Chiara Lubich’s exclusive choice

“In Jesus Forsaken, God’s infinite love is manifested, and is placed by the Father in the hearts of believers to bring about, right now, his plan for humanity: unity.

To love Jesus Forsaken means to relive his Passion within ourselves, that continuous passage (for those of us still on our journey) from death to life, from the absence of God to his presence, which characterizes the Christian existence.

This does not mean to give up or to want to suffer as Jesus did, but rather to retrace his steps along the Way he opened, and to recognize – beyond appearances – his active presence in everything that is not God in us and around us.

It means saying ‘yes’ to Him and like Him, so that the Holy Spirit can break through the nothingness we have created for ourselves and increase the gift of divine agape (God’s love) which opens us up to the future, eternal life, and allows us to share in it.

Jesus Forsaken, simultaneously, pushes us to go towards humanity, there where it suffers most and lives in darkness.
This is how Jesus Forsaken, embraced and loved, brings love where there is hatred, life where there is death, communion and unity where there is division.
Loving Jesus Forsaken therefore means hoping against every hope, nearness to God where God is not, the presence of God where there is God’s silence.

And this hope is certainty in a world and in a human history which do not close in on themselves, but open themselves to the ever-new encounter with God. In Him, they open themselves to the ever-new encounter among humans, in a fraternal communion with truly universal dimensions.

From Pasquale Foresi – LUCE CHE SI INCARNA – Città Nuova 2014 pp. 172-3