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Unity and Fraternity: The Synthesis of Every Day
Notes from Luigi Giussani’s talk to the Equipe of CLU (CL university students),
La Thuile, September 7, 2003

by Luigi Giussani

The truth, the beauty, the taste for life, and the love, the capacity for love that Christianity has brought about in the world, in this our world, this undeniable–and thus daily verifiable–fruit of Our Lady’s womb: may all this take concrete form also in a satisfaction, in a light of truth, in a taste for lending oneself to this goodness of life without parallel and without precedent–or rather, with the only precedent of Christ, God made Man in Our Lady’s womb.
I beg you, therefore, to go also into this last aspect of your exertion to belong to Christ and His Church. May you be attentive to the objectivity of the true and the beautiful, of the new, the loving, that accompanies the presence of the Christian in the world, always. If the Christian adheres to his faith even minimally, he is truly a bearer of this newness. You are in an even more privileged position, because you have been called, you are called to carry this contribution of your good will, as an aid to your companions and your friends.
I beg you, therefore, to be mindful also concretely, as your outlook, your attitude of mind, to creating in yourselves an attention, an attention of esteem, an attention of affection, a capacity for faithfulness to the two conditions that, to my mind, characterize the benefit of every surrender in our companionship, as these occasions ensure can happen.
The first condition that the truth and beauty of what we are saying and the lovingness of life that is propelled from the heart all the way to the farthest horizon demand be respected is unity, the unity among us in which authority–in other words, the new power that entered the world with Christ and thus with His Mother, Virgin Mother–is affirmed: the unity with those who guide us. May each of us, when he talks, feel this weight, dulce pondus, this sweet weight of an authority never imagined before.
And, secondly, may this unity corroborate and make more possible the fraternity, the fraternal love that is prompt to forgive any error of which we are victims, prompt to listen to any alternative that others’ anguish and others’ uncertainty may suggest, so that fraternity, forgiveness, and listening may become part of the climate of this being together for Christ.
It is my hope that you will understand what I have tried to wish for you, because it is from this wish that a great peace enters the heart, in mine and I hope also in yours. All the best!