Volume miscellaneo che raccoglie interventi e conversazioni di don Giussani con i responsabili degli studenti universitari di Comunione e Liberazione negli anni 1982 e 1983 (Equipe del CLU); si tratta del terzo volume della serie “L’Equipe”.
I testi, raccolti in ordine cronologico, sono preceduti dalla prefazione appositamente redatta da Julián Carrón, dal titolo Un’avventura per sé (pp. I-VI).
Ogni Equipe è anticipata da una nota storica a cura di Onorato Grassi (in corsivo nel testo) che contestualizza l’evento; in occasione della redazione del presente volume tutti gli scritti sono stati rivisti sulla base della documentazione, scritta e audio, conservata nell’Archivio storico di Comunione e Liberazione. È stata mantenuta la forma orale dei dialoghi e delle conversazioni.

1982

Come spiegato nella nota storica (pp. 7-8), l’argomento dell’Equipe svoltasi a Riva del Garda dal 21 al 23 maggio 1982, qui pubblicata con il titolo “La compagnia di Dio all’uomo” (pp. 7-82), fu determinato dall’uscita del primo Volantone di Comunione e Liberazione in occasione della Pasqua 1982 dal titolo “Cristo, la compagnia di Dio all’uomo” (“Pasqua 1982. Cristo la compagnia di Dio all’uomo”, pp. 8-12): si tratta dell’intervento di Giussani a un incontro quaresimale tenutosi all’oratorio di Seregno (Teatro San Rocco, 9 marzo 1982), pubblicato in Avvenire il successivo 14 marzo; in seguito rieditato con lo stesso titolo in Il Sabato (settembre 1, 1988, p. 46 solo alcuni brani), nel volumetto Si ricomincia da Uno: Appunti da conversazioni di monsignor Luigi Giussani con gli universitari di Comunione e Liberazione (supplemento a Il Sabato, dicembre [24], 1988, pp. 44-45) e in apertura del volume miscellaneo a cura di Carmine Di Martino Un avvenimento di vita, cioè una storia: Itinerario di quindici anni concepiti e vissuti: Interviste, conversazioni, interventi di monsignor Luigi Giussani a partire da registrazioni, non rivisti dall’autore (EDIT: Il Sabato, 1993, pp. 15-21). Nel 1983 la trascrizione della lezione di Giussani uscì anche nel volume di don Aldo Cattaneo Ma Tu da dove vieni? (Editrice Elle di Ci, 1983, pp. 73-85; alcune differenze redazionali rispetto alla versione edita in Avvenire l’anno precedente).
L’“Introduzione” (pp. 13-52) è un inedito; della “Sintesi” invece (pp. 53-79) vi sono precedenti edizioni, ma la versione qui pubblicata secondo i nuovi criteri redazionali sopra indicati è più ampia e dettagliata delle precedenti. Il testo fu pubblicato per la prima volta in Il Sabato con il titolo “Senza presenza non c’è promessa” (ottobre 1, 1988, pp. 45-47), venne poi riproposto nel volumetto Si ricomincia da Uno: Appunti da conversazioni di monsignor Luigi Giussani con gli universitari di Comunione e Liberazione (supplemento a Il Sabato, dicembre [24], 1988, pp. 46-57; qui l’incontro è erroneamente datato giugno 1982) con il titolo “Ritorno agli inizi” e nel 1993, infine, fu rieditato con lo stesso titolo ma in forma molto modificata nel volume miscellaneo Un avvenimento di vita, cioè una storia: Itinerario di quindici anni concepiti e vissuti (EDIT: Il Sabato, 1993, pp. 153-164). 
Inedita l’“Omelia” (pp. 80-81).

