Fr. JC Maximilian

As we begin this discussion of Msgr. Luigi Giussani’s book, Is it Possible to Live this Way? An Unusual Approach to Christian Existence, Vol. 1: Faith (IPLW-Faith), we need to keep some things in mind about Msgr. Giussani’s writing.  First, especially in this work, we need to remember that Giussani did not set off to write a book.  This book is basically the transcripts of a series of talks that he gave, over a course of a year, to a group of young people who were planning to dedicate their lives to Christ in the Secular Institute in the Church called, Memores Domini.  This is a group who work in the world, yet live together making promises of obedience, chastity (celibacy), and poverty, living the charism of Communion and Liberation intensely.  If you read this book, you will notice that the style of writing is not very formal; that’s because it is really spoken, to a group.  Msgr. Giussani was probably given the transcripts to do some editing to, but mostly this book is spoken.  The other thing to remember is that this book was spoken in Italian.  I am sure that the translators have done a great job — far better than I could do, since I do not speak Italian.  Yet, it is still a translation, and each language has its own idioms.  The translators seem to have kept those idioms, which I think is very fair.  It will encourage me, and those of you reading this blog, to connect our own experiences to what is being discussed.  This is what we should be doing anyway, otherwise it will just become abstract, and not connected with reality.  We must always begin with reality, which is our experience.

On a personal note, since I am NOT copying the text of the book into these posts, I am writing a summary.  By definition a summary leaves some things out.  What I leave out is probably a factor of my own experience, of what struck me as I read (or for the first third of this book, re-read) the book.  Please read the book for yourself if you find this interesting.  Even better, find a School of Community (SoC) and read the text with them.  The interaction with other people, breathes life into this journey of faith.  In fact Msgr. Giussani speaks of the importance of doing this work in a group of other mature friends, because they help us limit the deceptiveness of our lives.  Too often we try to kid ourselves, keep ourselves blind to the reality in our lives.  Others can help us keep it real.  I hope that some of the discussion and comments that I hope that these posts generates will help me keep it real.

One concept that Giussani uses all the time, that we really need to have a basic understanding of just to begin, is the “heart.”  He will speak often of the “deepest desires of our heart,” and of making a judgment as to whether a fact “corresponds with our heart.”  When Msgr. Giussani speaks about the heart, he is using the term in the Biblical sense, and not it what is often common for us today.  So often today, when we speak of the heart, we see it as the seat of emotions, so the heart has to do with all things emotional.  It is often seen as being in opposition to the “head” which deals with all things intellectual and reasonable and logical. This is NOT the Biblical sense of the word, it is not how Jesus used it, and it is not how Giussani uses it (nor should we).  The heart is the totality of the individual person:  their emotions, their intellect, their memory, their will, everything about the person.  It is what unites us into a whole being.  We are less of a person if we ignore our intellect and will, and just focus on our emotions, and we are less of a person if we ignore our emotions and just focus on logic and intellect.  Both extremes reduces the human person.

Just the other day I received in the mail a free CD of some of the works of Mozart.  It is an offer to collect some of the best of classical music, and each CD comes with a small book to learn more about the composer and the individual works on the CD.  While reading the book about Mozart’s life, I came across a line that bothered me, and which addresses the beginning point of this book of Giussani that I am reading and sharing.  Early in his life, Mozart was the court musician for a cardinal.  This cardinal promoted the arts.  The author of the book made a statement to effect that “despite being a church official, the cardinal was also a man who promoted science.”  Did you catch what bothered me?  It is the common bias that suggests that people who have religious faith are not really reasonable, at least not in what they see as being higher reason — science.  This is the starting point for Msgr. Giussani, particularly in this work.  He wants to demonstrate that faith is reasonable.

A more precise way of stated what Giussani says, it that faith is method of reason.  That there are many different methods of reason, the methods depend on the object being examined, and faith is one of those methods.  In fact, instead of being a “lower” method, Giussani demonstrates that faith is the most complete method because it engages all of the person’s “I” and is the foundation of all society.

Allow me to use Giussani’s example.  Let’s say I went to high school with Nadia, Carlos and Tom.  After graduation, I do not see Nadia and Carlo for 20 years, though I keep in touch with my friend Tom.  One night I get on a plane heading to Chicago (I am using different cities that Giussani), that first stops in New York.  I get on the plane, which started in Athens, and Nadia is in the seat next to me.  Of course we are going to talk; we are going to share about what we have been doing for the past 20 years.  She tells me that she is married with 6 children and works in insurance.  She then asks me if I remember Carlos.  I tell her, yes, but I have not heard from him in 20 years.  He was the class clown, and never took anything seriously.  Nadia tells me that he is now living in New York, and has become a very successful and responsible banker.  That because her work takes her to New York several times a year, she and Carlos get together when she is in New York.  Nadia gets off in New York, and I continue to Chicago where my high school friend Tom picks me up.  As we are drive to his house, I ask Tom if he remembers Carlos, the class clown.  Tom says of course, but he has not heard from him in 20 years.  I proceed to tell him that he is now a very successful banker in New York.

Now, I still have not seen Carlos in 20 years.  Why do I pass on this information?  Because Nadia, someone I know and trust, told me the information about Carlos and I accept as true what she told me.  Her testimony gives me, indirectly, knowledge.  This is the method of reason that we call faith:  indirect (but certain) knowledge obtained through the testimony of a witness.

We are not talking about religious knowledge, at least not yet.  Just knowledge.  Just think about all the things that you know by this method.  Fr. Mick, the pastor I live with, called me for dinner tonight.  He made pasta.  I do I know that it was not poisoned?  I did not observe him make it.  I trust him.  Likewise, when he opened the jar of sauce how did he know that it was not poisoned?  Because he trusts the grocery store.  To not trust someone we have no reason to distrust is unreasonable (as a psychologist, I might even say, depending on the degree of distrust, that it is paranoia, a mental illness).  When we drive down the road, and we have a green light, we know with a high degree of certainty that the cars on the cross streets are going to stop and not hit us.  If we have been in an accident because someone ran a red light, we might not be so trusting, but generally the only way that society can function is by its members trusting each other; by us having faith in each other.

How do I know that George Washington was the first president of the United States?  Because that knowledge has been handed down to me by my teachers and my history book.  I never observed directly George Washington being president, nor did my teachers.  Nearly all of the knowledge that I have is because of faith.  And unlike my knowing that 2 + 2 = 4, which I can demonstrate for myself and only uses part of who I am, knowledge by faith requires all of me, my total “I”.

This does, of course, lead us to religious faith.  Religious faith is knowledge we have about our destiny.  We will never meet our destiny on the street.  Destiny is a Mystery, yet it is a Mystery that we can come to know through faith.  I have given some vocation talks, and while I can point to events and circumstances in my life that pointed towards reality that God was calling me to be a priest, it certainly is not something I can demonstrate or prove scientifically.  These events and circumstances, along with the testimony of my spiritual director, helped me to discern my vocation; it helped me to make a judgment as to whether the proposal corresponded with the desire of my heart.  First I needed to quiet the distractions in my life so that I could hear my heart speaking, and so I could see the events of my life in reality.

As Msgr. Giussani says, “we can’t begin to discuss these things without some part of our heart praying, asking the Mystery of Being for light, affection, sincerity, and the simplicity to say ‘yes’ to what is true and ‘no’ to what is false” (IPLW-Faith, p. 15).