IPLW-Faith, Final “Assembly” and “Conclusion,” pp. 140-158
With this post, I finish my reading and reflection of this book by Msgr. Giussani. Since it is an “Assembly” there is a bit of a mishmash of themes. Others reading these pages will undoubtedly be drawn to different things than I was; that is why it is best to discuss these books in a School of Community, so that we can learn from each other. Of course please feel free to make comments on this post, and if you have read the book, share your own insights.
One of the first things that struck me was Giussani’s statement of the necessity of hell. When I was a seminarian, a priest I knew gave a talk to a group of parishioners and he seemed honestly pleased with himself because he reminded the people that there was another place in which one might find oneself after death besides heaven — purgatory. Later when I pointed out that he forgot to mention hell, he told me that no one believes in hell anymore. Wow! That might explain a lot about our modern society.
Msgr. Giussani reminds us that “the ultimate idea of man is that man is a freedom, that is, something made for happiness” (p. 141). He then points out it is in this that hell is born, for without hell there would be no freedom. Why? Because freedom requires both the possibility to say “yes” and the possibility to say “no.” As Milton put it in Paradise Lost, Man was created, “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” (Book III). Hell is the BIG NO. It is where we go when we have made a definitive choice to say “no” to God. Mortal Sin is such a saying of “no” to God, and as a result the Divine Life dies within us. Of course, in His great Mercy, God gives us opportunities to turn away from our “no” and say “yes” to His will. Through the sacrament of Reconciliation, the Divine Life is restored to us. What makes it definitive for us is the state we are in when we die. No more choices after death.
Giussani points out that we need this ability to choose, otherwise the happiness that we would reach in heaven would not be our own. That choice must be the object of my freedom.
Giussani also addresses a concern that his idea of authority, the following of another, might seem to be the fostering of a dependency on the other. But if you and I are both seeking Truth, Happiness, Beauty, and those things have a real meaning (so an objective reality), we would be journeying together. Would I be depending on you, or would you be depending on me? I guess we could say we are both dependent on the one we are following, but by our free choice to follow that authority (Christ) we are making that way our own. As St. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.”
Finally, Giussani has a beautiful reflection on friendship. Friendship is not just a nicety, it is a necessity. It is an encounter with another person who desires my life (welfare) more than they desire their own. They want us to reach our destiny, and are willing to make self-sacrifices so that we can achieve our destiny. It again reminds me of St. Paul, when he is saying that as much as he would like to be finished with this life so that he can share the life of Christ in Heaven, he is willing to continue in his mission so that others might come to Christ. When you desire my destiny and I desire your destiny we have a companionship. A healthy companionship is NEVER exclusive, it never views other people as extraneous. In our companionship we want others to join us, because we want them to share the same freedom and happiness that we have discovered. It a way, we can see how the Church’s teaching on contraception flows from this; if my marriage is truly a healthy companionship, I would never want to exclude the possibility of children.
This friendship, this companionship, is a guided one. We do not set our own way. We help each other along the way, even correcting each other when we start to wander off the way. Our companionship is guide by Christ, the Mystery in whom we recognize the deepest desires of our hearts.

