The Fifth Halki Summit took place in Turkey from 8th-12th June 2022. Sustaining the future of the planet together was the title of the meeting organised by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople together with the Sophia University Institute, Loppiano (Florence, Italy). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ6ZGgiT7YU&list=PL9YsVtizqrYsxCVExqFc_vvuzCKyNbr43&index=1
The Word of Life of August 2022 asks us to always forgive. When we come before God – in the liturgy or in prayer – we should be in harmony with everyone. As Pope Francis says, we cannot go for a rest if there is disagreement with our brothers or sisters. Jesus uses almost an exaggeration in order to emphasize the importance before God of complete harmony among Christians, who are brothers and sisters to one another. Therefore, he says that if you are about to offer your sacrifice and you remember that any kind of conflict separates you from your neighbour, you should interrupt your sacrifice and go first to reconcile with your neighbour. The offering of the sacrifice – and for us Christians this means our taking part in the liturgy – would risk being an empty act if there is a lack of unity with our brothers and sisters. The primary sacrifice that God expects from us is the effort to always live in harmony with everyone. With this exhortation, Jesus is not proposing anything new or different from what was said in the Old Testament. … However, there is something new here and it lies in the fact that Jesus says that we must always take the initiative to ensure that constant harmony and fellowship is maintained. Therefore, he urges us to live the commandment of love of neighbour in a radical way. In fact, he does not say: ‘If you remember having offended your brother or sister’, but rather, ‘If you remember that your brother or sister has something against you.’ For Jesus, the very fact that we remain indifferent about any disharmony with our neighbour – even if we ourselves are not responsible for this disunity – is already a reason for not being acceptable to God and, indeed, being rejected by him. So, Jesus wants to put us on our guard not only against a violent outburst of hatred toward others, but also against any language or attitude that in some way denotes a lack of attention or love for our brothers and sisters. … We should try not to be superficial in our relationships, and instead search our heart carefully, into its most inner recesses, to be sure that we have eliminated even the slightest attitude of indifference or lack of generosity, every attitude of superiority or any intentional neglect of others. In everyday life, we can repair any discourtesy or display of impatience with an apology or a friendly gesture. If at times this isn’t possible, what counts is to radically change our interior attitude. Any instinctive rejection of our neighbour needs to be replaced by an attitude of welcome, of full and total acceptance of the other, of boundless mercy, of forgiveness, of sharing, of attention to their needs. If we do this, we can offer God all the gifts we want. He will accept them and take them into account. Our relationship with him will grow deeper and we will experience true union with him, which is our happiness, both now and in future.
Chiara Lubich
(Chiara Lubich, in Parole di Vita, [Words of Life] Città Nuova, 2017, pp. 282/3)
Forgiving is a constant daily exercise in our lives, and that very experience allows God’s love to put us back on our feet. Realising that we are forgiven is the starting point for trying to be merciful, opening our gaze on others and being truly free. The queue Just as I was feeling pleased to have arrived in time for the doctor’s appointment, a lady suddenly jumped the queue without thinking anything of it. I could feel myself getting angry and was about to say something when certain images from the war in Ukraine came to my mind. Immediately I decided to turn my rights into courtesy, into a welcome. But how difficult it is to put aside the idea of what one feels is one’s right! When I got home I told my family what happened and about my inner battle. After a long silence our eldest daughter started telling us about her latest experience. She too had been standing in a queue at the university secretary’s office and, confronting another student’s lack of respect, strongly reprimanded him to the point of making him ashamed. “Maybe I was wrong,” she added. In the end we concluded that whether it’s big or small, war lurks within us but it can be overcome with forgiveness. (F.I. – Italy) A lesson to remember My wife is a teacher and one day while she was at school and I stayed at home, as a surprise I decided to do all those little repair and cleaning jobs that sometimes get neglected due to various other commitments. I was happy at the thought that she would be pleased, but as soon as she got home she started complaining that the front door had been left open: “Didn’t it cross your mind that thieves might come in?” I was confused. I did not remember leaving it open but I did not want to argue so although I was sorry, I decided not to add fuel to the anger. In the afternoon my wife asked to speak to me. She wanted to apologise: “Seeing how many things you did and thinking how I told you off for something so trivial, I felt humiliated by my blindness. You taught me a real lesson with your silence”. A few days later she confided in me that, when she told the school what had happened between us, it created a great atmosphere of respect in the class that there’d never been before. (L.D. – Hungary)
