“In the Easter Liturgy we thank God for having made Christ shine in all His splendour after He saved humankind through the Paschal Mystery. He fills the Church with the Holy Spirit and admirably enriches it with heavenly gifts. Among these is the royal priesthood, which is conferred on the faithful in baptism. Hence, the Church is holy, filled with the Holy Spirit. It is the Body of Christ who is total holiness. Christ instituted the Church to continue the Redemption with her. He made her the means of liberation from evil and of the attraction to what is good. She is the Gospel fulfilled, humankind recuperated, life with God in perennial unity, uninterrupted sharing of grace: this is the Church.

And we are the Church, joined together by the Sacraments and the Doctrine with the pope and bishops. We form a social body whose arteries carry the Blood of Christ whose soul is the Holy Spirit, the Source of holiness. So the Church is the worthy dwelling of the Divine Trinity on earth. Manzoni calls her: ‘Mother of the saints, an image of the Eternal City’. Our sanctification is her task. The Paschal Mystery summarises the reason for our existence on this planet and the reason for which the very Son of God came down to earth and was crucified.”

Giordani goes on to underscore humankind’s longing for holiness and truth, which rejects a dull existence without warmth, but desires to thrive. This is why we go wrong when we offer a languid, uncertain Christianity, deceiving ourselves into thinking that this is how we will draw people in.

 “This ‘saying without saying’ generates a desert region, a no man’s land. It is of no service to the Lord whose word was always quite explicit. It doesn’t serve God and provokes the disgust of the very ones who think they are rendering the idea of religion more appetising.

Those who have attenuated the truth, who have camouflaged the Cross and used it as a wall decoration have extracted from the people the beauty, truth and power of the Divine command that invites us to give body, soul and all that we are to God. We are meant to stand on the side of Christ to the point of becoming Him. The Gospel teaches us to say yes when we mean yes, and no when we mean no. This ‘neither this nor that’ approach defaces the truth and nullifies the Church. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth! This is what Jesus asked of the Father as he was about to consummate his supreme sacrifice of love. Sanctify them in the truth, not in neutrality, mediocrity, or banality.

If you totally embrace Christ, then anything you do during the day professes the faith. Then life becomes a marvellous undertaking, an uninterrupted liturgy where, rich or poor, ailing or sound, man or woman, young or old – everyone has something to do for the edification of all, edifying an eternal destiny with the material elements of a temporal existence. This is sanctification. It is by no means a desertion from life. It is living life, completely – a healthy life.

Christ asks everyone – even you and me – to follow Him by breaking with the past, with everything that is dead, and to rediscover the joy of our youth. This is freedom.

Then, the Church, through which the Saviour continues to bestow health, appears as a Divine minister of health: a sacrament that alleviates death with resurrection.”

Igino Giordani, Il mistero pasquale, (Rome; Città Nuova, March 25, 1977), pp.24-25.