Full homily of Pope Leo XIV during the canonization of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati:
Dear brothers and sisters,
In the first reading we heard a question: "[Lord,] who would have known your will if you yourself had not given wisdom and sent down your holy spirit from on high?" (Wis 9:17). We heard it after two young blesseds, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, were proclaimed saints, and this is providential. In the Book of Wisdom, this question is attributed to a young man like them: King Solomon. When his father David died, he realized that he had many things at his disposal: power, wealth, health, youth, beauty, a kingdom. But this great abundance of means had caused a question to arise in his heart: "What must I do so that nothing is lost?" And he understood that the only way to find an answer was to ask God for an even greater gift: his wisdom, so that he could understand his plans and adhere faithfully to them. He realized, indeed, that in this way all things would find their place in the Lord's great plan. Yes, because the greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God's plan.
Jesus, too, in the Gospel, speaks to us of a plan to which we must adhere until the end. He says:
"Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27); and he adds: "None of you can be my disciple who does not renounce all that he has" (v. 33). In other words, he calls us to launch ourselves without hesitation into the adventure He proposes to us, with the intelligence and strength that come from His Spirit and that we can embrace to the extent that we strip ourselves of ourselves, of the things and ideas to which we are attached, and listen to His word. Many young people, throughout the centuries, have had to face this decisive moment in life.
Let us think of Saint Francis of Assisi: like Solomon, he too was young and rich, and thirsty for glory and fame. That is why he went off to war, hoping to be named a "knight" and to be clothed with honors. But Jesus appeared to him along the way and made him reflect on what he was doing. Restored to his senses, he asked God a simple question: "Lord, what do you want me to do?"[1] And from there, retracing his steps, he began to write a different story: the marvelous story of holiness that we all know, stripping himself of everything to follow the Lord (cf. Luke 14:33), living in poverty and preferring love for his brothers, especially the weakest and least, to the gold, silver, and precious fabrics of his father.
And how many other saints could we recall! Sometimes we portray them
as great figures, forgetting that for them it all began when, while still young, they answered "yes" to God and gave themselves to Him completely, holding nothing back. In this regard, Saint Augustine recounts that, in the "most tortuous and tangled knot" of his life, a voice, deep within, said to him: "I want only You."[2] And in this way, God gave him a new direction, a new path, a new logic, in which nothing of his existence was lost.
In this context, we contemplate today Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati and Saint Carlo Acutis: a young man
from the beginning of the 20th century and a teenager of our time, both in love with Jesus and willing to give everything for Him. Pier Giorgio found the Lord through school and church groups—Catholic Action, the Conferences of Saint Vincent de Paul, the F.U.C.I. (Italian Catholic University Federation), the Third Order of Saint Dominic—and bore witness to this through his joy for life and for being a Christian in prayer, friendship, and charity. So much so that, seeing him travel the streets of Turin with carts full of aid for the poor, his friends called him "Frassati Transport Company." Even today, Pier Giorgio's life represents a light for lay spirituality. For him, faith was not a private devotion; driven by the power of the Gospel and his membership in church associations, he was generously committed to society,
made his contribution in political life, and devoted himself ardently to serving the poor.
Carlo, for his part, found Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, André and Antonia—present here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele—and later, he too, at school, and above all in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community. In this way, he grew up naturally integrating prayer, sports, study, and charity into his childhood and adolescence.
Both Pier Giorgio and Carlo cultivated love for God and their brothers and sisters through simple means, accessible to all: daily Mass, prayer, and especially Eucharistic adoration. Carlo said: “When we stand before the sun, we tan. When we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints,” and also: “Sadness is turning one’s gaze inward; happiness is turning one’s gaze toward God. Conversion is nothing other than shifting one’s gaze from below to above. A simple movement of the eyes is enough.” Another essential thing for them was frequent confession. Carlo wrote: “The only thing we should truly fear is sin”; and he marveled because—in his own words—“people are so concerned about the beauty of their own bodies, but they are not concerned, on the other hand, about the beauty of their own souls." Both also had a great devotion to the saints and to the Virgin Mary, and generously practiced charity. Pier Giorgio said: "Around the poor and the sick, I see a light that we do not have."[3] He called charity "the foundation of our religion" and, like Carlo, practiced it above all through small, concrete, and often hidden gestures, living what Pope Francis has called "the holiness 'next door'" (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, 7).
Even when illness struck them and their young lives deteriorated, it did not stop them or prevent them from loving, from offering themselves to God, from blessing him and from asking him for themselves and for everyone. One day Pier Giorgio said: "The day of my death will be the most beautiful day of my life";[4] and in his last photo, which portrays him while climbing a mountain in Val di Lanzo, with his face turned towards the goal, he had written: "Towards the top".[5] On the other hand, Carlo, when he was even younger, liked to say that heaven has always been waiting for us, and that to love tomorrow is to bear our best fruit today.
Dear friends, Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to waste our lives, but to direct them upward and make them a masterpiece. They encourage us with their words: "Not I, but God," said Carlo. And Pier Giorgio: "If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end." This is the simple but sure formula of their holiness. And it is also the testimony we are called to imitate to enjoy life to the fullest and go to meet the Lord at the feast in heaven.
