Chiara Lubich: “clothe ourselves in mercy”

“We had said we wanted to see only Jesus in our neighbour, to deal with Jesus in our neighbor, to love Jesus in our neighbor, but now we recall that a neighbor has this or that defect, has this or that imperfection.

Our eye becomes complicated and our being is no longer lit up. As a consequence, erring, we break unity.

Perhaps that particular neighbor, like all of us, has made mistakes, but how does God view him or her? What really is that person’s condition, the truth of his or her state? If our neighbor is reconciled with God, then God no longer remembers anything, he has wiped out everything with his blood. So, why should we go on remembering?

Who is in error at that moment?
I who judge or my neighbour?
I am.

Therefore I must make myself see things from God’s viewpoint, in the truth, and treat my neighbor accordingly, so that if, by some mishap, he or she has not yet sorted things out with the Lord, the warmth of my love, which is Christ in me, will bring my neighbor to repentance, in the same way that the sun dries and heals over many wounds.

Charity is preserved by truth, and truth is pure mercy with which we ought to be clothed from head to foot in order to be able to call ourselves Christians.”

Source:Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City Press, New York 2007, pp. 100-101