Good morning, brothers and sisters, and happy Feast of Blessed Carlo Acutis.
Blessed Carlo is a newer saint – so new that he doesn’t appear yet in many Catholic calendars. He is due to be canonized next year.
Carlo’s story is remarkable in that it seems so unremarkable. He was born near London in 1991 – the rare Catholic saint younger than many of us here today. His parents were fallen-away Catholics – his mom admitted that before her son was born, she had only gone to Mass 3 times in her life.
Young Carlo learned about Jesus chiefly through his Polish nanny, who ignited a God-given fire of piety within him. By the age of 7 he wanted to go to daily Mass. HE had a particular devotion to the Eucharist, which he called the [quote] ‘highway to Heaven.’
But in other ways Carlo was like other millennial kids. He liked Pokemon and video games. He was quite skilled in computer programming. It was precisely through this gift that he performed perhaps his most memorable act, designing his own website to promulgate major Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions. He loved Mary, saying, [quote], ‘The Virgin Mary is the only woman in my life”. So I think he could rightly interpret today’s Gospel, which doesn’t disparage Mary, but rather points out that she is blessed precisely because she heard – she received deeply the Word of God.
Aged 15, he was diagnosed with leukemia and died only a week later. Carlo was beatified several years later, and at the beatification Mass in Assisi there was a beautiful moment, in which his mother – who was brought back to the faith by her son - carried a reliquary with her son’s heart into the Church. My wife and I saw this moment on livestream, and it was very moving.
I love Carlo Acutis, because he shows that sainthood is attainable. We know that we are all called to become saints, but when we think of a Catholic saint, we usually think of amazing people from centuries ago, who lived like hermits in a cave, or levitated in prayer, or at least became priests or nuns. It can be a bit discouraging – what about the rest of us, who don’t levitate in prayer?
Fortunately, we ordinary sinners can look at Carlo, in his sunglasses and tennis shoes. His body is not incorrupt; he never miraculously defied the laws of physics– instead, he defied the prevalent culture of secularism and tepid faith. His formula seemed to have been daily Mass, daily rosary, weekly confession. I suspect many of you here are doing this already. But perhaps the next step is to emulate Blessed Carlo the Internet Evangelizer… by using modern technology to reach as many souls as possible. The internet is full of lust and hate, but it can also be a great fount of good. How many people have found the faith through evangelizers like Bishop Barron or Fr Mike Schmitz? In my own life, it was only when I stuck my neck out a few years ago, and started posting arguments for Christianity on my facebook page, that one of my distant friends read these posts and converted to Catholicism, bringing her family with her. You don’t need to be a Bishop Barron – I certainly am not – you can simply re-post content that others have made. Each of us is called to evangelize, and each of you can reach someone that our pastor will never be able to touch. I’d like to close with my favorite quote from Blessed Carlo. He’d say: “When we face the sun we get a tan… but when we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist we become saints.” Perhaps when Jesus is exposed in the Monstrance today at the end of Mass, we can imagine the monstrance like that sun, irradiating us with Christ’s warmth and light.
Blessed Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
