My unforgettable meeting with Enzo

My unforgettable meeting with Enzo

In the early days of the Boston community, Enzo Piccinini would visit our community as a visitor from Italy. On every occasion I had the opportunity to spend time with him, he always seemed dynamic and full of life! He took an interest in our lives, whether we met at Mass, Sunday brunch, or some other convivial occasion.

During one of his visits, he joined us all at my house for lunch and a movie. I was thrilled with this opportunity because I wanted to share with everyone a video my father had sent me. It was about the life of Saint Faustina and the message of Divine Providence. Afterward, we stayed to discuss and “judge” the film together, in the typical CL manner.

Halfway through our discussion, Enzo became very animated and heated, wanting to help us see something “more” than what we were seeing. He asked, “What is mercy?” and then, “What is your experience of mercy?”

We struggled to answer this question, giving answers that were rather abstract and lacking much context, and which, as was very apparent, left Enzo dissatisfied. His temper then became even more heated, and he insisted on making us reflect on the meaning of mercy in our lives.

Gesturing in his characteristic Italian manner, Enzo explained to us that Father Giussani had never placed much emphasis on devotional practices. After all, St. Faustina’s experience was not the only way Christ reaches his people. Furthermore, Enzo explained, Christ doesn’t come to us only in our private prayer life, so…

Enzo persisted in the discussion with great emotional intensity, leaving us all dissatisfied and disconcerted by the way the evening had ended. That evening, we parted ways with a feeling of great perplexity.

Over the next week, I received several calls from friends complaining about Enzo’s strong temper and how he hadn’t been “polite” at all. At one point, I had to admit that he seemed to have completely disliked the movie, somehow devaluing it, and this was very confusing.

Throughout that week, however, Enzo’s questions continued to stir within me, and I asked God to help me understand. I knew he cared deeply about each of us, but it all seemed contradictory.

As I reflected more deeply on my experiences with the CL community in Boston, and beyond (across the East Coast), I slowly began to understand that it was IN THIS PLACE that God’s mercy had repeatedly shown itself to me, in a very concrete way, since the first moment I encountered CL. This new life continued to be given to me in the diversity of all these faces that were given to me in the community. It was HERE that my faith was both nourished and challenged. These friends challenged me to ask life’s questions (and encouraged me to live out the questions I had), so that I could discover the meaning of everything!

At the following school community, I felt compelled to share with others how much Enzo’s presence at the movie night had meant to me, and how much I needed that surprise of a “scandalous encounter” to more fully recognize Christ’s presence in my life.

Christ had used Enzo’s presence to awaken within me the great question of God’s mercy, and he had done so precisely through his strong personality and temperament. Enzo’s visit left me changed, with a new openness to continue on this path that had been given to me, in which Christ accompanies me on the journey toward my happiness, through these many and varied friends whom I did not choose.

I am deeply grateful to Enzo for “awakening” me to the mystery of God’s mercy, inviting me to see more than before, and encouraging me to continue judging life’s experiences through shared community life.

With great gratitude,

Marie (Dieringer) Fessenbecker

Milwaukee, WI