John Paul II

For the Glory of Christ in History

We offer our readers excerpts from Renato Farina’s interview with Fr Giussani, “The Secret Faces of Peter,” which appeared in the italian weekly Il Sabato, no. 32/33, 1988, and was reprinted in the book Un avvenimento di vita, cioè una storia [An Event of Life, i.e., A History] (Edit, 1993, pp. 78-79)
Fr Giussani: God wanted–I believe–the sacrifice of this man [John Paul I] (because it was a real sacrifice! And perhaps we shall only know when the world ends at what point it was martyrdom). God wanted this in order to prepare the Church for the entrance of John Paul II, a non-Italian Pope who is the incarnation of what Paul VI’s last ten years intuited and expressed.

Renato Farina: Which means, synthesized to the utmost?
Fr Giussani: The clear certainty of what the content of the Christian message means also for the history of this world. Faith, that is, in God made man, with the resulting enthusiasm for this Man, in whom the hope of individuals and the whole world can be placed.
Therefore, history as the locus where the glory of Christ is put into play as the supreme formula of history itself. And too, presence! The Church as presence in the world everywhere and in any case, and presence as the Church: this is the instrument of the glory of Christ in history.

Renato Farina: There is an enigma that accompanies the Pope on his travels throughout the world. It does not concern so much his person as those who gather around him. The crowds come, and we can see that they recognize Peter, and yet this treasure dissipates readily. It is as though the mobilization of multitudes did not cause a Christian history to be reborn, except in a few. How should we take this?
Fr Giussani: It is as though Providence made us see the urgency that above all the clergy and faithful themselves feel about having a more Christian and ecclesial consciousness. Because if there were a clergy and Christians who shared the vision, feeling, and method of John Paul II, then his passage would have much greater consequences.
But then, it is like it was for Jesus. The appearance of the Pope, just as it was for Jesus, makes man feel for an instant where truth and peace are found. That this may become a journey in history is in the Father’s hands.