An Augustinian missionary in Peru sent us this testimony, recalling our dear friend and mentor Enzo Piccinini, who died on May 26, 1999
This was one of those pieces of news that leave you motionless, wordless, no comments to make, only a great pain inside. It was like this with Enzo, after a meeting we had been at with Father Giussani, on a cold night in a Milanese winter. After that meeting we crossed paths. I was with an old friend of Fr. Giussani. Enzo greeted me with a question, "And who are you? This is the first time that I have seen you." "Pleased to meet you… and for me too, this is the first time I have seen you and listened to you: ball to center court, 2-1 for you." He smiled and shook my hand, and with no further ceremony took his leave, but not without first giving me a message: "I hope to see you again somewhere." I saw him again, but he never saw me. I was one of a crowd, just one of the many listening to his talk at the university students' meeting in Bologna. He said something that touched me inside, and that now I found again in the talk he gave the evening of December 12, 1998, during the Spiritual Exercises in Rimini in front of 8,000 CL university students: "I understood that the problem was simply this, that the unity of my personality was determined by something I carried with me inside and that had been with me ever since I was a boy and began playing soccer… something that characterized me: a need for happiness that nothing could erase, and that would always come out, maybe even as bitterness. I had understood even from then that the unity of your person begins with the fact that you put your heart into what you do, whatever you do, whether it is sitting in front of a computer or cleaning the stairs in an apartment building. Putting your heart into what you do means putting yourself, and putting your heart means putting into play that need for happiness that is invincible because it is part of our very essence, of our being." Since I have been here in Apurimac, more than once I have wondered if and why it is worth it, and I have never found a more exhaustive answer than the one Enzo indicated to me. It was and continues to be the "motive" of my being and my acting here. I feel that it is true and is the only thing that helps me to be true, even if sometimes the circumstances of life risk making me forget it. If I think that on that foggy evening of our first meeting in Milan when we had heard the "Boss" thundering against those who-in the name of the Diaconia, of service-become proud little dictators who want to dominate rather than serve, who get furious when, instead of serving, they feel they are not being served… then, my dear friend Enzo, with a certain amount of envy, but with the loyalty of a friend, I say to you, "Congratulations, you won the game. You reached the goal very quickly and, perhaps, for just this reason, the Lord called you earlier than foreseen (by us)." Yes, I really hope to see you again, but this time where and when will be for always.
Father Giovanni
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