The ends of the earth

At a time when the Catholic Church is celebrating the Feast of Christ the King, the following text by Chiara Lubich explains the importance and meaning this feast day had in the story of the Focolare Movement right from its earliest days during the Second World War.

You know the episode of those early days during the war, when we first focolarine found ourselves in a cellar where we had taken refuge from the bombs, and we opened the Gospel. Everything was dark and in the light of a candle we read the last will and testament of Jesus. We had opened the Gospel at random and read this passage from beginning to end. It was a difficult text for us because we were young and our education had reached only up to a certain point, but we had the impression that those words were illuminated for us, one by one. Now we can understand that it was the effect of the charism that had been given to us, a charism that gives a new light to the soul of the person who receives it, for the benefit, then, of all those who come in contact with it.

What we understood, above all, was that Jesus had prayed for unity: “That they may all be one, Father, as you and I are one.” May they all be one. We understood very clearly that that page of the Gospel, Jesus’ testament, was the magna charta of the movement that was coming to life.

Naturally, we immediately realized that it would not be easy to bring about unity; we didn’t know how to do it. One day we gathered around an altar – there were seven or eight of us first focolarine. I remember that it was the feast of Christ the King and we were struck by what was written in our missal for that feast day, which has now been changed a little in the liturgy. We told Jesus: “We feel called to fulfill what you prayed for – unity – but we don’t know how to bring it about. If you want, make us instruments of unity.” And then, knowing that it was the feast of Christ the King, we remembered that in the liturgy of the Mass on that day it said: “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps 2:8).

I remember that we, who were mere girls, but full of faith, believing that God could do anything, asked, if it were possible, that we could serve him to the very ends of the earth. Now after 58 years of life, we see that he answered our prayer, because as you know our movement is Catholic and ecumenical, and we are in contact with the faithful of 350 churches, with numerous Church leaders. …

Now we see that the Lord answered the prayer of us young girls, leading us to develop this movement among the various churches, and also among other religions, and even among people without any religious affiliation, to the very ends of the earth; practically speaking to every nation of the world.

Source: Centro Chiara Lubich