July 2008

30 Jun 2008 | Non categorizzato, Word of

Have you ever experienced a thirst for something infinite? Have you ever felt in your heart a consuming desire to embrace immensity itself?
Or perhaps, deep down, you’ve felt dissatisfied with what you do, with who you are. You’ll be happy to know that there is a formula for achieving the fullness you long for, a way of life that won’t leave you regretting how you spent your day.
One Gospel phrase in particular makes us stop and think. As we grasp something of its meaning, it fills us with joy. It captures everything we should do in life and sums up the laws that God has inscribed in the depths of every human heart.
Listen:

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets”

This is the “golden rule” that Christ brought, although it was already widely known. For example, the Hebrew Scriptures include it, and Seneca, the ancient Roman author and philosopher, also knew of it. In Asia the Chinese thinker Confucius taught it. This shows how close it is to God’s heart, how he wants all people to make it the basic rule of their lives.
The passage forms a neat turn of phrase—it sounds like a motto:

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you”

Let’s love each neighbor like this, every neighbor we meet during the day.
Let’s imagine we are in others’ circumstances and treat them as we would want to be treated if we were in their place.
The voice of God within will suggest how to express love appropriately in each situation.
Are they hungry? Let’s say to ourselves, “I am hungry,” and give them something to eat.
Are they being unjustly treated? So am I.
Are they in darkness and doubt? I am too. Let us speak words of comfort and share their suffering, not resting until they find the light and experience relief. It’s how we would want to be treated.
Do they have a disability? I want to love them to the point of almost feeling their infirmity in my own body and heart. Love will suggest a way for me to help them feel no different from others and, indeed, that they have received an added blessing, because as Christians we know the value of suffering.
And let’s continue with everyone, not drawing any distinctions between those we find pleasant and those we do not, between young and old, friend or enemy, fellow citizen or foreigner, beautiful or not. The Gospel includes everyone.

I can almost hear the murmurings, and I understand. Perhaps my words seem simplistic, but what a change they demand! How distant they are from our usual ways of thinking and acting!
Take courage; let’s try it!
A day spent like this is worth a lifetime. In the evening we won’t even recognize ourselves. A joy never felt before will fill our hearts, and we will experience new strength. God will be with us, since God stands with those who love.

Fulfilled days will follow, one after another.
From time to time, we may slow down, be tempted to get discouraged or want to stop. We may want to go back to the way we lived before….
Instead no! Take courage! God’s grace is there for us.
Let’s always begin again.
By persevering, we will see the world around us slowly change.
We will understand that the Gospel makes life more interesting. It lights up the world, gives flavor to our existence and contains a principle for resolving all our problems.
We will not be satisfied until we have communicated our extraordinary experience to others; to those friends we feel will understand, to our relatives, to anyone with whom we feel the urge to share it.
Hope will be born yet again.

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”

Chiara Lubich

June 2008

31 May 2008 | Non categorizzato, Word of

When you love someone, you want to stay with them always. This is also God’s desire, God who is Love. He created us so that we would be able to meet him, and we will only have the fullness of joy when we reach intimate union with him, for he is the only one who can satisfy our hearts. He came down from heaven to be with us and lead us into communion with him.
John, in his letter, speaks about remaining or dwelling within each other, God in us and we in him, reminding us of that compelling appeal made by Jesus at the last supper, “Remain in me, as I remain in you.” And with the parable of the vine and the branches, he explained how strong and vital the link is that unites us to him (see Jn 15:1-5).
But how can we reach union with God?
John does not hesitate: we just have to observe his commandments:

“Those who keep [God’s] commandments remain in him, and he in them.”

Are there many commandments that must be followed in order to reach this unity?
No, because Jesus condensed them all into one. Just before stating the Word of Life that has been chosen for this month, John reminds us, “And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us” (1 Jn 3:23).
Believing in Jesus and loving one another as he loved us: these are the only precepts.
If human existence finds its fulfillment in God’s living among us, there is only one way to be fully ourselves: by loving! John is so convinced of this that he keeps repeating it throughout the letter: “whoever remains in love remains in God, and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16); “if we love one another, God remains in us” (1 Jn 4:12).
Tradition holds that when John was very old, he was asked about the Lord’s teachings and he always repeated the words of the new commandment. If they asked him why he didn’t speak about anything else, he would answer, “Because it is the commandment of the Lord! If we put it into practice, that is enough.”
That’s how it is with every Word of Life: without fail they all lead us to love. It can’t be otherwise because God is Love, and each of his words contains love, expresses love and, if put into practice, transforms us into love.

“Those who keep [God’s] commandments remain in him, and he in them.”

