Audio mp3 – Discorso Maria Voce all’Aula Nervi (Vaticano) 25 settembre 2010

The parents of Chiara Luce were greeted by a standing ovation as they came on stage at Paul VI Hall on the evening of September 25, as the hall was packed with people and connected to giant television screens outside in St Peter’s Square. The words of Chiara’s father, Ruggero, were particularly striking: “These were very special days, but what I’d like to say now is that we lived exceptional moments being with Chiara. We lived in an atmosphere that you cannot explain. These two years have been the most beautiful of our lives, the most blessed by God, because Jesus made us live in a supernatural dimension that raised us from the ground. Like when you are on a plane, and from the window you see the earth, the clouds far below you. All of our pain and those of Chiara that were even greater, we saw them there, below us, not touching us. This was the fruit of the love of many people who prayed and supported us.”

“I want to greet everyone, but particularly the young. This experience is valid for all, but Chiara Luce offered her life for you, she gave it for you!” Also these words from Blessed Chiara Luce’s mother were welcomed with a long applause.  In the first section of the program, which was entitled Life: 130 youths with the help of 70 technicians, portrayed, in music, dance, experiences and film, the birth and early childhood of Chiara Luce who encountered the Gospel at the age of nine and chose it as the alphabet of life.

The second section, Love: her growth, adolescence and encounter with Jesus Crucified and Forsaken, the greatest love. The show on stage was enriched by the witnesses of teenagers from today who highligted the universality of the experience of Chiara Luce who was of their same age. Marlisa shared the painful experience of her parents’ separation and of her reconciliation with her father after seven years of silence and hostility. Testimonies also arrived from afar, like the one of the young Jordanian boy who was involved in dialogue with his Muslim peers, and that of a young Pakistan boy.

The final and most touching part of the evening, Light, was dedicated to the illness and the adventure of becoming saints together. “Chiara took 25 minutes to say yes. Then she turned to me with her usual smile, radiating, with her gaze truly full of light. Then she never turned back.” With these words Chiara’s mother made everyone relive the moment when Chiara received news of the seriousness of her illness.

In a 1989 film clip Chiara Lubich was shown inviting everyone to choose unity as the Ideal and Jesus Forsaken as the key for constructing it.  This was the life program of Chiara Luce. The words of her letter to Chiara Lubich resounded in Paul VI Hall: “I’ve discovered that Jesus Forsaken is the key to unity with God, I want to choose him as my spouse and prepare myself for when he comes. I want to prefer him!”.

Towards the conclusion of the evening, Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement took the stage. Her words expressed the common feeling among the youth in the hall: “Now we leave here enriched and desirous of new things, of great things.  We’ve lived strong, very powerful moments. We’ve discovered something beautiful together: that everything can change, our relationships, the way we face joys and sufferings, even when they come without warning, with tragic faces – and that we can give birth to a revolution. It has a name: love. Let’s leave now with this new force in our heart.”