With Him, it’s a perennial Easter

Zenit: We are nearing Easter. While the world is breathing an atmosphere of fear because of the threat of terrorism, what answer may come from the mystery of Good Friday and the Easter Resurrection?

Chiara Lubich: Every day is Good Friday. Looking at the news, in front of the killings and assassination attempts, one after the other, in those pictures of inhuman violence, in the cry of those sufferings, resounds the cry of abandonment which Jesus cried out to the Father on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?, his greatest trial and the darkest shadow. But it’s a cry which didn’t remain without an answer.

Jesus did not remain in the abyss of that infinite pain, but, with a huge and unimaginable effort he re-abandoned himself to the Father, overcoming that immense suffering and in this way he brought people back in the bosom of the Father and in the reciprocal embrace.

We know the deepest causes of terrorism: resentment, suppressed hatred, the desire of revenge smouldered for years by oppressed peoples because goods are not shared equally and rights are not recognized.

What is lacking is communion, sharing and solidarity. But we know that goods don’t move if hearts are not moved. Therefore, what we need to create everywhere in the world are spaces of brotherhood, that brotherhood which was won back on the cross.

From that cross Jesus gives us the highest, divine and heroic lesson on what Love is: a love which makes no distinctions, but loves everyone; which doesn’t expect return, but always takes the initiative; that knows how to make itself one with the other, knows how to live the other; that has a measure that is infinite: it knows how to give its life. This love has a divine strength, it can produce the most powerful Christian revolution which must invade not only the spiritual realm, but also the human one, renewing every expression of it: culture, politics, economy, science and communication.

Zenit: Where does the Focolare Movement get its strength from? Where does this ardent love come from?

Chiara Lubich: From a great discovery which is at the heart of the charism of unity: that commandment that Jesus defines as new and his: “love one another as I have loved you,” when it is lived-out with radicality, it generates unity and brings about an extraordinary consequence: Jesus himself, the Risen One, is present in our midst, as he promised “where two or three are gathered together in my name,” that is, in his love, as the Fathers of the Church say.

A writing at the beginning of the Movement, tells us the surprise for the first discoveries: “Unity! We feel it, we see it, we enjoy it, but it’s ineffable! Everyone enjoys his presence, everyone suffers with his absence. It’s peace, joy, love, ardour, atmosphere of heroism and utmost generosity. It’s Jesus among us!” And with Him, it’s a perennial Easter!

Source: Chiara Lubich Centre – read full interview