Chiara Lubich wrote that “Life can be a divine adventure,” and she suggested ways in which this can become true. We can learn to look at all that happens to us believing that everything is a sign of God’s love and that everything that happens to us can contribute to our good. All things work for the good of those who love God. God has his own plan of love for each one of us. He loves us personally, and—if we believe in this love and respond with our own love (this is the condition!)—he makes all things contribute to the fulfilment of his plan for us. It is enough to think of Jesus. We know how much he loved the Father and, if we think of him even for moment, we can see how he lived the Word of Life for this month to the full throughout his life. For him nothing happened by chance. Everything had a purpose. However, we see this Word personified in him in a unique way during the last days of His life; nothing in his passion and death happened by chance. For him, even the extreme trial of feeling forsaken by the Father worked for what is good, because, by overcoming this trial Jesus brought his Work to completion. The causes were perhaps not obvious. Those who made him suffer and die did not know exactly what they were doing. They did not know who it was they tortured and crucified. They were not aware of conducting a sacrifice, the sacrifice par excellence that would bring about the salvation of humanity. Jesus suffered at the hands of people who acted without this intention, but since Jesus loved the Father he transformed all these things into means of redemption, seeing in those terrible moments his ‘hour’ that had at last come, the fulfilment of his divine and earthly adventure. Jesus’ example sheds light on our own life: everything that comes to us, all that happens, all that surrounds us and all that causes us to suffer, can be understood as the Will of God who loves us or as being permitted by God, who loves us still. By doing this, everything will be more interesting for us in life, everything will have meaning; everything will be extremely useful. Let’s take heart. Our lives are still before us. We are still on the road. Life can still be transformed into a divine adventure. It’s enough to keep on loving and keep our eyes open for his ever marvellous will.

 Chiara Lubich

(Chiara Lubich, Conversazioni in collegamento telefonico, [Telephone conversations] edited by Michel Vandeleene, Città Nuova, Roma, 2019, pp. 160-161)