31 Dec 2009 | Non categorizzato, Word of
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is celebrated in many parts of the world from January 18-25; others celebrate it at Pentecost. Chiara Lubich always commented on the Biblical verse chosen for this occasion in the Word of Life of that same month.
This year’s phrase for the Week of Prayer is: “You are witnesses of these things” (Lk 24:48). To help us put it into practice, we propose the following text of Chiara as an urgent call for Christians to join together and bear witness to the presence of God in the world.
“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will always be with them” (Rev 21:3).
This month’s Word of Life is such earnest encouragement: if we want to be part of his people, we must allow him to live among us.
But how is this possible? What can we do in order to have such a foretaste, while still on earth, of the endless joy we will have in seeing God?
This is exactly what Jesus revealed to us. This is the very meaning of his coming: to communicate his life of love with the Father, so that we too can live it.
We Christians can live this phrase even now and have God among us. To have him among us, however, requires certain conditions that are affirmed by the Fathers of the Church. For Basil, the essential condition is living according to the will of God; for John Chrysostom, it is loving our neighbor as Jesus did; for Theodore the Studite, it is mutual love; and for Origen, it having such accord in thought and in feeling that we arrive at a concord that “unites, and contains the Son of God.”
The key for allowing God to dwell among us is in the teachings of the Gospel: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34). Mutual love is the key to the presence of God. “If we love one another, God remains in us” (1Jn 4:12). “For where two or three are gathered together in my name,” Jesus says, “there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20).
“God himself will always be with them.”
In this light then, the fulfillment of all the promises of the Old Covenant — “My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Ez 37:27) — is not far off and unattainable.
Everything is already accomplished in Jesus because he continues, beyond his historical existence, to be present among those who live according to the new law of mutual love, the norm that makes them a people, the people of God.
This Word of Life is therefore an urgent call, especially for us Christians, to witness through love to the presence of God. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). Living out the new commandment sets forth the conditions for the presence of Jesus among all people.
We cannot do anything unless this presence is guaranteed, a presence that gives meaning to the supernatural brotherhood that Jesus brought on earth for all humanity.
“God himself will always be with them.”
First of all, it is up to us Christians, even though we belong to different ecclesial communities, to let the world see one people made up of every ethnic group, race and culture, adults and children. One people to whom we can apply the words said of the first Christians, “Look at how they love one another and are ready to give their life for one another.”
This is the miracle humanity is waiting for in order to regain hope. This miracle will also provide an essential contribution to ecumenism, the journey towards full and visible unity among Christians. It is a miracle within our reach, or better, a miracle of the one who dwells among those of us united by love, the one who can change the direction of the world and lead all humanity toward unity.
By Chiara Lubich
The Word of Life, taken from Scripture, is offered each month as a guide and inspiration for daily living. From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on each Word of Life, and after her death in March 2008, her early writings are now being featured once again. This commentary, addressed to a primarily Christian audience, was originally published in January 1999.
1 Dec 2009 | Non categorizzato
A very full year in Europe and beyond, in which the ideas of the pedagogy of unity were brought to the attention of university teachers, educators, teachers, young and old people interested in educational matters. In 2009, there were numerous meetings, seminars, conventions, and round table discussions, in Catania, Benevento, Milano, Varese, Tortona, Vienna, Barcelona, London, Cordoba, Buenos Aires, as well as in Slovenia, Macedonia and Croatia, according to the annual report of the Central Commission of the “EdU-EducazioneUnità”. The theoretical presentation of the pedagogy that has developed from the charism of unity was accompanied by the presentation of educational experiences promoted by the Focolare Movement. Among these are the “Raggio di Sole” (Ray of Sun) nursery school in Croatia, “Fantasy” in Serbia, and “Perle” (Pearls) in Macedonia, where through the use of simple and natural educational materials, children are encouraged to exercise their imagination together with their classmates, developing their ability to collaborate and integrate. The method provides hope for peoples who have suffered years of strife and whose ability to relate to others has been severely affected. On 15 May Michele De Beni, member of the EdU commission, took part in a seminar organised by the Faculty of Education in Skopje, Macedonia. There were 120 Christian and Muslim teachers from various disciplines and countries. At“Raggio di Sole” the “pegagogy of communion” was presented to a team from Croatian TV, who transmitted a 7 minute report. And on another occasion, forty students from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb made a study visit. Giuseppe Milan a member of the EdU commission as well as director of the Department of Educational Science at the University of Padova, was invited to take part in the “Europe Week” organised by the commune of Skofja Loka in Slovenia, where he presented the “pedagogy of communion” to academics and civil and religious leaders. On that occasion the idea emerged of a collaborative project between the universities of Padova and Ljubljana. In the photo: a group of 4th year students and teachers from the faculty of Philosophy Zagreb, during their visit to the “Raggio di Sole” school in May 2009.
