30 Jun 2005 | Non categorizzato, Word of
God is Love (1 Jn 4:8). This certainty is the most solid one to guide our lives when we are assailed by doubts as we face huge natural disasters, the violence that human beings can inflict, our own limits and failures, and the sufferings that touch each of us personally.
That he is Love God has shown us and continues to show us in a thousand ways, giving us creation, life (and all the good things connected with it), redemption through his Son, and the possibility of reaching holiness of life through the Holy Spirit.
God shows us his love constantly: he makes his presence felt in each of our lives, following and sustaining us step by step through our various trials. The psalm that this Word of Life focuses on assures us of this by speaking of the unlimited greatness of God, of his splendor, of his power, and also of his tenderness and immense goodness. He is able to bring about prodigious deeds and, at the same time, to be a most attentive father and be even more thoughtful than a mother.
«The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down»
Every so often, we all have to face difficult and painful situations, both in our personal lives and in our relationships with others. At times we experience complete helplessness. We can find ourselves faced with walls of indifference and self-centeredness, and we are caught off guard by events that seem to overwhelm us.
How many painful situations each of us has to face in life! And how we all feel the need for Someone else to step in! In just such a moment the Word of Life can come to our aid.
Jesus allows us to experience our limitations, not in order to discourage us, but to help us experience the extraordinary power of his grace, which reveals itself in those very moments when we cannot make it on our own strength, so that we can better understand his love. There is one condition, however: that we have complete faith in him, as a small child does in his mother. We need to have boundless trust in him, to feel that we are in the arms of a Father who loves us as we are and for whom everything is possible.
We cannot be deterred even by the knowledge of our mistakes because, being love, God picks us up every time that we fall down, as parents do with their children.
«The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down»
Strengthened by this certainty, we can then entrust every worry to him, every problem, as Scripture invites us to do: “Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you” (1 Pt 5:7).
At the beginning of the Movement, when the Holy Spirit was encouraging us to take our first steps in the way of love, “cast all your worries onto the Father” became a daily exercise for us, one that was frequently repeated during the day.
I remember that I used to say that it’s impossible to hold a burning coal in our hand. You have to immediately get rid of it. With that same quickness, you should cast every worry onto God. I can’t recall any worry that I entrusted to him that he did not take care of.
Of course, it’s not always easy to believe and to believe in his love, but let’s make the effort throughout this month to do so in every instance, even in the most complicated situations. We will witness, time after time, God’s intervention and how he does not forget us, rather he takes care of us. We will experience a power not known before that will release in us new and unimaginable resources.
Chiara Lubich
31 May 2005 | Non categorizzato, Word of
While he was coming from Capernaum, Jesus saw a tax collector by the name of Matthew seated at the customs post. Matthew had a job that made him despised by the people, for it placed him in the same category as the loan sharks and those who took advantage of others to amass wealth for themselves. The Scribes and Pharisees put him on the same level as the public sinners, and criticized Jesus for being “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” and of eating together with them (Mt 11:19; 9:10).
Jesus, going against all social conventions, called Matthew to follow him and accepted his invitation to dine at his home, as he would later do also with Zaccheus, the head of the tax collectors in Jericho. When questioned about his behavior, Jesus responded that he had come to heal the sick, not the healthy, and to call not the righteous, but sinners. His invitation, also this time, was addressed directly to one of them:
«Follow me»
Jesus had already said these words to Andrew, Peter, James, and John on the shore of the lake. He made the same invitation, using different words, to Paul on the road to Damascus.
But Jesus did not stop there; down through the centuries he has continued to call men and women of every culture and nation. He still does it today: he passes by in our lives, he meets us in quite different places and in different ways, and he makes us feel anew that invitation to follow him.
He calls us to be with him because he wants to build a personal relationship with us, and at the same time he invites us to collaborate with him in his great plan to renew humanity.