Il secondo capitolo, “Senza patria” (pp. 83-145), è il testo integrale dell’Equipe svoltasi a Colfosco dal 24 al 28 agosto 1982.
Questa nuova stesura, che ripropone fedelmente il dialogo avvenuto, risulta in alcuni punti diversa se confrontata con gli atti dell’Equipe pubblicati nel 1982 con il titolo Cristo risorsa dell’uomo: Atti dell’équipe di Comunione e Liberazione/Università: Colfosco, agosto 1982 (supplemento a CL-Litterae Communionis, 10 1982).
Nel 1986 un’ulteriore versione di parte del testo - “Premessa” (pp. 3-5) e primo paragrafo, “La scoperta che il volantone di Pasqua ha determinato” (pp. 6-7 degli atti dell’Equipe) - era stata pubblicata in Il Sabato (dicembre 20, 1986, p. 1; 3) con il titolo “Un uomo tra di noi” e riproposta identica nel 1988 nel volumetto Si ricomincia da Uno: Appunti da conversazioni di monsignor Luigi Giussani con gli universitari di Comunione e Liberazione (supplemento a Il Sabato, dicembre [24], 1988, pp. 59-65) con il titolo “Un uomini senza patria”. Nel 1993 il testo è diventato parte della miscellanea Un avvenimento di vita, cioè una storia: Itinerario di quindici anni concepiti e vissuti con il titolo “Uomini senza patria” (EDIT: Il Sabato, 1993, pp. 163-172; si tratta di una versione ulteriormente revisionata); nel novembre 1992 un brano, in forma identica a quello che sarà pubblicata nel febbraio successivo da EDIT-Il Sabato, era stato editato in Il Sabato (novembre 21, 1992, p. 129; cfr. EDIT: Il Sabato, 1993, pp. 170-171) con il titolo “Contro il fondamentalismo”.

1983

“Il passo da fare” (pp. 149-222) è il dialogo inedito fra don Giussani e alcuni partecipanti all’Equipe svoltasi a Verona dall’11 al 13 febbraio 1983 (“Assemblea 1”, pp. 150-191; “Assemblea 2”, pp. 192-222).

In apertura del capitolo “Un giudizio sull’ambiente” (pp. 223-284) è pubblicato il secondo Volantone di Pasqua (1983) dal titolo “Le Christ est ressuscité” (pp. 224-225); segue il dialogo inedito fra don Giussani e alcuni partecipanti all’Equipe svoltasi a Riva del Garda dal 28 al 30 maggio 1983 (“Assemblea”, pp. 226-261; “Sintesi”, pp. 262-284). Una delle risposte date da Giussani durante l’“Assemblea” (pp. 257-259) è pubblicata anche nel volume Cilla 1961-1976: Qualcosa di più grande nella vita di tutti i giorni (supplemento a Litterae Communionis-Tracce, 7 2006: pp. 19-22).

L’ultimo testo, “L’unità dell’esperienza” (pp. 285-382), è il dialogo inedito fra don Giussani e alcuni partecipanti all’Equipe svoltasi a Colfosco dal 19 al 24 agosto 1983 (“Introduzione”, pp. 286-315; “Assemblea 1”, pp. 316-348; “Assemblea 2”, pp. 349-382).

Il volume si chiude con la “Legenda” (pp. 383-386), gli “Indici” (pp. 387-401) e il “Sommario” (pp. 403-406). [P. M.]

1982
God’s Companionship with Man
The text of a meeting held by Fr. Giussani on Christianity deeply affected some university students who decided to transcribe and distribute it to all universities. This led to the birth of the first Easter “Poster” entitled “Christ, God’s Companionship with Man.” The diffusion of this text had unthinkable effects—directly announcing the origin of the companionship experienced at university does not arouse strangeness, but fascination. What matters most to communicate is not initiatives, but the event of Christ. We need to be shaped by this Presence and step back to the origin of the Movement. As a matter of fact, what Fr. Giussani brought to the first hours of class at Berchet was the memory of an event that became present through him. He was moved by the presence of Christ made man who went through history and affected the ones who stood in front of Him. Many years later, the Poster brought this same situation up again. From here on, CL University Students cannot start from anything other than this. A need for change then arose as a response to the disproportion between that event and the poverty of those who proposed it. The essence of Christianity is an event, manifested in the announcement of the fact of Christ and the change it generates, that is such as to be called a miraculous change. Yet in most cases we do not start from Christ’s victory, His resurrection, but only from what we are not satisfied with. This happens because we do not live memory, that is, we do not offer, we do not pray. Prayer is not a formula, but a dimension of life; it is the awareness of a Presence. A new culture arises from this, namely, asking for Christ within the problems of life; that fact becomes the total horizon of our judgment on everything. If it is not so, culture is a voluntaristic effort; but such a conception always drives a wedge between what needs to be done for your community and your own personal matters. Love for destiny is what drives you instead. Recognizing this Presence is work, that is, only by adhering to Another can we be torn from the image and project that always emerge. After all, life’s vocation is to be available to this Other, who is Being. All this, however, would be mere nostalgia if it did not reach the individual in a tangible way. Instead, the event of Christ coincides with the Christian companionship. Christ makes Himself present in a friend that is next to you—because of this you can obey and bow to His presence. The perspective is to let yourself be shaped by His presence which is this companionship; only this can make you creative.