30 Nov 2009 | Non categorizzato, Word of
Light that shines out
This light is seen through your good works. It shines through the love radiated by Christians to all other people.
Perhaps you’ll tell me: but Christians are not the only ones who do good works. There are others who work for progress, establish charitable institutions, promote justice and do many good things.
You are right. Certainly, Christians do these things too, but this is not a Christian’s specific function. Christians must bring a new spirit into the good works they perform, which means it is no longer they that live in them, but Christ in them.
In fact, when St. Matthew wrote this, he was not thinking merely of isolated acts of charity such as visiting prisoners, clothing the naked and the many other works of mercy done to meet people’s needs. Rather, he was thinking of a Christian’s total commitment to the will of God, in such a way that his or her entire life becomes a continuous series of good works.
If Christians do this, they become “transparent,” and the praise given for whatever they had done will not go to them, but to Christ in them, and through them God becomes present in the world. The Christian’s task, therefore, is to let this light that dwells within them radiate out so that it can be a sign of this presence of God among men and women.
“Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
If good works performed by individual believers have this character, then the Christian community in the midst of the world must have a similar specific task. That task is to reveal, through its communal life, the presence of God that is manifested where two or three are united in his name, the presence promised to the Church until the end of time.
The early Church gave great emphasis to these words of Jesus. Especially in difficult times, when the Christians were facing persecution and being maligned, the Church urged them not to react with violence. Their behavior had to be the best refutation of the evil spoken against them.
St. Paul’s letter to Titus reads, “Urge the younger men, similarly, to control themselves, showing yourself as a model of good deeds in every respect, with integrity in your teaching, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be criticized, so that the opponent will be put to shame without anything bad to say about us” (Titus 2: 6-8).
“Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
This is an experience of Christian life that even today is a light that shines out and leads men and women to God.
Let me tell you a story.
Antoinette was a girl who left Sardinia in order to find work in France, in Grenoble. She found a job in an office, but it was a place where most of the other workers did not want to do the work. Since she was a Christian and saw in every person Jesus to be served, she helped everyone and was always calm and smiling. Oftentimes the others would get angry and take it out on her, saying in loud, mocking voices, “Since you like to work, take this and do my typing also.”
She remained calm and at peace, and worked on. She knew that they were basically not bad people. They probably all had troubles of their own.
One day, when the others were not around her, her boss approached and said: “Now you have to tell me. How come you never lose your patience, and why you are always smiling?”
Antoinette tried to evade the question by saying, “I simply try to stay calm and see the positive side of things.”
The boss banged his fist on the desk and exclaimed, “No, God certainly is involved here! Otherwise it would be impossible! And to think that I never believed in God!”
A few days later, Antoinette was called in by the director. She was told that she would be transferred to another office, the director explained, “so that you may transform it the same way you did the office you’re in now.”
“Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
The Word of Life, taken from Scripture, is offered each month as a guide and inspiration for daily living. From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on each Word of Life, and after her passing in March 2008, her early writings are now being featured once again. This commentary, addressed to a primarily Christian audience, was originally published in August 1979.
By Chiara Lubich
31 Oct 2009 | Non categorizzato, Word of
The Eye Of A Needle
Does this sentence make a certain impression on you?
