By John Kinder
How can we be certain about Jesus and the claim he made – that he was God made man? And how did his first disciples become so convinced of him that they were willing to give their lives for him?
These questions were at the centre of a gathering on 7 March at St Thomas of Canterbury parish in Lewisham, where about 50 people came together to reflect on the thought of Italian priest Fr Luigi Giussani.
The event focused on Giussani’s book At the Origin of the Christian Claim and was organised by the Sydney community of Communion and Liberation, the international Catholic movement he founded.
Born in Italy in 1922, Fr Giussani was a priest and educator who dedicated much of his life to working with young people. Concerned that many in modern society had lost a sense of the living presence of Christ, he proposed that Christianity is not primarily a set of ideas or moral rules but an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ, within the reality of everyday life.
That conviction eventually gave rise to Communion and Liberation, now present in dozens of countries.
The Lewisham event took an engaging format, with speakers presenting quotations from At the Origin of the Christian Claim and connecting them with their own experience.
Daniel Ang, director of the Centre for Evangelisation in the Archdiocese of Sydney, reflected on Giussani’s emphasis on the “incommensurability of mystery,” noting that the Christian faith begins not with an idea but with an event.
“Giussani reminds us that revelation is not a theory or private feeling but something that has entered history,” Ang said.
“In Jesus Christ, God steps into our human experience and makes himself accessible.”
In a culture shaped by digital communication and mediated relationships, Ang said evangelisation must remain personal and embodied. “It must be lived and witnessed, in friendship and community, in lives quietly transformed by an encounter with Christ,” he said.
Matthew Tan, dean of studies at the Vianney College Seminary in Wagga Wagga, reflected on the Gospel account of Jesus restoring to life the only son of a grieving widow.
For Tan, Giussani highlights the personal initiative of Christ, whose compassion reveals a God attentive to human suffering.
Fr John O’Connor of the Diocese of Christchurch in New Zealand spoke about his ministry with parents preparing their children for First Communion, noting that even where church practice is limited, deeper spiritual questions remain.
Arianna Vignati, a professor of design at Torrens University and a mother of four, spoke about the “School of Community,” a weekly gathering central to the life of Communion and Liberation.
Sydney community leader Filippo Begnini concluded by explaining that At the Origin of the Christian Claim forms the second part of a trilogy by Giussani exploring the desires of the human heart, the claim of Christ and the continuing presence of Christ in the church.
Across the afternoon, speakers returned to a shared theme: that Christ can be encountered within the ordinary circumstances of life.
For more information about Communion and Liberation in Australia and New Zealand, visit https://au-nz.clonline.org/en.
John Kinder is a member of Community and Liberation.
