Original, Not a Photocopy

Oct 10, 2020

Beatification of Carlo Acutis

Original, Not a Photocopy

Everyone is born as an original, 

but many people end up dying as photocopies.

Bl Carlo Acutis

God has the best friends, I have long known this and been thankful to also be His friend (may it please Him that I would always be a good and grace-full friend). A new friend was introduced to me right before I left for Assisi, Carlo Acutis. Carlo is definitely one of those we could call a “best friend” of God.

Authentic and fervent love for the Holy Eucharist is sometimes called a “signal” grace. Faith in this mystery of the real Presence of Our Lord in His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, is a gift of grace. We are born for it, as we are created for intimate communion with God, but we have to be taught its truth and how to love what is not immediately apparent to the senses. This fiery and persevering love for the Blessed Sacrament transformed the entire life and outlook of Blessed Carlo Acutis. As a young man he would say, “The Eucharist will be my highway.” Acutis died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of fifteen, and handled his sufferings with joy, strengthened by the Eucharist and this hope for Heaven.

Our Lord gave us His Body and Blood, sacrificed and poured forth in the Passion, as a daily Memorial, a mystery that is not relegated to the past, but made Present in every present moment until the end of time (may it please God that the Eucharist would be celebrated until the end of time, until He come again). Carlo Acutis, from his first Holy Communion, went to Mass every day. He prepared well by going early to pray and did not fail to stay after Mass to make a Thanksgiving for this gift. As love desires greater knowledge of the beloved, Carlo sought to know more about the Eucharist.

As a young modern teen, he had an incredible talent for media and computer science. He is perhaps most known for putting together a website and a series of panels on miracles of the Most Holy Eucharist and another series on apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He began this at the young age of 11 or 12. He is an extraordinary model, perhaps the first blessed who had a smartphone. 

I think we will hear more about Blessed Carlo Acutis in the coming years. He is well known already in Italy, but this was the first I had known of him, even though I had seen the Eucharistic Miracle panels before. His remains were moved from the cemetery of Assisi to the Church of Maria Maggiore. This is the place where Saint Francis renounced his earthly father and gave himself totally to Our Father in Heaven; and where Saint Clare celebrated that last Palm Sunday before giving herself entirely to God. Bl Carlo Acutis had a great devotion to Saint Francis, and gave his life to God in an original way, not as a photocopy. God has given each of us great graces to be Saints. Be a saint. Blessed Carlo Acutis, pray for us.