Living the Gospel: opening new opportunities

“We give no greater glory to God than when we make an effort to accept our neighbour, because it is then that we lay the foundations for communion, and nothing gives so much glory to God as true unity between people. Unity attracts the presence of Jesus in our midst, and his presence transforms everything.” (Chiara Lubich)

At boarding school
At the boarding school where I lived at Prague, I would often see the cleaning lady. Having been polite with her, I noticed that she cleaned the room I was sharing with a Bulgarian more often and frequently waxed the floor. I didn’t know how to thank her and, having a expresso machine, one time I thought of offering a good coffee to her. She didn’t say a thing, but later she confessed that for her, being used to Turkish coffee, it was too strong. We began a dialogue about the habits of different cultures, and we ended up talking about faith as well. She told me that as a child she had gone to church, but then, during the Communist period, she had stayed away. In the days that followed, if I was at school, she stopped by after she finished cleaning, usually with a lot of questions about Christian life. One day she confided, “This work has always been humiliating for me, but since I got to know about this other perspective, I feel like I’ve found my lost childhood and understood the meaning of life.”
T. M., Slovakia

With new eyes
My wife and I had come to a crossroads: I only saw her defects and she only saw mine. The arguments had become more intense, and it seemed that anything that happened, even things with the kids, kept feeding this war. One day, as I brought my youngest daughter to school, I heard: “You know Daddy, the religion teacher explained to us that forgiveness is like a pair of eyeglasses that lets us see with new eyes.” This phrase from a child left me uneasy. I thought about it all day. In the evening, coming back home, I had the idea to go to the florist and buy as many roses as years we had been married. My wife initially reacted badly (yet another blunder?), but then seeing how happy our children were, especially the youngest, she changed her attitude. That evening, after long silences, something changed. It was the beginning of a new way. It really seemed to me that I had new eyes, and I saw my wife and our children as I never had before.
J. B., Spain

Business temptation
We found ourselves in great need of a huge sum of money to cover a certain debt. That morning a client came by, aiming to buy six machines. After our business was done, he proposed that we glue a famous brand sticker on the product. Taken by surprise, although we knew that this was common practice in our market, we were caught between a rock and a hard place: we risked losing that huge deal, but I didn’t feel like we should accept the offer. After talking to my husband about it, we understood clearly that we could not give in and betray our conscience as Christians. The client looked at us, surprised. When he asked if we were Catholic, we said yes. His face relaxed. “Today I learned what it means to be loyal to one’s faith. Don’t worry, I’ll still buy from you. You have taught me something really important. I was Christian too, but seeing how everyone else does in business, I let myself be taken by temptation. From now on, I’ll never do it again.”
G. A., Nigeria

Work for two
During a course for vendors of sandwiches and drinks on trains, I asked if the unsold goods could be distributed to the homeless. This did not fit with the image of the company, so I was not hired. Disappointed, but certain that God would meet me halfway, I found work in a restaurant kitchen. I got to know about dramatic situations of hunger, misery, loneliness. One day the boss announced that the kitchen only needed one labourer. There was only me and a Muslim man who I was friends with. When I answered that I wanted him to stay, because he had a family, the boss replied that he had chosen me. Although I was grateful, I repeated what I thought. He said: “For the first time, I feel urged by a young man like you to review my decision.” The next day, looking again at the business’s finances, he decided that we could both keep working.
D., England

Not just guests
For an entire year we had a girl from Brazil in our home who had come to Italy as part of a cultural exchange. Julia, however, was not able to settle in our family, and we, thinking she was just a guest, did not do much to help. When we realised and started treating her as one of our daughters, things changed: she felt loved, and little by little she bonded with us like a daughter with her sisters. Julia became one of us, to the point that, feeling the need to go deeper into the beauty of the Christian family, she asked us to prepare for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and communion, which she hadn’t received in her country, despite being 17 years old. Her parents came from Brazil for the occasion, and we had a great party that included the entire community. Today the connection with Julia continues. We continue to be “Mom” and “Dad” every time we see each other online or we write.
A., Italy

Edited by Stefania Tanesini
(taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, anno VI, n.1, gennaio-febbraio 2020)