month of grace of May—which saw the beginning of the diocesan phase of the cause for the beatification of Novella Scardovi on the 9th, the conclusion of the diocesan phase of Fr. Giussani on the 14th, and today the commemoration of the birth into heaven of our dear Enzo—to always be able to repeat with gratitude and certainty, in the company of the Saints, “Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam.”