Unity at the dawn of the Focolare Movement
Video of Chiara Lubich in Amsterdam. Italian soundtrack.
November 2011
“Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” In saying this, Jesus wants to remind us first of all that he will come. Our life on earth will end and a new life will begin, one that will never end. No one wants to talk about death today … At times, we do all we can to distract ourselves, immersing ourselves completely in our daily occupations to the point of forgetting who gave us life and who will ask to have it back in order to introduce us into the fullness of life, into communion with his Father in heaven. Will we be ready to meet him? Will our lamps be lit, like those of the prudent virgins who were waiting for the spouse? In other words, will we be loving? Or will our lamps be extinguished because we are so taken up with the many things to do, the fleeting joys, the possession of material goods, that we forget the one thing necessary: to love? “Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” But how can we stay awake? First of all, we know that whoever loves is capable of staying awake, of waiting. For example, a wife waits for her husband who is coming home from work late or returning from a long trip; a mother stays awake worrying about her son who hasn’t come home yet; whoever is in love eagerly awaits the moment to see the one he or she loves … Whoever loves is capable of waiting even when the loved one delays. We wait for Jesus if we love him and ardently desire to meet him. And we wait for him by loving concretely, by serving him, for instance, in our neighbors or by working to build a more just society. Jesus himself invites us to live like this by giving us the parable of the faithful servant who, while waiting for the return of his master, looked after the servants and the affairs of the house. He also gave us the parable of the servants who, while waiting for their master to return home, put the talents they received to good use. “Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Precisely because we don’t know the day or the hour of his coming, we can concentrate more easily on living one day at a time, focusing on the troubles of the day and on what Divine Providence offers to us right now. Some time ago I spontaneously voiced this prayer to God:
Jesus, let me speak always as if it were the last word I ever say. Let me act always as if it were the last thing I ever do. Let me suffer always as if it were the last suffering I have to offer you. Let me pray always as if it were my last chance on earth to talk with you.
Chiara Lubich
1st November: All Saints Day
Launched into infinity
The saints are great men and women
who, having seen their greatness in the Lord,
risk for God, as his children,
everything that is theirs.
They give, demanding nothing.
They give their life, their soul, their joy,
every earthly bond, every richness.
Free and alone,
launched into infinity,
they wait for Love to bring them
into the eternal kingdom; but, already in this life,
they feel their hearts fill with love,
true love, the only love
that satisfies, that consoles,
that love which shatters
the eyelids of the soul and gives
new tears.
Ah, no one knows who a saint is!
He or she has given and now receives,
and an endless flow
passes between heaven and earth,
joins earth to heaven,
and filters from the depths
rare ecstasy, celestial sap
that does not stop at the saint,
but flows over the tired, the mortal,
the blind and paralyzed in soul,
and breaks through and refreshes,
comforts and attracts and saves.
If you want to know about love, ask a saint.
Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City Press, Hyde Park, NY, 2007, p. 116
The Spirituality of Unity
A gathering in the Dolomite Mountains in the beginnings of the Focolare.
Some time later, conscious of the divine boldness of such a program, which only God could bring about, we knelt around an altar and asked Jesus to realize that dream of his using even us if he wished, it were in his plans. Often, in the beginning, faced with the immensity of the task, we became dizzy and, seeing the crowds that we should gather in unity, we were taken by shock. But, little by little, gently, the Lord made us understand that our task was like that of a small child who throws a stone into a lake. The tiny stone causes rings to be formed which continue to extend, reaching wider and wider, and they can seem to continue forever. And so we understood that we would have to create unity around us, in our own surroundings, wherever we found ourselves. Then, when we went to Heaven, we would be able to look down and see the circles widening still more, becoming gigantic, until the end of time, when the plan of God would be accomplished. Right from the first moment, it was clear to us that this unity had only one name: Jesus. For us, being one meant being Jesus. In fact, only Christ make two into one, because his love is the emptying of self, it’s non egoism, it makes us enter deeply into the hearts of others. The things I wrote during those times betray our wonder before such a sublime and supernatural reality: ‘Unity! But who could dare to speak of it? It’s ineffable as God! You feel it, you see it, you enjoy it, but. . . it’s ineffable! Everyone rejoices in its presence, everyone suffers in its absence. It’s peace, joy, love, ardor, an atmosphere of heroism, of the highest generosity. It’s Jesus among us!’”
