St. Carlo Acutis and I were born just over a year apart in the early 1990s.

While he (May 3, 1991) was my (June 14, 1992) senior by a mere 409 days biologically, he proved to be vastly more mature in his commitment to God than I and so many others during his all-too-brief 15 years on Earth.

I have gradually come to learn more about Carlo’s life story during my five years with The Catholic Register, and I find myself increasingly in awe of the first-ever millennial saint.

Advertisement

Though I attended weekly Mass, completed the sacraments, and volunteered as an altar server and lector, my focus remained on typical childhood activities—extracurricular sports, playing Xbox, and watching movies—in contrast to Carlo's more spiritually oriented interests.

Carlo enjoyed soccer, video games and cartoons, in moderation, but he was far more interested in enriching his soul. He attended daily Mass, prayed the Rosary, became intricately knowledgeable about the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and he famously documented over 130 recognized Eucharistic miracles on his website.

A great failing of my younger years is that I largely exhibited a lack of interest in the world around me. During family road trips to Saskatchewan to visit family, or southward to the United States from time to time, I opted to keep my head buried in a Nintendo Gameboy or a movie I’d probably seen multiple times beforehand instead of gazing upon and admiring God’s majestic creation.

Carlo, on the other hand, truly saw the world through God’s eyes. He marveled at what the Lord made, recognized how God was at work in his life, and he recognized Christ in everyone he encountered, whether they be exalted by the world or downtrodden.

I’m especially touched by the moving encounters he had with a homeless man who would sit outside Santa Maria Segreta Church in Milan, Italy.

Advertisement

Rajesh Mohur, a caretaker hired by Acutis’ mother and father to be a caretaker to Carlo, shared in an interview that Carlo would begin to cry when he saw this man named Emmanuelle, who slept on a piece of cardboard.

Mohur said Carlo “was very shaken.”

Guided by his generous heart that gazed towards Jesus, Carlo asked his mother if he could use some of his savings to purchase a sleeping bag for the man so he could sleep more warmly. Later, he asked permission for the family to set aside some of his own dinner so he could feed Emmanuelle and other homeless people. And on one occasion, Carlo unhesitatingly gave a homeless man his shoes and walked home wearing only socks.

The late young man’s intuitive knowledge about how God is incarnate in the world is also dazzling to me. Carlo saw Jesus in every person he encountered, and he understood the enormous potential in how God could work in his parents, relatives, classmates, teachers, and even the strangers he encountered if they chose Christ.

In truth, it wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I embarked upon a deep spiritual and intellectual investigation into how God is at work in the world today. The two years dominated by COVID-19 were so unsettling because of the fragmentation and the fierce divisions that came to a head on many different fronts that I felt that I needed to journey inward to find peace amid this storm.

I read and studied the Bible as I never had before, and I came to understand the pattern of how God worked during seemingly chaotic and conflict-ridden periods in the Bible, and that enabled me to better understand how God is on the move in our world right now.

God rewarded my search for wisdom with a faith that is now unshakeable and a true born-again conversion.

Advertisement

To summarize: unprecedented turmoil in the world caused by a global health emergency and harrowing amounts of political and social strife stirred me out of complacency. Carlo, on the other hand, never needed a triggering event to awaken him from slumber. He had his eye fixed on the Lord since, essentially, the beginning of his life, and he walked alongside him each day on Earth.

Now, it is a great comfort to all that Carlo and Jesus are walking side by side in Heaven.