I think you may have reasons to be perplexed and to consider what would be the best thing to do. The words of Jesus are never used loosely. It is therefore necessary to take these words seriously, without trying to water them down.
Let us try to understand the real significance of these words from Jesus himself, from his way of behaving with the rich. He frequented the company even of well-to-do persons. To Zaccheus, who had given away only half of his possessions, he says: “Salvation has entered your house.”
Furthermore, the Acts of the Apostles show us that in the early Church the communion of goods was practiced freely, and hence, the concrete renouncement of one's possessions was not compulsory. Therefore, it is not that Jesus thought of founding only a community of persons who are called to follow him by leaving behind all they possess.
And yet he says:
“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
What does Jesus condemn, then? Certainly not the goods of this earth in themselves, but the attachment to wealth by the rich.
Why? The answer is clear: it is because all things belong to God and the rich behave as if their riches are their own.
The fact is that riches easily take the place of God in the human heart. They blind the vision and make it easier for all sorts of vices to take root. The Apostle Paul wrote: “Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation and into a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains” (1 Tim 6:9-10).
Even in earlier times, Plato already affirmed: “It is impossible for an extraordinarily good person to be at the same time extraordinarily rich.”
What, then, should be the attitude of people who have possessions?
They must have a heart that is free and totally open to God, so that they feel that they are administrators of their goods, and know that – as Pope John Paul II said – they are mortgaged to society.
Since earthly goods are not bad in themselves, we should not despise them, but we must use them well. We must keep our hearts detached from them, not our hands. Because whoever is rich, is so for the good of others.
“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
But perhaps you'll say: “I am not really rich, so these words are not meant for me.”
Be careful. The question that the dismayed Apostles asked right after this statement of Christ was: “Who then will be saved?” This clearly tells us that Christ's words were somehow addressed to everybody.
Even someone who has left all things to follow Christ may have his or her heart attached to so many things. Even a poor person who curses at anybody who touches his or her belongings may be looked upon by God as a “rich” person attached to earthly treasures.
By Chiara Lubich
The Word of Life, taken from Scripture, is offered each month as a guide and inspiration for daily living. From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on each Word of Life, and after her death last year, her early writings are now being featured once again. This commentary, addressed to a primarily Christian audience, was originally published in July 1979.
19 Oct 2009 | Non categorizzato
After her second trip to Fontem (Cameroon) in 1969, Chiara Lubich met with the young focolarini of the international school of formation in Loppiano, on May 15, 1970. On that occasion, she answered a question on the difficulties that the young people encountered in living together, since they came from different environments, cultures and mentalities, and even different continents, in particular the youth of Asia, Africa and America, as compared to the European focolarini. We who come from Western countries are absolutely behind the times and no longer adept at living in today’s world unless we put aside our Western mentality, because it is only a half, a third, a fourth of the mentality of the rest of the world. In Africa, for example, there is such a unique, such a splendid, such a profound culture! We need to reach an encounter of cultures. We are not complete if we are not “humanity.” We are “humanity” if “we have within us” all cultures. How? Chiara Lubich spoke about inculturation a number of years later, in 1992, on the occasion of another one of her trips to the African continent, in Nairobi: First of all, the powerful “weapon” is to “make yourselves one.” Do you know what it means to “make yourselves one”? It means to approach the other person completely empty of ourselves, so as to enter into the other person’s culture and to understand him/her, to allow him/her to express him/herself, to the point of taking him or her within yourself and when you have taken him or her within yourself, then you will be able to begin to dialogue…. In this passage Chiara looks more closely at inculturating the Gospel in other cultures: Then yes, you will be able to begin a dialogue with the other person and also pass on the Gospel message through the riches that he or she already possesses. Making ourselves one, which requires inculturation, means entering into the soul, entering into the culture, entering into the mentality, the tradition, the customs of other peoples in order to understand them and to draw out the seeds of the Word.”
30 Sep 2009 | Non categorizzato
