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Português“Emmanuel,” “God is with us!” This is the extraordinary news announced to us at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel (1:23). God has come to dwell among us through Jesus, the Emmanuel.
This Gospel then closes with an even greater and more astonishing promise: “I am with you always, until the end of the ge” (28:20).
The presence of God among us is not limited to a certain period in time, to Jesus’ physical presence on earth. He remains with us for all times.
How does he remain? Where can we find him?
We can find the answer right in the heart of Matthew’s Gospel, there where Jesus gives directives on how to live to his community, the Church. He spoke about it a number of times: he stated that the Church was founded on the rock of Peter; he envisioned it gathered together to meditate on his word and to celebrate the Eucharist. In this passage, however, he revealed to us its truest identity: the Church is his very presence among those who are united in his name.
We can always have him present among us. We can experience the living Church, for we can live out an experience of Church in its deepest essence, one that is life-giving.
«For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them»
If he, the Risen Lord, is the one who unites believers to him and to each other, making them one body, then every division in our families and our communities alters the countenance of the Church. Christ is not divided. A fragmented Church disfigures the face of Christ, rendering it unrecognizable.
This is true also for the relationships among the different Churches and ecclesial communities. The ecumenical journey has made us aware that “there is more that unites us than divides us.” Even though there are still certain doctrinal and ritual practices on which the Churches differ, “the Risen Lord lives in all of them and is the bond that unites us.”
To unite in the name of Jesus, to pray together, to get to know and share each other’s riches, to forgive each other – this is the way to overcome many divisions. These may seem like small initiatives to us, but nothing is small if it is done out of love. Jesus among us, “the source of our unity,” will show us “the way to become the instruments of unity that God desires.”
This is how the international Committee of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity expressed themselves in proposing this “word of life,” which was written by an ecumenical group in Dublin. Indeed, each year we have all been living the same “word of life” during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity since 1968. This is a sign of hope for our common journey towards the full and visible unity among Churches.
«For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them»
But what does it mean to be united in the name of Jesus?
It means to be united in him, in his will. We know that his deepest desire, his own commandment, is that there be mutual love among us. So, wherever there are two or more people ready to love each other in this way, ready to set aside all things in order to merit his presence, everything around them changes. Jesus can then enter into their homes, into their work places and schools, and into their congresses and stadiums, and he can transform them.
His presence will shed new light on problems; it will give creative strength to resolve personal and social dilemmas; it will give people courage to remain faithful to the most arduous decisions; and it will be leaven for all the different fields of human endeavor.
His spiritual but real presence will be alive in our families, among workers at the factory, the mechanic shop, the construction side; he will be present among farmers in the fields, among shopkeepers and civil servants, and in every environment.
When Jesus lives in our midst because of mutual love, a love that is declared and constantly renewed, he will make his presence felt anew in this world and will free it from its trappings. And then the Holy Spirit will open up new roads for us.
«For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them»
Given our experience, we can, with gratitude to God, attest to the truth of what I wrote many years ago, that if we are united, then God is among us. And this is worth more than every other treasure our heart can possess. It’s worth more than having a mother, a father, brothers and sisters, or children. It is worth more than a home, than work, than property; worth more than the art treasures of a city like Rome, worth more than our business, than natural surroundings with their flowers and meadows, than the sea and the stars; more than our very soul!
What a witness can be given to the world, for example, with Gospel-based mutual love put into practice between Catholics and Armenians faithful, between Methodists and Orthodox faithful!
And so let us live today the life he gives us moment by moment in this mutual love.
The fundamental commandment is to have brotherly love. Everything has value if it is an expression of sincere brotherly love. Nothing has value unless it is done out of love for our neighbor, for God is a Father and always has only his children at heart.
Let us live so that we always have Jesus with us, so that we can bring him into a world that does not know his peace.
Chiara Lubich
