31 May 2010 | Non categorizzato, Word of
In this Word of Life, two kinds of existence come into relief: the earthly life that is built in this world, and the supernatural life that is given by God through Jesus, a life that does not end with death and that no one can take away from us.
We can, therefore, choose between two attitudes. One is to be attached to our earthly life, considering it as our only good. This attitude leads to thinking only of ourselves, only of our own affairs, only of our children, thereby sealing ourselves up within a shell and affirming only our ego. This road inevitably ends up in the emptiness of certain death. The other choice, instead, is to believe that God has given us a much more profound and authentic existence. This gives us the courage to live in a manner that merits this gift to the point of “losing” our earthly life for that other life.
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
When Jesus said these words, he was thinking of martyrdom. Like all Christians, we should be ready to follow the Master and to remain faithful to the Gospel, to lose our life, even to die a violent death, if necessary. Then, with the grace of God, we will obtain the true life. Jesus was the first one who “lost his life,” and he regained it glorified. He warned us, “Do not to be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Mt 10:28). Today he tells us:
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
If we read the Gospel carefully, we will see that Jesus goes back to this thought six times. This shows how important it is and how much Jesus values it.
But for Jesus, the exhortation to lose one's life is not only an invitation to martyrdom. It is a fundamental law of Christian life.
We must be ready to reject the temptation to set up our own selves as the ideal of our lives; we have to give up our selfishness. If we want to be authentic Christians, we must put Christ at the center of our lives. What does Christ want from us? Love for others. If this becomes our lifestyle, we will have “lost” our own lives and found eternal life.
And not living for oneself certainly does not mean, as some may think, to be laid back and passive. Indeed, Christians need to be firmly committed and fully responsible.
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Even in this life, it is possible to experience that by giving of ourselves, by putting love into every action, “life” grows within us. When we spend our day at the service of others, when we transform our work (which is perhaps monotonous and tedious) into a gesture of love, we experience the joy of greater fulfillment.
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
By following Jesus' commandments, which all focus on love, we will find after this brief life eternal life as well.
Let us remember what Jesus will say and do on the day of judgment. To those on his right: “Come, you that are blessed by my Father … for I was hungry and you gave me food … I was … a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me" (Mt 25:34-36).
To let us participate in the life that does not pass away, Jesus will look at just one thing: if we loved our neighbors. He will consider done to himself whatever we did to them.
How then should we live this Word of Life? How should we “lose” our life even now in order to find it? By preparing ourselves for that great and decisive final examination that we were born for.
Let's look around us and fill our day with acts of love. Christ presents himself to us in our children, wife, husband, people we work with and relax with and even politicians. Let's do good to everyone. And let's not forget those we hear about each day through friends or through the media. Let's do something for everyone, according to our means. And when we have exhausted our means, we can still pray for our neighbor.
Loving is what counts.
Chiara Lubich
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29 May 2010 | Non categorizzato
Time-out, 12:00 in Thailand. A moment of prayer for peace, for those who have lost their lives, and for this beloved land plunged into a state of guerrilla fire that is spreading death, destruction, and fear. The faithful of other religions join us in asking for peace, for it is a common value to all religions. The delegates of the Focolare Movement in Thailand, Helen Oum and Chun Boc Tay write: “The cu
rrent situation is of great concern to us all. We continue to believe in the power of prayer offered in unity during our daily appointment for the “time-out”, a moment of prayer for peace in our beloved nation. This appointment has become international and interreligious since many of our dear friends of other faiths have joined with us in asking the gift of peace. As we pray, our thoughts go to those who have lost their lives and to their families who are left suffering, and to all those who suffer due to the current situation.” In our prayer, we ask Almighty God to give light and wisdom to those in positions of responsibility and influence, that they may make right decisions for the common good. No more sacrificing human lives and no more violence! Through our prayer, we place ourselves God’s hands, to be instruments of His love in practical ways, even through the tiniest acts of love. Only love can heal the wounds and overcome so many sorts of problems of the both the past and future. What can we do concretely? Love everyone and be the first to love. Visit a family that suffers and offer them our spiritual and material support. Do acts of love wherever we are, which create bridges and overcome divisions. Forgive and be reconciled. These are the qualities of Christian love, and all religions contain the same message: We share the Golden Rule. “Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.” and “Do not do unto others what you would not want done to yourself.” We will strive to ensure that our country becomes the “land of smiles” again! We will do our part and God will do His. In His great love, He will draw a greater good from all the misfortune. Let us contribute our part for the achievement of Jesus’ prayer: that all be one. Truly we are brothers and sisters of one great family.”
30 Apr 2010 | Non categorizzato, Word of
Love is at the center of Jesus’ farewell discourse: the love of the Father for the Son, our love for Jesus, which means keeping his commandments.
Those who were listening to Jesus could easily recognize in his words an echo of Jewish wisdom literature such as, “Love of her [i.e., Wisdom] means the keeping of her laws” (Wis 6:18; see Prov 8:15-17; Sir 24:22-23) and, “She is readily perceived by those who love her” (Wis 6:12). In particular, revealing himself to those who love finds another parallel in Book of Wisdom 1:2, where it says that the Lord will manifest himself to those who believe in him.
The point of this Word of Life is: the Father loves those who love the Son, and the Son in turn loves them and reveals himself to them.
"Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him" (Jn 14:21)
Such a revelation of Jesus, however, requires love. We cannot conceive of Christians who do not have this dynamism, this driving force of love in their hearts. A clock doesn't work, it doesn't tell the time – we wouldn't even call it a clock – if its batteries are dead. It's the same with Christians. If they are not constantly striving to love, they don’t deserve the name of Christian.
