100 percent commitment

It is fairly easy to Love God and our neighbours when we are well. However, when we are sick, even physically, it can become a huge challenge. Chiara Lubich tells us how we can prepare for those moments in a way that also includes the possibility of failure.

As we all know our Ideal can be defined with just one word: Love. Love is the whole of our life, love is the soul of our prayer, the soul of our apostolate, of all the expressions of our existence.        Love is also the “health” of our individual spiritual life, just as reciprocal love is our “health” as a community, as the “mystical body of Christ”. When we love, everything is right with us; we are before God whole and entire, whether we are enjoying physical wholeness or whether we are ill. However, when one is healthy, it is easy to love; it is easy to love God and our brothers and sisters. It is more difficult to love when you are ill.  […]

[I would like] to ask you and me a question. Is it really right that someone who finds themselves in such difficult moments of their earthly life should live with such commitment the marriage of their soul with Jesus forsaken, and that we who perhaps have greater physical health, live our tension to holiness in a mediocre way? Must we always allow God to permit special trials to happen to us – trials that seem to take our breath away, in order to make us decide to love Him in a total way? […]

Therefore, […] we cannot waste any time. We all have the Holy Spirit in our heart, and we know what his requests and suggestions are. He tells us that here we should love Jesus Forsaken in a suffering for example, or in an effort we have to make; here we should prefer Jesus Forsaken in a virtue, in brotherly love for example. Here, again, we should choose him in an aspect of the Movement or of the Church or of humanity…

We must make a resolution to love Jesus Forsaken day by day, always, […] with 100% commitment. And. […] repeat before each action we take “For You”.

If such a committed life frightens us, […] let’s remind ourselves of the words of Jesus, “Let the burden of each day be sufficient for that day” (Mt 6, 34). Let’s concern ourselves with the face of Jesus Forsaken of today, the face of Jesus Forsaken of each moment. For tomorrow, we will have other graces. In this way, we will store away full days, all completely consecrated to Jesus Forsaken. It is with these days that we will build our holiness. If then it happens that we fail, that we betray Him, that we became blocked, we know that also beyond all these circumstances His face is there.

May we be able to answer to ourselves each evening, or rather answer to Jesus who questions us in the depth of our heart about how the day went: “it went well, 100%”.. With our embracing Jesus Forsaken 100% – the Risen One shines out in us and gives witness. […]

      Chiara Lubich

(from a telephonic conference call, Rocca di Papa, 16 January 1986)