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31 Jul 2007 | Non categorizzato, Word of

“Let us… persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus” (Heb 12:1-2).

By Fabio Ciardi and Gabriella Fallacara

The life of Christians, to whom the letter to the Hebrews is addressed, is often marked by trials and sufferings. At times we are tempted to become discouraged and say, “Why not choose an easier way? Why not give up?”
The author of this writing invites us, instead, to continue on the road we have undertaken: it is difficult and costly, but it is the way of the Gospel and that way leads to fullness of life. In fact, he urges Christians to run and to stay on course even when they feel the weight of suffering.
We who decide to follow Jesus must do as every athlete does—in order to reach the goal, we need to have perseverance, that is, stamina, the capacity to stay the course, which comes from the conviction that God is with us and from our determination to make it.
Above all, we are asked to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, who forged the way for us and is our guide. Jesus on the cross, especially when he felt abandoned by the Father, is the model of courage, of perseverance, of endurance: he remained steadfast when he was tested and he even abandoned himself into the hands of that God whom he felt had abandoned him (see Lk 23:46; Mk 15:34).

“Let us… persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”

Chiara Lubich often speaks of how Jesus courageously faced the greatest of trials without giving up: he is the best example of how to run our race, for how to overcome our trials. Each one of our sufferings or trials in life has already been taken on by Jesus in his abandonment on the cross.
Let’s allow Chiara herself to show us how to keep our eyes fixed on him.
“Are we overcome by fear? Didn’t Jesus on the cross in his abandonment appear to be overcome with the fear that the Father may have forgotten him?”
 When we are overwhelmed by dejection and discouragement, we can still look to Jesus who in that moment “seems to be immersed in the impression that in his divine passion he lacks the Father’s comfort and appears to be losing the courage to endure his terrible trial to the end…. Do circumstances cause us to feel disoriented? In his tremendous suffering, Jesus seems to not understand what is happening to him since he cries “Why?” … And when we are surprised by delusion, or wounded by a trauma, or by an unforeseen misfortune, or by a sickness or an absurd situation, we can always recall the suffering of Jesus forsaken who personally took on all these trials and thousands more.”
 He is beside us in every difficulty, ready to share in our every suffering.

“Let us… persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”

 How then should we live this Word? Let’s look at Jesus, Chiara says, and “let’s get used to calling him by name in the various trials of our life. We will call him: Jesus forsaken-loneliness, Jesus forsaken-doubt, Jesus forsaken-hurt, Jesus forsaken-trial, Jesus forsaken-desolation, and so forth.
 And by calling him by name, he will see that he is discovered and recognized under every suffering, and will respond to us with more love; by embracing him he will become our peace, our comfort, courage, stability, our health and our victory. He will be the explanation and the solution for everything.”

“Let us… persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”

 This is how it was for Louise who, years ago, found a flyer with the commentary on this Word of Life. She herself tells us about it: “The news came unexpectedly: my first son, who was twenty-nine years old, was in a traffic accident and had been seriously injured. I ran to the hospital with my heart in my throat. My son was there, unable to move and with a blank look in his eyes. I felt desperate. In the anguishing days of waiting that followed, I stopped by the hospital chapel. There I found the Word of Life which invited me to keep my eyes on Jesus forsaken. I read it over with great attention. Yes, I told myself, it really speaks about my trial…. Going back to the intensive care unit that was so devoid of hope, it no longer seemed like martyrdom to me; it now connected me to the love of God. And I was able, while holding my son’s hand, to pray for him as he was leaving me. He did pass away, and yet I have never felt him so alive.”

Fr. Fabio Ciardi, OMI, is professor of theology at the Claretianum Institute and at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. Gabriella Fallacara is co-director of Centro Uno for the Unity of Christians, the Focolare’s international secretariat for ecumenism.

Quotations from Chiara Lubich are from On the Holy Journey (New City Press, 1988), pp. 142-3.

Word of Life – July 2007

30 Jun 2007 | Non categorizzato, Word of

By the year 50 the apostle Paul had visited the region of Galatia in Asia Minor, which is now Turkey. There Christian communities had arisen that had embraced the faith with great enthusiasm. Paul had held up before their eyes Jesus crucified, and they had received the baptism that clothed them with Christ, giving them the freedom of children of God. Paul himself told them, “You were running well” along this new way.
Then all of a sudden they began to seek freedom elsewhere. Paul was surprised to see how quickly they turned away from Christ. This is when he pressed them to rediscover the freedom that Christ had given them:

“For you were called for freedom”

What freedom are we called to? Can’t we already do whatever we want? When Jesus told his contemporaries that “the truth” he brought “will set you free,” they objected, “We have never been enslaved to anyone.” Jesus responded. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” (Jn 8:31-34).There is a subtle kind of slavery, the fruit of sin, that torments the human heart. We know its many faces well: self-sufficiency, the attachment to material goods, hedonism, pride, anger….
We will never be able to completely free ourselves from such slavery on our own. Freedom is a gift from Jesus: he set us free by making himself our servant and giving his life for us. Herein lies the invitation to align ourselves with the freedom that has been given to us.
This freedom is “not so much the possibility of choosing between what is good and what is bad, but rather to move more and more towards the good.” That is how Chiara Lubich explained it when young people questioned her on this topic. She went on to say: “I have experienced that good frees us, and evil enslaves us. In order to have freedom, we need to love. This is because what enslaves us the most is our own ego. When, instead, we always look to others, either to the will of God in doing what we ought or to our neighbor, we are not focused on ourselves and we are thus free from ourselves” (Rome, May 20, 1995).