He does not care about our weaknesses, our sins, and our limitations. He loves us and chooses us just as we are. His love will then transform us and give us the strength to answer his call and the courage to follow him as Matthew did.
He has a particular love for each one of us, a plan for each person’s life, an individual call. We can feel it in our hearts through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through certain circumstances, or through a piece of advice from someone who cares about us. Even if manifested in different ways, his message spells out the same words:
«Follow me»
I remember when I, too, felt a call from God. It was a very cold winter morning in Trent. My mother asked my younger sister to go and pick up some milk at a place about a mile away from home. Since it was so cold she did not feel like going. My other sister also refused to go. “I’ll go, Mom,” I said, and I picked up the bottle and left the house. Halfway there something peculiar happened: it seemed as though the skies opened up and God reached me with his invitation to follow him. “Give all of yourself to me,” I felt him say in my heart.
It was a clear call that I wanted to answer right away. I spoke with my spiritual advisor about it and he gave me permission to give my life to God forever. It was December 7, 1943. It’s impossible to fully convey what I felt in my heart that day: I had married God. I could expect everything from him.
«Follow me»
This phrase does not only pertain to that specific moment when we make a choice for our lives. Jesus continues to ask us this every day. “Follow me,” he seems to suggest to us as we face our smallest daily chores — “follow me” in that moment of trial we are called to face, in that temptation we have to overcome, in that act of service that needs to be done.
How should we respond concretely?
By doing what God wants from us in the present moment, which always comes accompanied by a particular grace.
Our commitment this month will be, then, to do the will of God with decisiveness; to dedicate ourselves fully to the brothers and sisters that we are called to love, to our work, to our studies, to praying, to resting, and to all the different things we are supposed to do.
Let us learn to listen to the voice of God deep within our hearts, which speaks to us also through the voice of our conscience: he will tell us what he wants from us in every moment, and our part is to be ready to sacrifice everything in order to do it.
“Let us love you, O God, not only more each day, for the days that remain may be few, but let us love you in every present moment with all our hearts, souls, and strength in whatever is your will.”
This is the best way to follow Jesus.
Chiara Lubich
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29 May 2005 | Non categorizzato
When my illness became worse, I had to be confined to the hospital again. I was quite weak and everything I did demanded almost unbearable effort. The continual check-ups and treatments were attempts at a cure, so I had to make a leap in the dark again and again, and put myself in God’s hands as I followed the doctors’ instructions each time they had a new idea for me. One weekend, I found myself alone in the ward: I could finally rest and take a breather! I knew that the next Tuesday, the room would be full again. So I prepared myself, promising Jesus to see and love Him alone in the new patients, whoever they might be. I wanted to immerse myself in the Word of God, since to be able to proclaim the Gospel I first had to be evangelized myself. And God did take me at my word! The ward filled up. At the beginning I panicked; it was worse than I expected. There was never a single moment of silence and I went through sleepless nights. Had I not known the value of the present moment, I would never have made it! I felt like someone “sent out”: even from my hospital bed, I could let God’s love reach the doctors and patients around me. Slowly, I learned to discover their positive side, the values they possessed, beyond their intimidating appearance which used to be so hard for me to take. Out of the blue, one of them remarked how important it was for her to have good relationships with her roommates, and then she said to me, “But we do get along very well, don’t we?” She had no inkling therefore that I was having a hard time, and she felt at ease with me. I realized how important it is not to stop at one’s personal limitations, but take courage and love, trusting that God will take care of the rest. I experienced how much one grows and gets stronger spiritually. My three – week experience had its fruits. My physiotherapist was amazed at seeing me so cheerful. The doctors appreciated me because they felt free to prescribe the treatments they deemed useful for me. An ex-roommate came to bring me a gift and told me she had gone to church to pray that I might not have to undergo chemotherapy, as was forewarned. Now I’m back home, experiencing a new peace and serenity. (M. – Germany) Translated from “Quando Dio interviene. Esperienze da tutto il mondo” – Città Nuova 2004
