January 2002

All Christians are invited this month to pray for unity, and they have agreed to meditate and live a word of God taken from Psalm 36. This phrase from Scripture tells us something so important and vital that it can lead us to reconciliation and communion.
First of all, it tells us that there is only one source of life: God. From him, from his creative love, comes the universe, which provides a home for humankind.
It is he who gives us life with all its gifts. The psalmist knows the harshness and dryness of the desert and he knows what it means to find a spring of water with the life that blossoms around it. Therefore, he could not find a more beautiful image with which to sing of creation, like a river flowing from the bosom of God.
So then a hymn of praise and thanksgiving pours from our heart. This is the first step to take, the first teaching to grasp from the words of the Psalm: give praise and thanks to God for his work, for the wonders of the cosmos and for men and women fully alive, who are his glory and the only creatures who are able to say to him:

«For with you is the fountain of life»

But the love of the Father went beyond pronouncing the word through which all things were created. He wanted the Word himself to take our flesh. God, the only true God, became man in Jesus and brought on earth the source of life.
The source of every good, of every being and of every happiness came to dwell among us, so that he would be available, so to speak, to us. “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10). He filled all the time and space of our existence with himself. And he wished to remain with us forever, so that we could recognize him and love him under the most varied guises.
At times we might think: “How beautiful it must have been to live during the times of Jesus!” Well, his love invented a way to remain not in one small corner of Palestine, but in every part of the world: He made himself present in the Eucharist, according to his promise. We can draw from this source in order to nourish and renew our life.

«For with you is the fountain of life»

Another source from which we can draw the living water of God’s presence is our brother, our sister. If we love every neighbor we meet, especially those in need, they are not so much benefited by us, but rather, we are benefited by them because they give us God. In fact, by loving Jesus in our neighbor [I was hungry (…), I was thirsty (…), I was a stranger (…), I was in prison (…)…] (See Mt 25:31-40), we receive in return his love, his life, because he himself, present in our brothers and sisters, is its source.

Another overflowing fountain is God’s presence within us. He always speaks to us. It’s up to us to listen to his voice, which is that of our conscience. The more we make the effort to love God and our neighbor, the louder his voice becomes to the point of drowning out all the others.
But there is a privileged moment, like no other, in which we can draw from his presence within us: it is when we pray and seek to go in-depth in our direct relationship with him who dwells in the depths of our soul. It is like a profound spring of water that never dries up, which is always at our disposal and which can quench our thirst in every moment. We must only close for a moment the shutters of our soul and recollect ourselves in order to find this source, even in the midst of the most arid desert. And this to the point in which we no longer feel that we are alone, but that there are two of us: him in me and I in him. And yet – thanks to his gift – we are one, like the water and its source, like the flower and its seed.

Thus during this week of prayer for the unity of Christians, the words of the Psalm remind us that God alone is the source of life and therefore, of full communion, peace, and joy. The more we drink from this fountain and the more we live of this living water, which is his word, the more we will grow closer to one another and live as brothers and sisters of the same family. Then the rest of this phrase will be fulfilled. The Psalm continues: “And in your light we see light” , that light which humanity awaits.

Chiara Lubich