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| St. Carlo Acutis (left) and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati |
(Twenty-third Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given on September 7, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Wisdom 9:13-18b; Psalm 90:3-17; the Letter of St. Paul to Philemon; Luke 14:25-33.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-third Sunday 2025]
As of today, the Church has two new canonized saints: St.
Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati.
Both were young when they died.
Carlo Acutis was born in London in 1991, but grew up in Milan,
Italy. In many ways, he was an ordinary
young person: he enjoyed spending time with his friends; he loved to play
sports; he loved animals; he played a musical instrument. But in the
midst of all those ordinary things, he had a strong and unwavering faith in and
love for Jesus Christ and the sacraments—which interestingly enough he did NOT
get from his parents! In fact, his mother says that when Carlo was
born, she had only been to Mass 3 times in her entire life. Carlo evangelized
her and her husband—mostly by asking them questions about God that they
couldn’t answer! In an article that appeared in the National
Catholic Register his mother was quoted as saying:
“[Carlo] pushed me to do research and to read. I began to
take theology courses and reflect on life. I discovered the beauty of my faith.
We are all on a journey in the spiritual life, but because of Carlo, I was
inspired to start that journey. Carlo saved me.” Later on
she added, “He read the Bible every day as well as the Catechism put
together by Pope John Paul II. Carlo would say that the Bible was his compass.
By the age of 11, he was teaching catechism to younger children.”
Of course, what Carlo is most known for around the world is
the skill he had working with computers. Some have called him a
computer genius. Computers, as we all know, can be used for good or they can be
used for evil. Carlo used them for good. As it said in
the Register article, “Once he mastered computer programming, Carlo began to
use it to spread the Catholic faith. He developed a website on Eucharistic
miracles, which he worked on for four years. The website has a compilation of
196 stories of Eucharistic miracles. It has been turned into an exhibit
that has traveled the world.”
That exhibit has even traveled here to Rhode
Island. Many of us, I’m sure, have been blessed to see
it. No doubt it’s led many people all over the world to open their
hearts to Jesus and the Catholic faith.
St. Carlo Acutis died at the age of 15 of leukemia in 2006.
St. Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin, Italy in 1901
and died just 24 years later of polio—a disease that he probably contracted
from the many sick people he visited and cared for during his relatively short
life. He came from a wealthy family (his father owned a newspaper), but
he gave away most of what he had to the poor—even, sometimes, his bus
money. He was also a very athletic young man—a mountain climber, among
other things. And, of course, he was deeply devoted to prayer and the
sacraments and his Catholic faith.
Several years ago I shared an interesting story I came
across about Kevin Becker, a young man who believes that he was helped and
healed through the intercession of St. Pier Giorgio. In the New Testament Letter of St. James, it
says that the prayer of a holy person is very powerful. This is why we ask beatified and canonized
men and women like Pier Giorgio to pray for us: they’re the holiest people of
all because they’re with the Lord in his eternal kingdom. So their prayers are mega-powerful! And sometimes God has interesting ways of
letting us know that saints are actually interceding on our behalf. That definitely was the case with Kevin
Becker.
Back In 2011, Becker was a student at East Stroudsburg
University in Pennsylvania. At that time, he didn’t know anything about
Pier Giorgio Frassati; he didn’t even know Pier Giorgio’s name. Then came
the terrible day that year when he fell from the second floor of the house he
was renting with two friends, two fellow college students. He fractured
his skull in five places and his brain was severely injured. The doctors
did emergency surgery immediately, but for nine days afterward he was
completely unresponsive. The doctors thought he probably wouldn’t live;
and if he did somehow recover they said that in all likelihood he’d be severely
handicapped for the rest of his life.
Well, one of Kevin’s cousins suggested that the family begin
praying to Pier Giorgio, who at the time was Blessed Pier Giorgio, asking for
his intercession, because, as she put it, “He needs one more miracle to be
canonized a saint.” So the family did, and Kevin’s mother placed a
picture of Pier Giorgio by her son’s hospital bed.
The next day, much to the surprise of everyone, Kevin opened
his eyes for the first time since the accident. Shortly thereafter he
began to stand, speak and walk normally. When he left the hospital and
began his physical rehab, he discovered that he was miles ahead of the other
people who were there with brain injuries—including those who had been in
recovery for six months to a year. When he was given some cognitive tests
to determine how much brain damage he had experienced, he passed with flying
colors. In fact, the doctors told him it was like he had never been
injured.
On the day after he came home from the hospital, he decided
to take a walk with his mother, and during the course of that walk he told her
about a strange, dreamlike experience that he had during the time he was
unconscious. Kevin said that, during this “dream,” he woke up in the
house he shared with his friends, and he heard someone moving downstairs.
Kevin said it was unusual for one of the other guys to be downstairs first in
the morning, because he was normally the first one up. So he went down to
investigate, and in the living room he found a young man—a young man he didn’t
know. He said, “Who are you?” The man said, “I’m Giorgio, your new
roommate.” Kevin said, “That can’t be. I already have two
roommates, Nick and Joe.” The stranger said, “You don’t have to worry
about them for now.”
Kevin then spent the “day” with Giorgio, who, he said did
everything possible to keep him in the house. And that was difficult for
Kevin, because he was an athletic guy—an ardent soccer player—who hated to stay
indoors. But Kevin said that every time he tried to leave the house
Giorgio would say to him, “You’re not ready to go out there yet.”
Kevin’s mother then said to her son, “Do you think you’d
recognize this person if you saw a picture of him?” Kevin said,
“Yes.” So she showed him the picture of Pier Giorgio that had been at his
bedside (he hadn’t seen it in the hospital), and Kevin said, “Yes, that’s
him. That’s the guy in my dream. That’s the guy who kept telling me
not to leave the house.”
The prayer of a holy person is very powerful. Kevin Becker
and his family certainly believe that.
Hopefully so do we.
Let me close today with something else Carlo Acutis’ mother
said. In an interview on August 20th she said, “Both Carlo and Pier
Giorgio shared a love for the Eucharist, a love for the poor, and a love for
the Virgin Mary. I think that these two are models that we need in this
particular moment for the young people of today.”
Her words there remind us that Carlo and Pier Giorgio are
important not only because they’re saints; they’re important because they’re
YOUTHFUL SAINTS! Pop culture gives young
people the message today that holiness isn’t possible for them and that
they can’t do great things for God and the Church in their young lives. But that’s not true! Saints Carlo and Pier Giorgo make it
clear—they make it crystal clear—that holiness and doing the will of God are
possible for anyone at any age. We
should therefore encourage the young people we know to have devotion to these
two new saints. And, while we’re at it, we
should also develop a strong devotion to them ourselves.
St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us.
