In the Our Father, Jesus invites us to ask God to forgive our debts as we too forgive our debtors. It is the Word of life that we try to put into practice during this month of March 2022. Our love for our brothers and sisters must be full of mercy, even to the point of forgiveness. Jesus says that we must always take the initiative so that harmony and fellowship are constantly maintained. Therefore, he urges us to live the commandment of love of neighbour in a radical way. In fact, he does not say: ‘if you remember having offended your brother or sister’, but rather, ‘if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you.’ For Jesus, the very fact that we remain indifferent about any disharmony with our neighbour – even if we ourselves are not responsible for this disunity – is already a reason for not being acceptable to God and, indeed, being rejected by him. Jesus wants to put us on our guard not only against serious outbursts of hatred toward others, but also against any expression or attitude that in some way denotes a lack of attention or love for our brothers and sisters. … We should try not to be superficial in our relationships, and instead search the innermost depths of our heart, to be sure that we have eliminated even the slightest attitude of indifference or lack of generosity, every attitude of superiority or any intentional neglect of others. In everyday life, we can make up for any rudeness or impatience with an apology or a friendly gesture. If at times this isn’t possible, what counts is to radically change our inner attitude. Any instinctive rejection of our neighbour needs to be replaced by an attitude of welcoming, of full and total acceptance of the other, of boundless mercy, forgiveness, willingness to share and attention to their needs. If we do this, we can offer God all the gifts we want. He will accept them and take them into account. Our relationship with him will grow deeper and we will experience true union with him, which is our happiness, both now and in the future.

Chiara Lubich

 (Chiara Lubich, in Parole di Vita, [Words of Life] Città Nuova, 2017, p. 283)