31 Aug 2001 | Non categorizzato, Word of
The teaching that Jesus wants to give us here concerns wealth, and Luke, the evangelist of the poor, acts as his spokesman. The term “mammon” is an Aramaic word which means material goods, but Jesus is using it here in a negative sense, that is, as the embodiment of treasures which can take the place of God in people's hearts.
The danger with wealth is that people can fall in love with it to the point that they put all their strength and time into keeping and increasing it. It becomes an idol to which everything is sacrificed. This is why Jesus compares it to a master who is so demanding that he doesn't admit anything or anyone else. This explains the need to make a choice without compromises.
«No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon».
We shouldn't take Jesus' words as a condemnation of wealth as such, but of the exclusive place it can hold in the human heart.
He doesn't require absolute poverty of everyone; actually, some of his disciples were rich, like Joseph of Arimathea. What he requires is detachment from one's goods. Wealthy persons should not so much consider themselves as owners, but as administrators of the goods they possess, which belong primarily to God and are destined not only to a privileged few but to everyone.
Wealth is an excellent tool if used to serve those in need, to do good and to promote social wellbeing, not only by means of charitable works, but also by the management of a business. This is the only way to use our goods without becoming enslaved by them.
Accumulating riches for ourselves always poses a great risk. We know from our own personal experience and from history that attachment to the goods of this world can corrupt and distance us from God. Consequently, we should not be surprised by the alternative Jesus resolutely puts before us: either God or riches.
«No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon».
How can we live this Word of Life?
Besides clarifying for us the relationship we should have with wealth, these words, like every word of God, have many things to tell us. Jesus is not offering us the alternative of choosing God or mammon. He says clearly that it is God whom we must chose in life.
Perhaps we have not done this yet. Perhaps we have mixed a little faith in him, a few religious practices and a certain love for our neighbor with many other riches, great or small, which fill our hearts.
If we take a close look at ourselves we will be able to see if what matters most to us is work, family, studies, success, health or one of the many other things in life which we love for themselves or out of self-interest, ignoring God completely.
If this is the case, our hearts are already enslaved; our lives are centered on idols incompatible with God.
What should we do then? We must decide and tell God that we want nothing else but to love him with all our hearts, our minds, our strength. And then we must strive to fulfill this resolution which is not difficult if we do it moment by moment – now, in the present moment of our lives, loving everyone and everything out of love for God alone.
Chiara Lubich
31 Jul 2001 | Non categorizzato, Word of
In the Hebrew Testament fire symbolizes the word of God pronounced by the prophet. But it also signifies the divine judgement that purifies his people by passing in their midst.
We can say the same about the word of Jesus: it builds up, but at the same time it destroys all that has no consistency, all that needs to come down, all that is vanity, and it leaves only the truth standing.
John the Baptist had said of him: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16), pre-announcing the Christian baptism inaugurated on the day of Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the appearance of the tongues of fire (See Acts 2:3).
This then is Jesus' mission: to cast fire on earth, to bring the Holy Spirit with his renovating and purifying force.
«I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!»
Jesus gives us the Spirit. But how does the Holy Spirit act?
He fills us with love and he wants us to keep this love enkindled in our hearts.
What kind of love is it?
It's not an earthly, limited kind of love. It's the love that the Gospel speaks of. It's a universal love, like that of the heavenly Father who makes the sun rise and the rain fall on the good and the bad, including enemies (See Mt 5:45).
It's a love that doesn't wait for the others to take the first step, but which always takes the initiative by loving first.
It's a love that makes itself one with every person: suffering and rejoicing with them, sharing their worries and hopes. And when needed, it does so in a concrete way, with deeds. So it's not simply a sentimental love that is expressed with words alone.
It's a love directed to Christ in our neighbor, mindful of his words: “You did it for me” (Mt 25:40).
It's a love that leads to reciprocity, to loving one another.
Because this love is a visible, concrete expression of our life based on the Gospel, it underlines and testifies to the word that we can and must offer in order to evangelize.
«I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!»
Love is like fire – what is important is to keep it lit, and so it must always burn something. First of all, it must consume our selfishness, and it does this because by loving, we are projected outside of ourselves: either towards God, by carrying out his will, or towards our neighbors, by helping them.
Even a small fire, if it is fed, can become a large blaze – that blaze of love, peace, and universal brotherhood which Jesus brought on earth.
Chiara Lubich
30 Jun 2001 | Non categorizzato, Word of
St.Theresa of Lisieux said that it is better to speak with God than to speak of God, because in our conversations with others there is always the danger of bringing in self-love.
She is right, but to bear witness to others we must also speak of God.
Nonetheless, undoubtedly, we must speak with God. We must love God above all else with that love which is the very foundation of the Christian life and which is expressed in prayer, or in doing his will.
We must speak, therefore, with our neighbors, yes; but above all, we must speak with God.
How should we speak?
By saying the simple prayers that every Christian says, but also by making sure, through some very brief prayers said throughout the day, that our heart is truly aimed at him, that he is the Ideal of our life; that he truly has the first place in our hearts; that we sincerely love him with all our strength.
I'm referring to the quick prayers which are recommended especially for those who are in the midst of the world and who do not have time to say long prayers. These prayers are like arrows of love that go out from our heart like flaming darts towards God: the so-called ejaculations which etymologically means, darts, arrows. They are a magnificent way to direct our hearts straight towards God.
In the liturgy of the Mass this month, in the Catholic Church, we read a verse which can be used as a very beautiful ejaculation. It says:
«You are my only fortune, Lord, nothing else but you»
“You are my only fortune, Lord.”
