14 Mar 2000 | Non categorizzato
She was beautiful, enterprising, sports-loving, an ordinary young person. Then the unexpected illness: anguish and pain, followed by death. A rapid ascent to heaven. Her cause for beatification is underway “I rediscovered the Gospel in a totally new light. I realised that I wasn’t an authentic Christian because it had never occurred to me before to actually live the Gospel. Now I want to make the living of this beautiful book my only goal. I cannot, nor do I want to, remain ‘illiterate’ in the face of such an extraordinary message. Just as there was no question of me not learning the alphabet, so it must be when it comes to living the Gospel.” Chiara Luce Badano “Chiara Luce! How much light in her expression! How much light in her words, in her letters, in her life so focused on loving others in a concrete way! Hers was a radical choice of Jesus crucified and forsaken. It was a choice for “everything that hurts” – all those things which, if not embraced, drag us down into a dark tunnel. She lived with Him; with Him she transformed her passion and death into a nuptial song.” Chiara Lubich “Her witness is of particular significance to young people. It’s enough to see how she lived her illness and how the experience of her death resonated with the youth. Such a shining example could not be neglected. There is a need for sanctity today. Young people yearn for direction, for a goal worth living for. They need a means of addressing their sense of insecurity, their solitude; they need an answer to the failures they experience, to suffering and death. But theory will never convince them; they need the witness of others.” “In talking to her I saw she was far more mature than other young people of her age. She had grasped the fundamentals of the Gospel: God, to whom she gave first place in her life; Jesus, with whom she had a close relationship, as a brother; Mary, who was her model; love as the focus of her life; steadfastness in proclaiming the Gospel. All those attributes, together with her experience of living suffering and death as something not to be feared, but rather welcomed, made her life truly singular.” (The Most Rev. Livio Maritano, Bishop of Acqui Terme, in an interview by Aurora Nicosia for Citta’ Nuova magazine, Rome)
29 Feb 2000 | Non categorizzato, Word of
The evangelist Mark, and also Matthew and Luke, recount the fact that one day Jesus took aside Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain. At a certain moment an extraordinary event took place. Before their very eyes Jesus was transfigured: his clothes became dazzlingly white and Moses and Elijah appeared, in conversation with him. Then a cloud came and overshadowed the apostles, and out of the cloud a voice, the voice of the heavenly Father, addressed them with these words:
«This is my son, my beloved. Listen to him!»
That same mysterious voice was heard at the beginning of Jesus' mission, at his baptism in the Jordan: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased'' (Lk. 3:21-22; Mk. 1:9-11; Mt. 3:13-17).
This time the Father is addressing the disciples of Jesus, and all of us too, inviting us to listen to his Son. Thus the key word for this month is: listen.
When did the Son speak? Where can we find his Word? In the Gospels. Let's open them and read them with love. The Gospel is the Word of Jesus.
But he speaks to us in other ways as well.
How can we recognize his voice? How can we distinguish it from among many others and tune ourselves in to its wavelength?
He speaks to our soul in one special moment: in prayer, and the more we seek to love God present in our heart, the more his voice makes itself heard, the more it guides us from the deepest part of our being.
Also every encounter of our day can be an opportunity to listen if in all our contacts with others we try to be like a silence of love which fully receives the other person, whoever he or she may be, because – and Jesus revealed this to us (cf. Mt. 25:40) – he himself is hidden in every human being.
How different our relationships would be if we did more to cultivate this rare quality of listening, which at times is the only way to show our attention towards those near us, even strangers!
This is the point: the best way to prepare ourselves to listen to the voice of God is to actually listen to our brothers and sisters.
«This is my son, my beloved. Listen to him!»
The voice of Jesus has an unmistakable tone, it is loud and clear when he is present among us through our mutual love. His presence among two or more persons united in his name (cf. Mt. 18:20) is like a loudspeaker of the voice of God in our heart.
And so it will be easier to hear it because we will be more in tune to his thoughts, to his teachings.
Moreover, in Luke's Gospel we find a phrase in which Jesus speaks of listening to those he sends: “Whoever listens to you listens to me” (Lk. 10:16). They were the 72 disciples. Today in the Catholic Church this phrase refers to those who have been entrusted in a special way with his message: his ministers, who proclaim the Word of God.
But there are also “witnesses” of Jesus who, by listening to his Word and putting it into practice in the most radical way, make it resound again throughout the world and open people's hearts to it.
Thus, this one voice of Jesus is addressed to us in many ways: in the innermost part of our heart and from the lips of brothers and sisters, from the pulpit of a church, from the pages of his Gospel or in the charisms of “witnesses”.
The Word of Life for this month will help us to listen – and to live – what Jesus wants to tell us.
Chiara Lubich
(more…)
31 Jan 2000 | Non categorizzato, Word of
In carrying out his extraordinary mission, the Apostle Paul conducted his life in a particular way: he strove to become all things to all people. In fact, he tried to understand everyone, enter into the mentality of each person: to be a Jew with the Jews, and with the non-Jews – those without a law revealed by God – to be as one without the law.
Paul followed the Jewish customs whenever this served to remove barriers or to reconcile souls; but when he worked in the Greco-Roman world, he adopted the culture and way of life of that world. He wrote:
«To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some at any cost.»
But who were the weak?
They were Christians who, because of their fragile conscience and limited knowledge, were easily scandalized. For example, there was the question of whether or not Christians could eat the meat of animals sacrificed to idols. Paul, knowing that there is only one God, understood that if other gods do not exist, there is no problem in eating meat sacrificed to these gods. But the “weak,” accustomed as they were to reasoning in a certain way and lacking instruction, could have come to the opposite conclusion and been confused. And so Paul put himself in the situation of these Christians, and being sensitive to their weak understanding, he decided that in order to avoid troubling their consciences, it would be advisable not to eat such meat.
«To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some at any cost.»
But what prompted Paul to act in this way?
Even in the liberating reality of Christianity that he announced, Paul recognized the need – or rather, the imperative – to become the slave of someone: of his brothers and sisters, of each neighbor, because his model was the crucified Christ.
By becoming man, God drew close to every human being, but on the cross, he proved his solidarity with each of us sinners, with our weaknesses, our sufferings, our anguish, our ignorance, our questions, our burdens, our moments of feeling abandoned.
Paul, too, wanted to live this way, and he declared:
«To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some at any cost.»
How, then, can we too live this new Word of Life?
We know that the purpose of our life and of each new day is to reach God – and not alone, but with our brothers and sisters. In fact, we also, as Christians, have received a call from God similar to the one received by Paul. Like the Apostle, we too must “save” someone, must “save some at any cost.”
Chiara Lubich
(more…)
