One of the marvels of having known the Venerable Servant of God Montse Grases (1941-1959) when I was young is that I have been able to experience many times that the saints are eternally grateful, because every time I write a favor received from her, I experience that she immediately does me others, because she really is eternally grateful.
Some time ago a journalist from a well-known radio station phoned me to ask me shamelessly why the Catholic Church would make the mistake of canonizing a 15-year-old boy when we all know that at that age children are quite "dull".
I immediately replied that Carlo Acutis is one of the great saints of the recent history of the Catholic Church, on a par with the Venerable Servant of God Montse Grases, St. John Paul II, St. Teresa of Calcutta or Padre Pio, to name a few outstanding examples.
The prayer of complicity
What is the characteristic note that makes Carlo Acutis be proposed as a model and intercessor for the Christian people? What makes him worthy of the title of champion of the faith, as Benedict XVI called the saints? Quite simply, Carlo Acutis, like the great saints in the history of the Church, prayed a true prayer of "complicity".
We have all learned to distinguish between the prayer of need that leads us promptly to turn to God's mercy, as Pope Francis has taught us, to solve our material and spiritual needs. In addition, we have had a few years with the pandemic, the philomena, the DANA in Valencia and Malaga and, as if that were not enough, the blackout of April 28 that has demonstrated the fragility of human life.
For this reason, it is impressive to discover Carlo Acutis beginning his preparation for his first communion by moving forward like a giant in his life of prayer, simple, trusting, complicit, like a friend with a friend: "talking to God as a friend," as St. Josemaría liked to say.
Carlo Acutis and the Eucharist
Immediately, we will remember that, since his first communion, Carlo began to attend Holy Mass daily and to receive Holy Communion, because, as he confided to his mother: that was the highway that would lead him to heaven.
In fact, the extraordinary thing about Carlo Acutis is that he spent his day going here and there, doing what a boy of his age does: classes, studying, playing with the computer, being with friends, helping around the house, skateboarding, but in all of this he was taking and picking up the thread of the conversation with Jesus.
That is why, when Acutis began to feel the symptoms of the leukemia that would lead to his death in a few days, he tried, with God's help, to keep smiling and encourage his mother. In fact, when they entered the hospital, he commented that he would never leave. Logically, Jesus was already preparing him to continue the conversation in Heaven.
The youth of the 21st century
Montse's prayer is like that of Carlo Acutis, and they will have met in heaven and greeted each other with great affection and will be delighted to help the young people of the 21st century to be as happy as they were.
Montse gives us a lesson of love for Jesus Christ in everyday life, without anyone realizing it, but in a complete process of identification. As Francis recalled in the "Gaudete et exultate" of March 18, 2018: "Holiness does not make you less human, because it is the encounter of your weakness with the power of grace" (n. 34).
Let us recall the scene of the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee narrated by St. John. The miracle takes place because we obey Our Lady. "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5). Then we do what we know how to do: put water and He works the miracle. If we put the water of our love for God and for others, it will become happiness.
Montse discovered her vocation by Opus Dei loving Jesus Christ and loving her parents, her brothers and sisters, her friends, the people of Opus Dei throughout the world with whom she shared her dialogue with Jesus Christ.
She reached holiness as identification and complicity with Jesus Christ and knew how to carry her illness with grace, because she tried to maintain the thread of conversation with Jesus throughout the day. One can dance a sardana while praying, play basketball while praying or prepare to act in a theatrical performance or walking through the Catalan Pyrenees in Seva or wherever.
Montse Grases, friend of the Amigo
Montse Frases was a friend who had many friends. She was also a close friend of Jesus Christ. Therefore, she was very comfortable with her.
Fernando Ocáriz, who studied brilliantly in Barcelona at the Faculty of Sciences, often reminded us that "we do not do apostolate, we are apostles". That is what Montse teaches us: to be normal with Jesus, to charm him and make him fall in love, and then, to love our friends, to be aware of their needs, to listen, to be interested.
As Benedict XVI said in a conversation with Cardinal Julián Herranz a few years ago: "Do you know which point of The Way I like the most? The one that says "Charity is more in giving than in understanding" ("The Way", 463).
Large hearts
If we are very normal and we love Jesus Christ very much, we will have hundreds of friends and the best thing will be that we will know how to spread our happiness to our friends, to our girlfriends, so that with the passage of time they will want to be with that Jesus who is in your soul and who comes to the surface.
Precisely, another saint of our time who died in Manchester at the age of 21, saw that the nurses who brought the chemotherapy bags to the residence where he lived, disputed the joy of being there for a few hours, because in Pedro Ballester's room it was very good. Because with God, with Montse, with Acutis, with the saints, one is very well. The purpose of today is to ask Montse for many things so that we can prove that we have a friend in heaven and she, who is eternally grateful, will teach us to have a heart as big as hers.