Chiara Luce Badano: Holiness 2.0
One year has gone by since her beatification, attended by more than twenty-thousand young people who travelled to Rome for the occasion, and viewed by many more youths around the world via internet. . The powerful testimony of Chiara Luce Badano, the Gen from Genoa, Italy, who the Church declared blessed, seems to have made holiness fashionable again. Her “nineteen years full of life and love and faith,” (Pope Benedict XVI), awakens in youth and adults alike the desire to spend their lives for something great. They discover that holiness can be lived in daily life. Chiara Luce has shown us that we can also love always and unconditionally.” This was said by a Brazilian youth during one of the many evening presentations of the “Life Love Light” Musical which are spreading around the world: from Italy to Spain – during the WYD – and in other European countries; from the Middle East to Asia; reaching the Americas, Australia and many African countries. Her parents, Maria Teresa and Ruggero Badano have received numerous invitations to share their story. Everyone feels a living relationship with Chiara Luce Badano who is still alive. But, as one youth explains very well: “Chiara Luce has taught me something very powerful: I can’t become a saint on my own, we need to become saints together.” And Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare spoke the following words when she presented the young blessed: “The final goal of the Focolare Movement is to cooperate with the Church in realizing the testament of Jesus, ‘that all be one.’ While she was still a small child, Chiara Luce already discovered that sufferings are like precious pearls that can be gathered throughout each day. Therefore, she lived her life with Jesus and with Him she transformed her passion into a wedding song. Yes, Chiara Luce is a fulfilled Gen, a modern living testimony of our Ideal which came to maturity in her when she was 18 years old.” Her story is being spared using every means: over 30,000 copies of the book “Io ho tutto” and over 15,000 copies of “Dai tetti in giù” already translated in several languages. Then there are thousands of DVD and musical CD’s about her life and beatification. But it is mostly the internet that shows how many people know here, or discover her in unimaginable ways and want to live like her. Her Facebook page has numerous fans who share, post comments, photos. The “Life Love Light” website has become a reference point for many people to share their personal discovery of the reason for Chiara Luce’s life and the happiness that she expressed with her dying words: “Mamma, goodbye. Be glad, because I’m happy.” Direct Link to Chiara Luce profile on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChannelChiaraLuce
Year of Faith
“It’s with surprise and great joy and gratitude that we welcomed the proclamation on the up- coming ‘Year of Faith’ announced by Pope Benedict XVI. And even more so, his apostolic letter ‘Porta Fidei’ that announces this thematic year, which will begin on October 11, 2012, on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Once more we grasp the strong thrust of the Holy Spirit in this initiative which arrives punctually in this moment of history. The young people of the World Youth Day, the families, workers and youth who are demonstrating, inaugurate a new springtime and invoke profound social reformations. They are signs which tell us how much today’s humanity is seeking change. I found confirmation of this also in my recent trips which I took to the United States, Santo Domingo, Russia, Slovenia and Great Britain. “We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden,”[1] writes the Pope. We also deeply feel this urgency and it calls us to convert: to live the Word of God with particular intensity. In welcoming the Pope’s ‘mandate,’ we have launched out once more with even greater vigour. We have committed ourselves to go back to the totalitarian way of living of the first years of the Movement: first of all to re-evangelize ourselves, in order to then spread the Gospel with all its transforming power to that humanity which surrounds us. Even today – as Chiara Lubich wrote already in 1948 – “the world needs a cure of the Gospel.”[2] Moreover, we have profoundly echoed the Pope’s pressing invitation to give public witness to faith, to the Word lived-out “as an experience of love received,” “communicated as an experience of grace and joy.”[3] In the initial years of the Focolare Movement’s life, the sharing of experiences of life based on the Word of God was a novelty. These experiences were irrefutable, because they were ‘life’ and fruitful, able to generate a living encounter with Jesus and to form a community out of dispersed people. Benedict XVI reminded us that we don’t face this task alone, but together. We want to intensify that experience of communion and brotherhood in our environments: in parliaments, factories, neighbourhoods, universities and families, because it is in communion that the Risen One makes Himself spiritually present, touches people’s hearts and transforms them. The Pope strengthened our conviction that this is a moment of special grace for the Church, in which the Council’s spirit of renewal is in action more than ever.”