Friends,
I am sending the March Bulletin of Good News early, as things are happening that it is only right to share, and so as to give plenty of notice of events that may be of interest.
1) The first piece of news is the death of my friend Marcos Pou Gallo. He was a wonderful lad, 23 years old, intelligent, noble and good; a graduate in physics, humanly powerful and truly passionate about Christ; attentive to everything and to everyone. For several years he had been in charge of the university students of Communion and Liberation. He had entered the Seminary of Barcelona only a few days earlier. The first thing I thought when I heard of his death, in a motorbike accident on the night between Saturday and Sunday in Barcelona, was: «God, what on earth are you doing!»… with such a shortage of priestly vocations… and what a fine priest he would have been! Then I thought of his parents… an injustice… But straight away, talking with a friend put me on the right wavelength: «Just imagine how much good the Lord intends to draw from his friend Marcos, if he takes him in this way… We must be attentive to what is happening, to what God is saying to us».
And, indeed, God has shown himself: both the Mass at the Seminary on Sunday evening with the Cardinal of Barcelona and the funeral Mass on Monday morning at La Bonanova were extraordinary. How true it is that sorrow and love go together, like the Cross and the Resurrection. Even amid the sadness, it was impossible not to be touched by the power of the presence of something stronger than death. So many details, so many testimonies: one could see what it means to be a priest; what it means to be a father, a mother, a brother, a friend. Faith is not a «consolation» to ease the pain: it is a fact, something that happens and that can be seen and touched with one’s own hands, when our heart is available and when the Lord grants us moments like these to remind us that it is He who makes all things, all hearts. We saw the victory of Christ, who has already made Marcos his own for ever, as he wanted. For me, and for everyone, there is a before and an after: nothing can be as it was before. I too want to live my relationship with the Lord with the seriousness and the totality with which Marcos lived it, without letting myself be distracted by so many secondary things (how much time we waste seeking ourselves in the wrong way, or seeking to distract ourselves from the drama of life, from the vertigo of the disproportion between our infinite desire and our own meagre capacity…).
Our part is to be witnesses.
That is why this is the first and greatest Good News of this bulletin. He is already with the Lord, which is who he wanted to be with. Because his «yes» was already total, the Lord has called him (he always calls the best, he takes the first fruits for himself). On the very night of his death, just a few minutes before, he had said to a friend as he left a meeting: «my girlfriend is very demanding… but she is the best».
Some examples of what has happened:
The homily of his uncle Yago Gallo at the funeral Mass last Monday at La Bonanova: «It really is true that Christ and Marcos loved each other; that they love each other! It really is true! And I thought: am I going to interfere in that relationship? Am I going to give my opinion about «how Christ and Marcos love each other», «how Marcos and Christ love each other»? Am I going to say that it should have been otherwise?
http://www.infovaticana.com/lgg/2015/02/24/queria-ser-sacerdote-por-el-rostro-de-jesucristo/
The message from Julián Carrón, head of CL and successor of Fr Giussani: «He did not live for himself, but for the Lord» «In our memory we shall not be able to separate him from Christ, of whose fullness he now lives«
http://huellas.tracce.it/default.asp?id=302&id_n=6930
And the message of someone who met him only a few months ago:
http://diarioelprisma.es/eltintindebarcelona/ha-muerto-un-hombre-de-dios/
Machine translation. If you spot a mistake, do write to us.