The Word of Life of June 2022, “You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you ” proposes that we recognise Jesus in all circumstances of life, especially in the most difficult moments of physical or spiritual pain. Through his abandonment, Jesus himself became our access to the Father. His part is now done. It’s up to us to take advantage of this great grace. Each one of us has to do our own small part, which requires that we approach the gate and pass through it. How? When we suffer because of a sudden disappointment, or are distressed by an unexpected misfortune or an absurd illness, we should recall that Jesus took on himself the pain of all these various trials, and a myriad of others, too. Yes, Jesus forsaken is present in everything that causes us to suffer. Every pain we experience bears his name. So let’s try to recognize Jesus forsaken in all the distressful and difficult situations of life, in all our dark times, in our personal tragedies and those of others, in the suffering of humanity that surrounds us. All these are him because he made them his own. All we have to do is to tell him, with faith, “You, Lord, are my only good.”[1] It would be enough to do something practical to lessen “his” suffering in the poor and in those who are distressed, for us to go through the gate and find beyond it a joy never experienced before, a new fullness of life.

Chiara Lubich

(Chiara Lubich, from the Word of Life of April 1999) [1]     See Ps 16:2.