Today, October 29, is the memorial of Blessed Chiara Badano.
The First Saint of Generation X.
Born in 1971, Chiara was a bright and strong-willed child. Being an only child, her parents Ruggero and Maria Teresa, wanting Chiara to meet other kids, enrolled in the nearby kindergarten.
When Chiara was nine years old, she discovered the Focolare Movement, founded by the Servant of God Chiara Lubich. The young Chiara wrote, “I discovered that Jesus forsaken is the key to unity with God, and I want to choose him as my only spouse. I want to be ready to welcome Him when He comes. To prefer Him above all else.”
While playing tennis in the summer of 1988, Chiara felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, causing her to drop the tennis racket to the ground. Medical tests revealed the shocking diagnosis: she had osteogenic sarcoma, a rare and painful type of bone cancer.
After learning about it, Chiara returned home and told her mother to let her reflect alone. Minutes later, Chiara said she had passed her “Gethsemane garden.” She was smiling. She declared, “Jesus, if you want it, so do I.”
During her treatments, Chiara refused morphine. She wanted to feel the pain so she could offer her sufferings to Jesus. She said, “I want to share as much as possible in His sufferings on the cross.”
Chiara bore her very painful illness with extraordinary virtue and offered her sufferings to God. In her sick bed, she said, “Young people have only one life and it is worthwhile to spend it well.”
Her final words were, “Bye, Mom, be happy because I am.” She died at age 18 in 1990. Thousands of people who were edified by her saintly life attended her funeral.
She was beatified by then-Archbishop (and now Cardinal) Angelo Amato at the Sanctuary of Divine Love, Castel di Leva, Rome in 2010.