Patrick Tomassi (The Beacon)
By Patrick Tomassi, Guest Commentary
College is the time for existential crises - for big questions. One of the biggest questions I've ever been asked is "what do you desire?" The other day I was walking across campus and realized that my afternoon was free. "I can clean my room," I thought, "and catch up on a TV show, and listen to music, all at the same time." It dawned on me that I couldn't do all of the things that I wanted to do, and that I wanted far more than that - I wanted everything. But what all of those things have in common is that after a while they are not enough - they leave me with this same question. What do I truly desire?
When I was a sophomore in high school, I had all of the "book answers" of religion. I could tell you what the Catholic Church believed on XYZ and cite the Bible verses and Catechism quotes that applied. But in 16 years, no one had asked me what I desired. That is, not until my friends introduced me to the charisma of Luigi Giussani, known as Communion and Liberation. Giussani does not avoid the question of desire, he embraces it.
Giussani wrote that "structurally man waits; structurally he is a beggar; structurally life is promise." What do I wait for? If I am left continually unsatisfied no matter what I pursue, am I made for something more? This is the question that religion, at its best, attempts to address. In practice, however, it's a question we do our best to avoid.
There has been a lot of back and forth in the Beacon recently about religion. But I think that it has missed the point. I don't think the purpose of religion is to spend time with people who think what I think, or to have a set of ethical principles to live by. And it is certainly not to avoid the question by sticking an Angel Band-Aid on it. No! Religion has to look seriously at this question: What do I desire? Am I made for something more?
Giussani proposes faith not as a list of rules to be obeyed or boxes to be checked, but as an experience to be engaged. The experience he proposes is that of the apostles. When I was eighteen, I met someone who treated me differently - who looked at me with what I can only describe as love. This wasn't something I had asked for or deserved - it was freely given. She looked with a "gaze" that told me I was made for more, and this gaze moved me. It showed me who I really was and what I truly desired. I felt compelled to follow it. In this encounter, I glimpsed the face of Christ.
What do you desire? In Communion and Liberation, we look at this question in our own experience. We meet on Thursdays at 7:30pm in St. André Chapel in Tyson. If you're interested, show up!
Patrick Tomassi is a senior mechanical engineering major. He can be reached at tomassi13@up.edu.
