That Voice Within

The Gospel attracts people with its words of truth. In it, the one who said, “I am the Truth” (Jn 13:6), speaks to us. He opens before us the infinite mystery of God and makes us understand his plan of love for humanity: his gift is the Truth.
But the Truth has the infinite depth of mystery. How can we understand and live it fully? Jesus himself knows that we are not able to bear its “weight.” This is why during his last supper with his disciples, before returning to the Father, he promised to send his own Spirit so that he would be the one to explain his words to us and help us live them out.

«The Spirit of truth … will guide you to all truth»

The community of believers knows the truth because they live with Jesus. At the same time, they are also on a journey toward “the fullness of truth,” under the sure guidance of the Spirit.
The history of the Church can be read as the history of the gradual and increasingly deeper understanding of the mystery of Jesus and his Word. The Spirit leads it along this journey in many ways: “through the contemplation and study of believers,” through the charisms of saints, through the Teaching of the Church (See Dei Verbum, 8).
The Spirit also speaks in the hearts of all believers, where he dwells, making his voice heard. Time after time, he suggests that we forgive, serve, give and love. He instructs us on what is good and what is evil. He reminds us to live the Word of Life that the Gospel sows in us month after month.

«The Spirit of truth … will guide you to all truth»

How should we live this Word of Life? By listening to the inner voice that speaks within us, by being docile to the Holy Spirit, who guides us, urges us on, gives us a push.
Chiara Lubich explains how “Christians should move according to the promptings of the Spirit, so that the Spirit can work in their hearts with his creative power and lead them to holiness, divinization and resurrection.”

To better understand that inner voice—almost to amplify it—Chiara invites us to live in unity with each other, so as to learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit not only within us, “but also to his voice, present among us [as we’re] united in the risen Lord.”
When we have Jesus among us, the Spirit “perfects our ability to hear his voice within each of us. In fact, Jesus present among us is like a loudspeaker for the voice of the Spirit within us.
“It has always seemed to us that the best way to love the Holy Spirit, to honor him, to keep him alive in our hearts, is really to listen to his voice, which can shed light for us in every instant of our life. … And by listening to that voice, we experienced with great surprise how we progress in perfection: little by little our faults disappear and our virtues begin to stand out.”

«The Spirit of truth … will guide you to all truth»

This Word of Life, taken from the Gospel read on the feast of the Holy Trinity, invites us to pray to the Holy Spirit, as Chiara did:
“O Holy Spirit, we do not ask of you anything but God for God. … Grant that we may live the rest of our lives … only and always and in every instant for you alone, who alone we wish to love and serve. God! God, pure spirit, for whom our humanity can be an empty chalice to be filled. …
“God, who must shine through our being, our hearts, our faces, our words, our actions, our silence, our living, our dying, our appearing when we leave this earth (where we can, we must leave behind only a luminous trail of his presence, of him present in us, amidst the material and muddle of this world—whether it live or collapse—in the praise or the vanity of all things that can be a footstool or a stumbling block for everything), leaving for the place of the All, the Alone, Love.”

By Fabio Ciardi and Gabriella Fallacara

Quotes are taken from Chiara Lubich’s recent book, Essential Writings, New City Press, New York, 2007, pp. 148–149.