John Paul II and CL “Let Us Serve Christ in This Great Man” Fr. Giussani’s open letter to the groups of Communion and Liberation, after the audience granted him by John Paul II, January 18, 1979. (In Litterae Communionis – CL, no. 2, February 1979, pp. 2-3) Dear friends: As you have probably heard, I had the great gift of speaking with the Pope at length of our life and of what we want to be in this our beloved Church and in this our beloved land. While I was there before him, I was asking myself, “What reason does my life offer to the Pope’s eyes to grant me all this?” The reason is your life, the life of all of you, my friends and fellow travelers, all your faith, your hard-working commitment, your generosity, and your capacity for sacrifice. This is the true reason why I was received. And I was filled with astonishment, with shame at myself, and with gratitude to the Pope and to you. I would like to sum up the message expressed in his concerns and in his attitude: 1. Jesus Christ is the truth of the whole of man, and the faith is the form of the whole of life and its hard work. 2. So, there is not faith on one hand, and on the other hand our interests, our life commitments, our work. No. The faith is the source of the criterion for tackling all life’s problems, and it is in the faith that we have to root our behavior in the environment, which is like the land in which all problems are worked out. 3. In particular, it is necessary that the faith express itself as culture, for it is culture that determines the identity of a people, expressing its history. Our faith must not have “inferiority complexes” as regards the dominant culture. As you see, it is the confirmation of what he keeps on saying to the crowds on Wednesdays and Sundays. We have always said that, in order to verify our faith and bring it to maturity, we have to get involved with an event in which it lives in such a way that we, too, get the willingness, the light, and the courage to follow. This Pope is the event that God has stirred up, incarnating in this event and raising up before our eyes the history of faith and martyrdom of the Polish people. The human figure of this Pope is the concrete fact with which we have to get involved, so as to look at him, listen to him and identify with his way of thinking, and follow him. As soon as I left the audience, in my heart, full of gladness, I felt a great sense of responsibility; a willingness to serve that man with all my strength and with the whole of my life. I would like this responsibility to strike everyone. My friends, in a world where the faith is so lost, and the injustice is so great, let’s shake off our inertia, break out of our selfishness, and leave behind our bourgeois attitudes. My friends, let’s serve this man; let’s serve Christ in this great man with the whole of our existence. With great affection, Fr. Luigi Giussani