Today is September 7, Sunday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time.
We read at today’s Mass, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26-27).
Pope Francis, in “Christus Vivit,” warns that the “apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism and buying the latest thing on the market, obsessed with our free time, caught up in negativity.” Carlo Acutis knew this danger well. He lived in the same world of constant advertising and digital noise that surrounds us today, but he chose another path.
Chasing holiness
Carlo didn’t let himself be swallowed up by consumerism. He saw clearly that many young people, while longing to be different, end up imitating the crowd — chasing after what the market tells them to desire. As Pope Francis explains, this trap keeps us from “bringing forth the gifts the Lord has given” and offering the world the originality God placed in each of us.
Carlo refused to waste his life on things that fade. He wore the same clothes, enjoyed simple food and never cared about brands or luxury. Instead, he poured his creativity and energy into what endures: the love of God. He used his talent with computers to spread the Gospel, not to glorify himself. His originality lay not in rebellion or trend-chasing, but in holiness.
Consumerism promises happiness but delivers emptiness. Carlo shows us another way: to root our lives in the Eucharist, to live simply and to give of ourselves in love.
Let us pray,
O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters, that those who believe in Christ may receive true freedom and an everlasting inheritance. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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