Together with Mary
Indifference and mistrust are often born from fear and from a lack of knowledge about one another. In order to face the growing tensions of identity that undermine society, there are many very fruitful opportunities for dialogue and spiritual sharing created by religious institutions and associations. This is the case of Ensemble avec Marie (Together with Mary www.ensembleavecmarie.org) that grew from an experience in Lebanon and has spread through France, Belgium and several African nations, with the goal of promoting and facilitating a more fraternal society, through a more widespread and spiritual approach.” It is open to everyone who is seeking ways of peaceful togetherness while respecting freedom of worship and the right to be different. “Together with Mary” begins from the only woman who is mentioned by name 43 times in the Koran (an entire sura, one of the 114 divisions of the sacred writing is devoted to her) and from the account of the Annunciation, recognized as a true moment of encounter between the Koran and the Gospel. Both traditions, Christian and Muslim acknowledge the virginal conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary (Mariam), following the annunciation by the angel Gabriel (Jibril). The day in Lausanne opened with a reading of this sura on Mary in Arabic and French, followed by the Biblical account. “We are collaborating together for the building of a civilisation of love and peace, respecting the identity of each one,” said the president of the Association, Gérard Testard. The Focolare Movement, which is active in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue on a local and international level, is participating in this initiative. “The words dialogue, encounter and communion are essential for me. Both in a vertical and a horizontal direction. This is the reason why I’m committed to everything that helps to contribute to the unity and renewal of the Church,” says Martin Hoegger, member of the focolare community and pastor of the Reformed Evangelical Church in the Swiss Canton of Vaud, who attended the gathering. And Gwenaelle Dalalande, who is involved in interreligious dialogue, commented: “Talking about Mary as a model was a very vast topic. I made a choice and wanted to emphasise just a few aspects. Some moments of her life are able to enrich some of the moments in our lives. Regarding the Annunciation, I asked: ‘Are there perhaps moments of our lives that are annunciations?’ They are the moments when God manifests himself and we are called to respond to him. Chiara Lubich emphasises the connection between the Word of God and Mary, presenting her as the one who is “completely clothed with the Word.” In the end, I also shared a personal experience. Mary’s example and her perseverance through suffering helped me to overcome a very difficult period in my life. Renewing my yes to God as she had done, I rediscovered a new life.” Naceur Ghomraci, Imam and spiritual assistant at the jail in the Canton of Vaud: “The strength and commitment of Chiara Lubich are a great discovery for all the faithful. Her invitation to place at the basis of our actions the Golden Rule (Do to others as you would have them do to you, which is present in all religions) struck me very much. This is a project of God that all have to contribute to.” In his community they are in the process of building a new mosque. “I’d like it to be dedicated to Mary,” said the Imam who had attended the international congress of Muslims and Christians, organized by the Focolare Movement last April. Imam Abdel Ahid Kort, who runs the centre that hosted the gathering, described Mary as “a mystery, a fathomless ocean,” expressing the opinion of many Muslim exegetes: “A prophetess and a fulfilled woman, who brings us from an individual spirituality, her communion with God, to an active spirituality, the encounter with others; always animated by love. How did she overcome her trials? She did it in silence, in prayer and in altruism. She lived the real fasting: that of the heart, of words and of worldly vanities.” Who is her son, Jesus, for the Imam? “He is the smile and humility of my Christian brothers and sisters. He teaches me forgiveness and love for my enemy.
«Universal brotherhood was also the project of people who were not motivated by religious motives, but simply by the desire to benefit humanity. The French Revolution’s motto: “liberty, equality, fraternity”, summarizes the great political project of modernity, a project which, in part, has been disregarded. While numerous countries have built democratic systems of government and have succeeded in achieving some degree of liberty and equality, the same cannot be said of fraternity which has been proclaimed more than it has been lived. But the one who brought fraternity as the essential gift to humanity was above all Jesus. In revealing the fatherhood of God, He broke down the walls which separate those who are “the same” from those who are “different”, friends from enemies. He loosened all people from the bonds that imprison them, from all forms of slavery and subordination, from every unjust relationship, thus carrying out an authentic existential, cultural and political revolution. (…) The instrument that Jesus offered to us in order to accomplish this universal fraternity was love, a great love, a new love, different from the one we usually know. In fact, He transplanted the way of loving of heaven here on earth. This love requires first of all that we love everyone, therefore, not only relatives and friends. It asks that we love the pleasant and the unpleasant, our fellow-countryman and the stranger, the European and the immigrant, those of our Church and of another, of our religion and of another. Today it asks the countries of Western Europe to love those of Central and Eastern Europe – and vice versa – and it asks everyone to be open to those of other continents. In the vision of its founders, in fact, Europe is a family of sister nations, not closed in itself, but open to a universal mission: Europe wants its unity to contribute, then, to the unity of the human family. This love asks that we love our enemies as well and that we forgive them if they have offended us. After the wars which stained our continent with blood, many Europeans were exemplary in loving their enemies and promoting reconciliation. 
Therefore, the love I am speaking of makes no distinctions and takes into consideration all those we meet in any moment, directly or indirectly: those who are next to us physically, but also those about whom we or others are speaking; those who will receive the work we do day by day, those we come to know about through the newspapers or television…. Because this is the way God our Father loves, making the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causing the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike (cf Mt 5:45). (…) Furthermore, the love that Jesus brought is not an idealistic, sentimental love, made up of words. It is a concrete love. It needs to be expressed with deeds. And this is possible if we make ourselves all things to all people: sick with those who are sick; joyful with those who are joyful; worried, insecure, hungry, poor with others, feeling in ourselves what they feel and acting accordingly». 