The latest volume which contains what Chiara Lubich wrote about her mystical experience: Paradise ’49, is now in the bookshops. In many ways this is a unique text, one that will surely provoke lively reflection. Above all because, for the first time, it places before the wider public, without omissions or selections, the deepest source of the Christian adventure that made Chiara one of the leading figures of the second half of the last century and beyond. It hands on to us a legacy that still remains largely to be explored and developed.

Yes, the deepest source: not the fruit of her imagination, however brilliant, or merely an original inspiration granted to her. It is something more and something different. It is something, as the philosopher Jean-Luc Marion wrote, that comes d’ailleurs, from that “elsewhere” which in Jesus has been given to us once and for all “from within” and “beneath” the history we live, with all its magnificent and astonishing expressions and surprises and with its dramatic and disturbing trials.

Throughout the centuries, this ever new proposition of Jesus, as promised by him: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world”, is a well-known tenet of the history of the Church. Each time it is unforeseeable and surprising, because it is the work of the Spirit, who “is like the wind that blows where it wills and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” Yet it is something that can still be recognized and appreciated.

Paradise ’49, once again and in an unprecedented form, is a simple and faithful witness to all this. Here lies its first value. We cannot but be deeply grateful to Chiara who in the end, not without first carefully assuring herself that all was in harmony with the faith of the Church, chose to offer this gift. She considered it something precious and recognized her responsibility toward it, as a gift given by God not only for herself but for everyone.
From this comes a second value of these pages: the role they are destined to have for the Focolare Movement. Its charismatic identity was forged precisely through the events witnessed in these pages, so that it might be “the new wineskin” called to preserve and generously pour out the “new wine” of the Spirit that was communicated there, in service of the Gospel’s journey through history.

Finally, there is a third and perhaps decisive value of this writing: making accessible to us today the decisive resource represented by the event of Jesus. It has been said that Christianity has yet to flower fully. . And at this challenging turning point in history, in the fraternal dialogue that the disciples of Jesus are called to live with all who seek truth and serve justice: no, we haven’t said everything yet.

Piero Coda

Cover foto: © Horacio Conde – CSC Audiovisivi