“For you were called for freedom”

How then should we live this Word of Life? Paul himself tells us how: “For you were called for freedom… serve one another through love.” He explains why we must serve with love: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal 5:13-14).
We are free – this is the paradox of love – when we begin to serve others out of love, when, going against our selfish inclinations, we forget ourselves and we focus on the needs of others.
We are called to the liberty of love: we are free to love! Yes, “in order to have freedom, we need to love.”

“For you were called for freedom”

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was imprisoned because of his faith and he remained behind bars for thirteen years. During those years, he felt free because he could at least love the prison guards.
“When I was put in isolation,” he recounted, “I was watched by five guards: they took turns so that two of them were always with me. Their officers had told them: ‘You will be rotated every two weeks with another group, so that you will not be “contaminated” by this dangerous bishop.’ Later on they changed their minds and said: ‘There will be no more rotations otherwise this bishop will contaminate all the guards.’
“At the beginning the guards hardly ever spoke to me. They only answered ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ It was really a sad situation…. They avoided conversing with me.
“One night, this thought came to me: ‘Francis, you are still very rich. You have Christ’s love in your heart; love them as Jesus loved you.’
“The next day I began to love them even more, to love Jesus in them, by smiling, offering them a kind word. I began to tell them stories of my travels in other countries…. They then wanted to learn a foreign language: French or English … My guards had become my students!” (Testimony of Hope, Pauline Books and Media, 2000).

By Fabio Ciardi and Gabriella Fallacara

That Voice Within

31 May 2007 | Non categorizzato, Word of

The Gospel attracts people with its words of truth. In it, the one who said, “I am the Truth” (Jn 13:6), speaks to us. He opens before us the infinite mystery of God and makes us understand his plan of love for humanity: his gift is the Truth.
But the Truth has the infinite depth of mystery. How can we understand and live it fully? Jesus himself knows that we are not able to bear its “weight.” This is why during his last supper with his disciples, before returning to the Father, he promised to send his own Spirit so that he would be the one to explain his words to us and help us live them out.

«The Spirit of truth … will guide you to all truth»

The community of believers knows the truth because they live with Jesus. At the same time, they are also on a journey toward “the fullness of truth,” under the sure guidance of the Spirit.
The history of the Church can be read as the history of the gradual and increasingly deeper understanding of the mystery of Jesus and his Word. The Spirit leads it along this journey in many ways: “through the contemplation and study of believers,” through the charisms of saints, through the Teaching of the Church (See Dei Verbum, 8).
The Spirit also speaks in the hearts of all believers, where he dwells, making his voice heard. Time after time, he suggests that we forgive, serve, give and love. He instructs us on what is good and what is evil. He reminds us to live the Word of Life that the Gospel sows in us month after month.

«The Spirit of truth … will guide you to all truth»

How should we live this Word of Life? By listening to the inner voice that speaks within us, by being docile to the Holy Spirit, who guides us, urges us on, gives us a push.
Chiara Lubich explains how “Christians should move according to the promptings of the Spirit, so that the Spirit can work in their hearts with his creative power and lead them to holiness, divinization and resurrection.”

To better understand that inner voice—almost to amplify it—Chiara invites us to live in unity with each other, so as to learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit not only within us, “but also to his voice, present among us [as we’re] united in the risen Lord.”
When we have Jesus among us, the Spirit “perfects our ability to hear his voice within each of us. In fact, Jesus present among us is like a loudspeaker for the voice of the Spirit within us.
“It has always seemed to us that the best way to love the Holy Spirit, to honor him, to keep him alive in our hearts, is really to listen to his voice, which can shed light for us in every instant of our life. … And by listening to that voice, we experienced with great surprise how we progress in perfection: little by little our faults disappear and our virtues begin to stand out.”

«The Spirit of truth … will guide you to all truth»

This Word of Life, taken from the Gospel read on the feast of the Holy Trinity, invites us to pray to the Holy Spirit, as Chiara did:
“O Holy Spirit, we do not ask of you anything but God for God. … Grant that we may live the rest of our lives … only and always and in every instant for you alone, who alone we wish to love and serve. God! God, pure spirit, for whom our humanity can be an empty chalice to be filled. …
“God, who must shine through our being, our hearts, our faces, our words, our actions, our silence, our living, our dying, our appearing when we leave this earth (where we can, we must leave behind only a luminous trail of his presence, of him present in us, amidst the material and muddle of this world—whether it live or collapse—in the praise or the vanity of all things that can be a footstool or a stumbling block for everything), leaving for the place of the All, the Alone, Love.”

By Fabio Ciardi and Gabriella Fallacara

Quotes are taken from Chiara Lubich’s recent book, Essential Writings, New City Press, New York, 2007, pp. 148–149.