This month’s Word of Life invites us to believe in Jesus and adhere with all our being to his person and teachings. It invites us to believe that he is the love of God—as John teaches us again in this letter—and that for love he gave his life for us (see 1 Jn 3:16). It invites us to believe even when he seems far away, when we don’t feel his presence, when difficulties arise or suffering comes.
Strengthened by this faith, we’ll know how to live by his example and obey his commandment to love each other as he loved us.
We’ll know how to love even when someone no longer seems lovable, even when we have the impression that our love is inadequate, useless, not returned. By loving this way, we’ll revive all our relationships, making them ever more sincere, ever deeper, and our unity will attract God’s presence among us.

“Those who keep [God’s] commandments remain in him, and he in them.”

Here’s one couple’s experience: “We were really in love, my husband and I. Everything was fine during the first years of our marriage. Lately, however, he has been very tired and stressed out. Here in Japan, the responsibility to work weighs down on a man’s shoulders like a ton of bricks.
“After coming home from work one evening, he sat down at the table for supper. I was about to sit down next to him when he shouted at me to go away, ‘You don’t have the right to eat because you don’t work!’
“That whole night I cried and thought about leaving and splitting up. The next day thousands of thoughts continued to nag at me: ‘I made a mistake in marrying him. I can’t live with him anymore.’
“In the afternoon I spoke with my friends, those with whom I share the desire to live an authentic Christian life. They listened with much love. From this communion with them I found the strength and courage I needed to start over.
“I went home to prepare once again my husband’s supper. As the hour of his return from work drew closer, however, my fear returned and grew stronger. ‘How was he going to react tonight?’ But a voice inside of me was saying, ‘Don’t give up. Welcome this suffering. Continue to love.’
“Just then he appeared at the door. He held out a cake he bought for me. ‘I’m sorry for what happened yesterday,’ he said.”

Chiara Lubich

May 2008

30 Apr 2008 | Non categorizzato, Word of

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”

The risen Jesus, the Lord, continues today, as in Paul’s time, to act in history through his Spirit, especially in the Christian community. He enables us, too, to understand the Gospel in all its newness, and he writes it on our hearts so that it becomes our law of life. We are not guided by laws imposed on us from the outside; we are not slaves forced to obey regulations that we find unconvincing or that we do not share. A Christian is moved by a principle of interior life that the Spirit has placed within through baptism, and by the Spirit’s voice repeating the words of Jesus, making them understood in all their beauty─expressions of life and joy. The Spirit makes these words timely, teaches us how to live them, and infuses within us the strength to put them into practice. It is the Lord himself who, thanks to the Holy Spirit, comes to live and act in us, making us a living Gospel. To be guided by the Lord, by his Spirit, by his word─this is true freedom! It coincides with the fulfillment of what is most profound in our being.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”

But we know that for the Holy Spirit to act, we must be completely ready to listen, change our way of seeing things if necessary, and then adhere fully to what the Spirit’s voice suggests. It is easy to allow ourselves to become slaves to pressures from fixed customs and social mores that can lead us to make wrong choices. In order to live the Word of Life this month, we need to learn to say a decisive “No!” to those negative things that surface in our hearts each time we are tempted to settle for ways of acting that are not in line with the Gospel. And we need to learn to say “Yes!” to God with conviction each time we feel he is calling us to live in truth and in love. We will discover the connection between the cross and the Spirit as cause and effect. Each cut, each pruning, each “No!” to our selfishness is a source of new light, peace, joy, love, inner freedom, self-fulfillment. It is an open door to the Spirit. During this time of Pentecost, he will be able to bestow his gifts more abundantly: he will guide us, and we will be recognized as true sons and daughters of God. We will become ever more free from evil, ever more free to love.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”

It was precisely this freedom that a U.N. officer found during his last assignment in one of the Balkan states. The missions entrusted to him were rewarding, although extremely demanding. One great difficulty, however, was that he had to be away from his family for prolonged periods. Also, when he returned home, he found it hard to leave the burdens of his work at the door and devote himself, free of worries, to his children and wife. Suddenly he was told that he would be transferred to another city in the same region. Bringing his family with him to that city was unthinkable because, in spite of recently signed peace agreements, hostilities continued. He wondered what to do. What was more important, his career or family? He spoke at length about it with his wife, with whom he had been sharing an intense Christian life for a long time. They asked for light from the Holy Spirit, and together they attempted to understand God’s will for their family. Finally, they came to a decision: to leave his job, a highly sought-after position. It was a most unusual decision in that professional environment. “The strength to make this choice,” he said, “came from love; love on the part of my wife, who never made me feel the burden of the hardships I had brought on her. As for me, I had sought the good of the family, beyond economic security and career interests, and I found inner freedom.” Chiara Lubich