Let's try to repeat it during the day, especially when various attachments try to attract our heart towards things, persons or ourselves. Let's say: “You are my fortune, Lord, nothing else but you. Not that thing, not that person, not myself; You are my fortune, nothing else but you.”
Let's try to repeat it when agitation or haste would lead us to do less than the will of God in the present moment: “You are my fortune, Lord, nothing else but you, and so my fortune is what you want, not what I want.”
When curiosity, self-love or the thousand lures of the world are about to disturb our relationship with God, let's say to him with all our heart: “'You are my only fortune, Lord', not the satisfaction of my greed or pride.”
Let's try to repeat it often. Let's try to repeat it when shadows darken our soul or when suffering knocks at our door. It will help us to prepare for our encounter with him.
“You are my only fortune, Lord, nothing else but you»
These simple words will help us to trust in him. They will train us to live in the constant company of Love. In this way, more united to God and full of him, we will continually lay the foundations of our true being, as his image and likeness.
Everything in our life will flow in the right direction. Then yes, when we speak, our words will not be just words, or worse, empty chatter, but they will be like darts capable of opening people's hearts to accept Jesus.
So let us take every opportunity to pronounce these simple words. At the end of the day, we will experience that they were like a medicine, a tonic for our souls. St. Catherine would say that they made our hearts like a steady lamp.
Chiara Lubich
29 Jun 2001 | Non categorizzato
27 Jun 2001 | Non categorizzato
Their prophetic role in the face of the challenges of Christian unity and globalisation. Chiara Lubich: We are at the service of the new evangelization. Piero Coda: With the movements, the Church of the future. Andrea Riccardi: Diversity is enriching Lorenzo Rosoli The ecclesial movements? “They represent a true gift from God for the new evangelization and for missionary activity.” In her address, Chiara Lubich, founder and guide of the Focolare Movement, drew on Redemptoris missio and other key documents of John Paul II’s magisterium to profile the movements and ecclesial communities in the face of the challenges posed by Christian unity and globalisation. These historic challenges have been brought to people’s attention in recent weeks by the mass media because of two events: Pope John Paul II’s visit to the Ukraine and his urgent ecumenical appeal, and the imminent G8 Summit Meeting in Genoa of the eight most industrialized nations. Against this backdrop, the 10th International Theological and Pastoral Congress organised by the Focolare Movement on the theme, “The Ecclesial Movements for a New Evangelization” brought together in Castelgandolfo 1300 clerics – Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants from 44 different countries – along with Cardinals Dario Castrillon Hoyos and James Francis Stafford (to whom the Pope’s Message concerning the Congress, which we referred to yesterday, was addressed). Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Saint Egidio Community described the present as an “historic anthropological turning-point” which places the new evangelization “between a global world and many identities closed in upon themselves”. The Symposium asserted that evangelization can only take place if there is openness and communion; and this must exist first of all within the Church itself, between its institutional and charismatic dimensions, and among the movements and new communities. In her address, delivered at the Focolare Movement’s international Mariapolis Centre, Chiara Lubich interpreted the experience of her movement in the light of the requisites for a new evangelization: “Its ardour is new if those who proclaim the Gospel simultaneously grow in their union with God. Its methods are new if it is carried out by the whole People of God. Its expressions are new if it is in keeping with what the Spirit suggests”: to proclaim God’s love for every person; to form mature ecclesial communities; to re-evangelise oneself through the Word and a life of love; to proclaim the Word and to share the fruits of living it… Quoting John Paul II again, she continued, “a Christian society no longer exists, what does exist is globalisation with an interweaving of peoples and cultures.” In this context, she said, evangelization must follow the path of the dialogues indicated by the Second Vatican Council: dialogue within the Catholic Church, among Christians, with members of other religions and with persons of good will. “For 40 years the Focolare Movement has been engaged in all four dialogues.” Present in 182 countries, “it involves people of all walks of life, from children to bishops.” However, “it is especially our lay people that the Lord uses as instruments for the new evangelization.” In the words of the theologian Piero Coda, the new ecclesial movements “constitute both a preparation for, and a reception – at once charismatic and dynamic, and in some cases even surpassing and prophetic – of the ecclesiological model proposed and broadly outlined by the Council, but which in reality has yet to be defined from the theological and pastoral standpoints.” The new movements and ecclesial communities are implementing this ecclesiology of communion “by living it.” This is one of the key passages in his address, “Hierarchical and Charismatic Gifts for the Building up of the Church and for its Mission.” This communion, which was evident in a surprising way during the Jubilee year, is “the way the Spirit rejuvenates the Church and guides it in its mission.” What we have before us, he said, is a roughly-outlined ‘icon’ of the future of the Church”, one of whose characteristic and decisive features is its lay countenance: not only within the Church, but also as it relates to the world, to society and to contemporary culture. As Andrea Riccardi explained, the responsibility of the movements in evangelization is thus twofold: communion within the Church and communication of the Gospel in the contemporary world. “These recent years have increased the awareness that diversity lived out in love is enriching for the Church and for each charism… The movements are not little churches whose ambition is to spread to the entire Church. They are gifts which the Lord has given to his Church throughout the course of the twentieth century. Each movement has interpreted a particular aspect of the Church’s vocation in an original way. But each of these aspects, by its very nature, turns one’s attention back to the Church. The numerous vocations to the priesthood that continue to emerge in the movements are a gift to the Church. The witness of Christian love for all, especially the poorest, is a gift to the Church for the whole world. The communication of the Gospel, which lies at the basis of the missionary ‘structure’ of the charisms of the movements is a gift to the Church”.
27 Jun 2001 | Non categorizzato