Without a Homeland
In the Summer of 1982, just before the Equipe, Fr. Giussani was called to Rome by John Paul II. The Pope reasserted the great closeness he felt with the experience of the Movement and said, “You are people without a homeland, because you cannot be assimilated into this society.” This was a decisive statement, marking a crucial step for all of Communion and Liberation. People are not without a homeland simply because they are Christians and affirm certain values. While those who affirm values, including Christian values, find space and acceptance everywhere, the ones who acknowledge the presence of Christ in their life are without a homeland. If this fact is the center of your life, you are irreducible to any society. Those who place their consistency in a mode of self-expression, in a certain organization or discourse are always insecure, while a Christian’s consistency is something other than himself. Christians are the consequence of a Presence. The Poster reawakened this experience in the university students of Communion and Liberation, out of which three anthropological consequences arose. The first one is the “distance” you establish between yourself and things. If you try to possess what you love (your woman, your friends), you come to realize that you will lose it, because more important than the thing itself is what gives meaning to it. That distance that the Presence introduces is not a loss, but an eternal closeness which makes affection unassailable. Second consequence is “fecundity.” True fecundity is the one that generates what is human, namely, the one that dilates the presence of Christ. Third consequence is reaffirming that “the ‘I’ cannot be reduced.” Only those who are in relationship with this Presence cannot be reduced to the world, because everything is determined by the love for Christ. This love moves us with regard to ourselves and in our look to others.
How can we make the event that began with the Poster persist? First, by asking for Him, that is, praying, crying out for Him to come. The true question arises not from doubt but from the certainty that this meaning has shown itself in history. Second, we need to hold on to the companionship, which is the event of Christ now, and obey it. That is why the strength of the companionship is memory, that is, keeping in mind that something happened. And third, we can give life a rule that expresses what is moving it. A companionship experienced in this way educates people to a look at themselves that does not exist elsewhere and that enhances their humanity.

1983
The Step to Take
To withhold what had happened in the last Equipes, it was necessary to become aware of what step the university students had been called to. For a long time they had lived in an existentialist position, that is to say in individualism and sad isolation, but now it was time to move to a Christian position, which means more human. Existentialists coincide with their reactions and feelings; they have no personal consistency because they affirm nothing but themselves. But instead, a man is such only when he belongs to something greater, when he affirms a Presence that brings order to his life. Personality is inconsistent when it lacks the consciousness of belonging to this relationship. Belonging cannot be limited to the diaconia or community leader. A leader is the sign of what one belongs to, which is destiny, that is Christ. For many years the movement has been identified with doing certain things or certain initiatives. But when certain attempts failed, people sought refuge, for protection, in the intimacy of the community. Over time, they rediscovered the passion of being a presence inside the university, that is, the passion of communicating a message that coincided with their life. Now the step was to realize that the message they carried was not reduced to Christian values, but it was the presence of Christ in the companionship that manifested itself in a different human reality. It is this recognized Presence that allows us to move from existentialism to a truly human position.
What Fr. Giussani said was still struggling to become experience, because there was concern about the “project” of the movement, but the project of the movement goes on by itself; now the problem was the person. The problem is the awareness each person has of carrying within themselves the Presence of something other than themselves, which is the divine. The historical presence of Christ must be the determining factor in everything you do—this is the responsibility to which you are called as a Christian. The individual’s responsibility is to endure in this companionship, and from that enduring comes the criterion, that is, the judgment with which you approach the whole world.

