Focolare Movement

Chiara Lubich's commentary on the Word of life of July 2005

Jun 30, 2005

«The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down» (Ps 145:14)

God is Love (1 Jn 4:8). This certainty is the most solid one to guide our lives when we are assailed by doubts as we face huge natural disasters, the violence that human beings can inflict, our own limits and failures, and the sufferings that touch each of us personally.
That he is Love God has shown us and continues to show us in a thousand ways, giving us creation, life (and all the good things connected with it), redemption through his Son, and the possibility of reaching holiness of life through the Holy Spirit.
God shows us his love constantly: he makes his presence felt in each of our lives, following and sustaining us step by step through our various trials. The psalm that this Word of Life focuses on assures us of this by speaking of the unlimited greatness of God, of his splendor, of his power, and also of his tenderness and immense goodness. He is able to bring about prodigious deeds and, at the same time, to be a most attentive father and be even more thoughtful than a mother.

«The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down»

Every so often, we all have to face difficult and painful situations, both in our personal lives and in our relationships with others. At times we experience complete helplessness. We can find ourselves faced with walls of indifference and self-centeredness, and we are caught off guard by events that seem to overwhelm us.
How many painful situations each of us has to face in life! And how we all feel the need for Someone else to step in! In just such a moment the Word of Life can come to our aid.
Jesus allows us to experience our limitations, not in order to discourage us, but to help us experience the extraordinary power of his grace, which reveals itself in those very moments when we cannot make it on our own strength, so that we can better understand his love. There is one condition, however: that we have complete faith in him, as a small child does in his mother. We need to have boundless trust in him, to feel that we are in the arms of a Father who loves us as we are and for whom everything is possible.
We cannot be deterred even by the knowledge of our mistakes because, being love, God picks us up every time that we fall down, as parents do with their children.

«The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down»

Strengthened by this certainty, we can then entrust every worry to him, every problem, as Scripture invites us to do: “Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you” (1 Pt 5:7).
At the beginning of the Movement, when the Holy Spirit was encouraging us to take our first steps in the way of love, “cast all your worries onto the Father” became a daily exercise for us, one that was frequently repeated during the day.
I remember that I used to say that it’s impossible to hold a burning coal in our hand. You have to immediately get rid of it. With that same quickness, you should cast every worry onto God. I can’t recall any worry that I entrusted to him that he did not take care of.
Of course, it’s not always easy to believe and to believe in his love, but let’s make the effort throughout this month to do so in every instance, even in the most complicated situations. We will witness, time after time, God’s intervention and how he does not forget us, rather he takes care of us. We will experience a power not known before that will release in us new and unimaginable resources.

 

Chiara Lubich

 

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