The reason for this is that all of Jesus' commandments can be summed up in one: love of God and love of neighbor in whom we recognize and love Jesus.
Love is not just a matter of feelings. Love needs to be expressed in concrete terms, in serving our brothers and sisters, especially those who are near us, beginning with the little things, the most humble acts of service.
Charles de Foucauld once said: “When you love someone, you are really in that person through love, you live in that person through love, you no longer live in yourself, you are detached from yourself, outside of yourself.”
When we love in this way, the light of Jesus makes its way into our hearts, just as he promised: “Whoever loves me … I will … reveal myself to him” (Jn 14:21). Love is the source of light. By loving we have a greater understanding of God who is Love.
This leads us to love even more and to deepen our relationship with our neighbor.
This light, this loving knowledge of God is therefore the seal, the proof of true love. And we can experience it in different ways, because light takes on a particular color or shade in each one of us. But it also has some common characteristics: it helps us to understand the will of God, it gives us peace, serenity, and an ever-new understanding of the word of God. It is a heart-warming light that encourages us to walk along our way of life with growing confidence and determination. When the shadows of life make our way uncertain, when darkness threatens to stop us, these words of the Gospel will remind us that a light is turned on by loving and that even one small gesture of concrete love (a prayer, a smile, a word) will give us enough light to go forward.
Some bicycles have headlights that work as long as the riders keep peddling. If they stop, they find themselves in darkness, but when they start peddling again, the dynamo will provide the light one needs to see the way to go.
We can apply this to our lives: we only need to set love in motion again — our true love, a love that gives without expecting anything in return — in order to rekindle in us faith and hope.
By Chiara Lubich
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29 Apr 2010 | Non categorizzato
Esztergom, a city on the border between Hungary and the Slovak Republic. It was in this city that took place the official opening of the 2010 United World Week with a live Internet connection that linked up youth from all over the World. From this city it was broadcasted the peace and brotherhood message that will be leading the week. The conclusion will be the 9th of May with an on line live connection from Mumbay, India.
Just by scrolling the United World Week blog you can see the capillarity and the internationality of this event: Haiti, Santiago de Chile, Los Angeles, Londrina, Paraná in Brazil, Man and Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Buenos Aires, Asunción, Lisbn, Bruxelles and many Italian cities.
Back to Hungary. Why Esztergom? The Youth for a United World from Hungary and the Slovak Republic chose a common aim: to build bridges of brotherhood between their countries. They said : ”In the last decades, both our peoples -where minorities live- have faced challenges and difficulties do to coexistence. This circumstances have generated prejudices which are difficult to overcome. Togethere, we want to face the reality and take the needed steps to place ourselves in each others shoes”.
A bridge, a symbol: During the years many have been the approaching initiatives. For example in 2001 it was reconstructed and inaugurated a long time closed-down bridge between Esztergom (Hungary) and Sturovo (Slovack Republic). In 2006, the two Bishop Conferences met for a Reconciliation event between the two countries in the Basil of Esztergom and every year they renew the gesture. In 2005, during Run4unity (a world relay race for Peace) hundreds of Hungarian and Slovak youngsters crossed running that same bridge as a sign of brotherhood.
A tree, another symbol: A tree will be planted together with the Civil authorities of Esztergom and Sturovo -the two protagonist cities of the opening day of the United World Week- as a sign of growing brotherhood between the two nations.
The daily challenge: Many are the youngsters who daily commit to this challenge of brotherhood. Listen to their experiences live on the Internet: http://live.focolare.org
“The Esztergom – Štúrovo bridge and a view of Slovakia (c) 2008 Martin Q – Used with permission – flickr.com/martinq”
20 Apr 2010 | Non categorizzato
All over the planet, from 1-9 May, the ‘United World Week’ takes off at the same time. This is an initiative that has been promoted by Youth for a United World (the wide-reaching youth section of the Focolare Movement) since 1996 to influence public opinion.
It is made up of many different types of events including cultural evenings, celebrations, sports competitions; meetings on subjects that interest young people, from disarmament to immigration. Above all solidarity projects in run-down neighbourhoods. With just one aim: to spread the values of fraternity, peace, and unity amongst peoples. And to show that universal fraternity is possible. ‘United World: let’s face the challenge’ is the slogan for this year’s events.
In a presentation of these events in an American magazine called ‘Living City’ we read: ‘The activities organised by the Youth for a United World throughout the world are like a mosaic of fraternal love, where they try to put into practice the true meaning of the word “love” and with the word “fraternal” they transmit a sense of equality and fraternity.’
Chiara Lubich said to the young people: ‘Your main aim is to apply the Gospel to earthly realities to make it come alive.’ The young people welcomed her words with great enthusiasm. This message is common to many of the great religions and other spiritual leaders. Mahatma Gandhi used to say: ‘You and I are one. I cannot harm you without harming myself.’ In the Suras of the Koran we read: ‘Give your relation what he is due, and do the same with the poor person and the traveller.’ It is the application of the Golden Rule, which is present in all the great religions, which says: ‘Do to others what you would have them do to you’ (Lk 6:31).
There are many websites giving information in different languages on the different events:
http://settimanamondounito2010.blogspot.com/p/gmu-nel-mondo.html or simply:
www.mondounito.net.
The young people like to use a name for their events that Chiara Lubich suggested: Fragments of Fraternity. Fragments because it may simply be an activity involving a home for old people, a nursery or a school. Fraternity because they are projects which have an aim: to promote in the world we live in and with all the means suggested by love a culture of communion, interdependence and love amongst different peoples, races and cultures.
19 Apr 2010 | Non categorizzato