Edited by Maria Grazia Berretta
(taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VIII, no.2, July-August 2022)
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” The measure of the love we must have for each brother or sister is contained in that “as”. In this excerpt from a talk to young seminarians, Chiara Lubich urges us to care for others as we care for ourselves. Jesus, who came from heaven to earth as the Word of God, had the experience of heaven, and he brought this experience with him to earth. He taught us to live the life of heaven on earth. He gave us the new commandment, in which he explains how we should love one another; he commanded us to live mutual love. He spoke of it as “his” commandment, typically his and new. And the early Christians considered this commandment, this teaching, as the synthesis of all Jesus’ teachings and they practiced it in an exemplary way. (…) The new commandment. We all know it, but the point is this: how should we interpret it? How should we put it into practice? What is the meaning and what are the consequences of putting mutual love into practice? We can understand this if we begin by understanding what love is, what loving means for a Christian. From the very beginning, one of the things that the Holy Spirit taught us through this charism was this: to realize that those words of the Gospel: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:31) had to be lived to the letter. That word “as” really meant “as”. So whether it is me, or you, or you, or you, it’s the same: love your neighbor as yourself. We realized that before this discovery, we had loved ourselves far more than we loved others. We were baptized Christians, some of us went to daily Communion, but we never dreamed of loving others as we loved ourselves, if we loved others at all. So we had to convert ourselves and be as concerned about others as we were about ourselves. We did this, we tried to do it with every neighbor we met and a revolution began. It seems impossible, but the Gospel is always fresh; it’s just a matter of understanding it, but a grace is needed. Why did a revolution begin? Because this way of behaving, wherever we live like this, impresses people – they’re surprised and they ask why we act as we do, what is behind it. In this way, they give you the opportunity to explain why you treat them as you do, why you serve, why you help. And many of these people who question you, want to try to live in the same way. As a result, people who were previously indifferent to one another, as we all are, even Christians, these people are renewed, they become interested in one another. They begin to love one another, to live in communion, giving the idea of what a living Church can be, just by living this one sentence of the Gospel: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Saint Paul says, “The whole law is summarized in a single commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:14).
Chiara Lubich
(Chiara Lubich, Talk to a group of seminarians, Castel Gandolfo, December 30, 1989)
Deciding to reach out to one’s neighbour, putting aside one’s convictions, breaking down the walls of pride, means finding a way to the other’s heart and, on this journey, learning to recognise one’s own heart: entering into communion and rebuilding. Finally friends A classmate often used to tease me, always showing me in a bad light in front of others, especially girls, and it started to annoy me. I tried to tell him but he excused himself telling me there was no malice in what he was doing. Later I talked about it at home and what surprised me was that my parents did not seem to be on my side: “Have you tried to respect him more, instead of just defending yourself?” What was I to do? One day I realised my classmate was struggling with some maths homework, a subject I am quite good at. I beckoned to him then gave him what he needed to go ahead. During the break he came up to me almost in tears and gave me half his snack. I don’t know if I really understood what my parents were trying to tell me, but every trace of resentment I had towards him disappeared. The girl he was in love with approached us and, aware of the past tensions perhaps, commented: “It’s nice to see you two getting on so well”. I realised that my parents, wanting the best for me, were helping me to live with the greatest dignity. I thanked them for their advice. (R.G. – Italy) The first step In Colombia, the father is the head of the family but recently, since our daughter started studying at high school, my relationship with her had become difficult and there have been a number of ‘tantrums’. She has a strong character, like me, but I am the adult and have a certain experience of life. Several evenings ago I saw her engrossed in the computer and it was already late. When I pointed out to her that it was time to go to bed, she said she had to finish a job. What shocked me was she did not take me seriously. In fact, for the first time ever, she even raised her voice. So I unplugged the modem so that she couldn’t surf anymore. After that she stopped speaking to me. The atmosphere in the house was really tense for days, and the air felt unbreathable. At a certain point I began to have second thoughts about my attitude and asked God for the strength to be calmer, less proud, able to take the first step so as to build a new relationship with her. Noticing my efforts, she herself came up to me one day and apologised. (G.G. – Colombia)
Edited by Maria Grazia Berretta
(taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VIII, no.2, July-August 2022)
