In reality it is in him that the Father in his great love calls everyone to become his children. And how many have we really become so with Baptism - as St. John pointed out in the second reading, he calls us to live as true children of his, in the expectation of being fully "similar to him" in eternal glory, where "we will see him as he is".

2 - This is the vocation to holiness, the goal of every other vocation in the Church, a gift of God's charity, as the Pope reminded us in today's Message of the Day of Prayer for Vocations. And a gift of God's love for Italy was Prof. Giuseppe Toniolo. The great Easter gift of the Risen Christ is his beatification.

Therefore, we welcome the psalmist's invitation with joy, and we give thanks to the Good Shepherd, who raised him up, and to his Vicar on earth, Benedict XVI, who declared him blessed, presenting him as an example of a father of a family, of a wise man. educator of young people, a lay person in Catholic Action, a witness to the Kingdom of God in the world of culture, economy and politics.

These were the privileged places of his mission and his sanctification, as a lay Christian, in the heart of the Church and of society, with a profoundly vocational spirit.

He was convinced, as the Vatican Council later specified, of which he can be considered a forerunner, that we are all called to holiness without distinction, that is, "to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity in ordinary conditions and situations of life"; that "such holiness promotes a more humane standard of living in earthly society itself" (LG 40); that the laity sanctify themselves in the world and for the sanctification of the world, without being of the world, through the exercise of their own task: the Christian animation of temporal realities (AA 7).

He was so convinced that he did not hesitate to affirm: "Whoever will definitively save the present society will not be a diplomat, a scholar, a hero, but a saint, indeed a society of saints". Hence his firm decision: "I want to become a saint". And a regulation of spiritual and professional life was given, valuing the ever-current means of Christian asceticism: prayer, meditation, Mass and daily communion, frequent confession, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, retreats monthly, the annual spiritual exercises and the recitation of the Rosary, whose feast marked his passage to heaven. A true contemplative of action.

3 - Rooting himself in God was the soul of his Christian commitment in the family, on the chair and in society.

Married to Maria Schiratti and father of seven children, he considered the family the primary place of his sanctification and his mission. His was a normal family, inserted in the life of the parish and open to that of society, serene in facing the inevitable difficulties because united by the strength of the Gospel that we read together every morning and animated by the prayer that we recited together every evening. A true domestic church. A fascinating testimony of the dignity and beauty of the family, founded on the indissoluble and faithful marriage of a man to a woman for a communion of life and love according to God's plan, which cannot be upset without upsetting the very life of society. .

Distinguished university professor, on the professorships of Padua, Modena and Pisa, he knew how to be not only the qualified teacher of young students, but above all their friend and educator in the search for truth.

Already then he felt the educational emergency due to the university climate indifferent or hostile to fundamental religious and moral demands, as well as the urgency of a solid Christian cultural formation that would prepare the new generations to face the challenges of the future. And on the promotion of culture he committed the gifts of an uncommon intelligence and an almost prophetic far-sightedness, above all regarding the need, for the good in our country, of a presence of Catholics, in the social and in the political, clear, coherent, courageous and unitary, based on the inseparable relationship between faith and reason.

4 - Convinced that communion, the secret of the credibility and efficacy of the apostolate, is built with obedience, he was always faithful to the four Popes of his time: he looked at them with eyes of faith and defended them with the love of a son.

They knew they could count on him, in a historical moment in which the unity of Catholics, due to the complex Roman question, required intelligent and sure mediators, builders of bridges and not of moats, men of relations and synthesis, such as he. And he offered his vast and profound scientific culture to their Magisterium, which he always docilely welcomed, pointing to it, especially Catholics involved in the social and political fields, as a sure point of reference: both to operate in a competent and coherent way, and to avoid the risk of being exploited by those who deny or fight the Gospel and Christian values. Which, - the Blessed said - are not in contrast with authentic human values, but are the fullest expression of them: they confirm them, support them, elevate them and promote them, for the most effective realization of the common good, the pre-eminent goal. social and political action.

With this fidelity, he placed at the service of the Catholic Movement, which he wanted articulated but united, his very high competence as an economist and sociologist.

The Society of Catholic Youth, the first nucleus of Italian Catholic Action, the Fuci, the Opera dei Congressi, the Catholic Union for Social Studies, the Popular Union, the start of the Social Weeks had in him an excellent creator, animator, coordinator of Christianly inspired cultural, social and political projects and of innovative public Catholic structures, such as the University of the Sacred Heart.

5 - prof. Toniolo, therefore, presents himself to us, as an Italian who has loved and served the Church and Italy, as an exemplary Christian and citizen: this is true secularism.

He presents himself to us as one of those "Christians with their arms raised towards God", who need the integral development of man and society, as the Pope wished in the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate (79), in which many innovative intuitions of the Blessed have found confirmation and development, such as the centrality of the person in the world of work, the irrepressible ethical foundation of the economy, the anthropological relevance of the social question, the importance of the Gospel in the construction of society.

On the eve of the Year of Faith, he is certainly one of the witnesses that the Holy Father has indicated as those who "by faith, over the centuries, have confessed the beauty of following the Lord Jesus where they were called to bear witness to their being Christians: in the family, in the profession, in public life " (Porta Fidei 13).

6 - This was B. Toniolo, and for this he still speaks.

With the enthusiasm of faith that is never tired and always alive in God the Creator and Father, with the intense relationship with the Risen Jesus invoked "principle of resurrection", with the splendid witness of the interior life incarnated in history, with sincere love for the Church who considered his mother, with the moral prestige of private and public conduct transparent and irreproachable, with the indomitable courage to be and to call himself a Christian in a context of aggressive secularism, the new Blessed urges us to rediscover the charm of belonging to the flock of good Shepherd, the eagerness to know him by listening to his word guaranteed by the Magisterium he wanted, the joy of remaining in him with the grace of the sacraments, the happiness of loving him by observing his commandments, sure guarantees of social life.

In particular, it urges us to commit ourselves with trust to the new evangelization of which the Social Doctrine is an integral part, and to make it credible with the witness of a life consistent with faith, illuminated by truth, supported by hope, lover of justice and animated by charity. .

This is the way of holiness that leads to the possession of eternal joy, which the Eucharist now makes us foretaste and in which, as the Collect Prayer reminded us, the Good Shepherd preceded us and, together with the new Blessed, awaits us. all in the arms of his love.