A Judgment on the Environment
Some testified to a new step in the experience, speaking of the coincidence between belonging and announcement. This meant that the movement was no longer understood as a proposition to be made to the outside world, but as the very “structure” of one’s “I,” because it turned out that what was being announced was the truth and one’s very substance. The announcement concerned what one belonged to, the meaning of life, which consisted of the presence of Another. For this experience to happen we need to be loyal to our own humanity, that is, to love ourselves and our freedom. True freedom is not autonomy but recognizing that we cannot fulfill ourselves on our own. Freedom is to adhere to something else, for without this, humankind would be lost. However, we can deny this bond and thus our own nature. Morality, then, is nothing more than acknowledging our relationship with what generates us; it is honesty and loyalty to our own experience. Our first act of mercy toward ourselves is to announce the Other without Whom our person dissolves. If the first pole is our own freedom, the second pole is the freedom of the Other, that is, the freedom of God. The first manifestation of His freedom is creation, but the culmination of this phenomenon, that which gives meaning to creation, is Jesus Christ. The method by which the freedom of God is expressed in Christ continues in history today, and that is Christian companionship. Otherwise, everything would refer to a stretching of our imagination. The only purpose of the companionship is to be the relentless re-proposal of Christ as the working hypothesis of life. At the same time, the companionship always brings with it the experimental evidence of His presence. When you endure in it, you generate two dynamics. The first is that of the question, which arises from the judgment of faith. Acknowledging His presence leads to asking for Him to happen again. The second dynamic is a total availability, reaching into all the details of life. The whole content of faith is played out in a particular historical moment, which in our case is defined by the total forgetfulness of both man’s freedom and God’s freedom. Recognizing this imparts one task—to dilate the event of this companionship. This is what drives us to get to know our companions, to take risks in our work and in any circumstance. What we have encountered is a new form of life that is immanent to other forms of life and that permeates them by bringing the announcement of Christ’s victory.

The Unity of Experience
We cannot understand the content of what has been announced to us if we have no affection for ourselves. The Movement comes from an affection for our own humanity; the event cannot be accomplished if we do not long for the fulfillment of our being human, our own desires in their truth. Affection for oneself is not selfishness but, on the contrary, it is wonder at something objective, myself, that was not made by me. This translates into being reliable toward your own needs, toward the needs that constitute yourself; to maintain this reliability you must be poor in spirit. These needs are not decided by yourself, but constitute your human fabric, so when you reduce them and become fixated on a particular point, you degrade your freedom. Instead, the poor in spirit are the ones who recognize that they are made for a boundless expectation, an endless aspiration. A serious affection for oneself is the perception of one’s own endless need. You join the Movement only because you perceive that such place can help you in this serious affection. Contemporary society drowns this feeling of self and anesthetizes man’s deepest needs. Yet even in this context, an unpredictable event happens, a historical encounter with a different companionship. This companionship is made up of people who are more interested in the individual person than she herself is, and in their presence a question arises—how can they be this way? There is only one plausible explanation—that these different people are a sign of the Mystery that has entered history and generates me. This difference can be explained only if Christ is present and acts in such a way as to change history, so much so that His presence can be heard, can be touched. Christ is the reason why these people are together. The difference observed in such a companionship is a powerful sign that prompts us to question the origin of this getting together; and it brings with it that phenomenon, inexplicable to the world, which is forgiveness. The last essential aspect is that you cannot stay in such a companionship except by continually announcing to yourself and others what generates it. Witnessing is our life’s work, because what saves us from all limitations is passion in communicating the event of Christ. Our stay in this place should be led by three recommendations. The first is to fight against what is pre-established and pre-fixed. Our purpose is not a structure, but to announce what we have encountered, so we must be nimble and not schematic. The second recommendation is that among us we grow a companionship that is faithful to one another. This must happen first among those who lead, but then it must expand to everyone, down to the last student invited to a meeting. A faithful companionship keeps reminding itself of the reason that holds it together, and School of Community is its first instrument. The third recommendation concerns obedience. Nothing is generated, in fact, without following.