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Sometimes the divisions and conflicts in society today are so great that they seem like an impenetrable wall and it is difficult to see beyond them. We have to look up if we want to see the destiny towards which humanity is called. We can have this higher perspective of life if we put universal values into practice.
Of course, we cannot gain this view of life once and for all; we need to constantly strive for it with great commitment. It means aiming high and looking "at the things above". This is a choice that completely changes our mentality and overturns the order and objectives that the world proposes. It frees us from external conditioning and makes us experience radical change.
As Chiara Lubich tells us, "the things above" are those universal values that give flavour to life, such as love, harmony, peace, forgiveness, fairness, sharing, collaboration purity, honesty and justice, etc.
But how can we keep our hearts directed upward towards these values while living in the midst of the world?
Experience teaches us that we must be guided by thoughts and feelings of love, that is, our inner gaze should always focus upon living the law of love.
The presence of men and women who are committed to living this way, who want to love all the people around them inspite of the difficulties they encounter, will create relationships of true fraternity and build that reality "of heaven" here on earth.
The courageous and decisive choice of a worker in Brazil, who decided to help his colleague who had just lost his job led to a chain of fraternal actions by people who were moved by his example. This is what he tells us:
In the factory, they were handing out letters of dismissal and one was addressed to Giorgio. I knew about his difficult economic situation and so I invited him to return with me to the personnel office: 'I am better off than him,' I said. 'My wife has a job: you can fire me instead.’ The boss was shaken by what I said and promised to review the case. When we left, Giorgio hugged me and was very moved.
People heard about what had happened and two other workers, in roughly the same economic situation as me, offered to take the place of two men who had been laid off. The management was forced to rethink its methods of choosing who to dismiss. The following day, I learnt that two women students had given all their savings to the workers in need and had said,, 'We too want to imitate what that worker has done and help other people.'"
(B. S. - Brazil)
THE IDEA OF THE MONTH, based on the Word of Life of the Focolare Movement, was born in Uruguay as part of the dialogue between people of different convictions, whose motto is "building dialogue". The purpose of this publication is to help promote the ideal of universal fraternity. The IDEA OF THE MONTH is currently translated into 12 languages and distributed in more than 25 countries
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