We are in times that we must walk together, in the synodal style. In this passage we are asked to put love for our brothers and sisters first, with every brother and sister, but especially with those we work with, study with, live with.

All our responsibilities can be … summarized  in helping our neighbour. This is confirmed by one of those sentences of Scripture that centre on love and that strike a chord within us: “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Gal. 5:14 NRSV).

If that is how things are, then our striving towards holiness means focussing all our attention and all our effort on loving our neighbour. For us, striving towards holiness is not so much about trying to be rid of our faults one by one, as about loving, thinking of others, completely forgetting ourselves.       …

But we know that whoever loves their neighbour, whoever lives for others, soon realizes that it is no longer they who live, but Christ lives in them. Christ lives in their hearts. And who is Christ? Who is Jesus? He is holiness. We find holiness in Him, whose presence emerges within us because we love. Our holiness comes as a consequence of loving, and we cannot reach it any other way. If we were to seek after holiness for its own sake, we would never reach it. So let’s love then, and nothing else! Let go of everything, even the attachment to holiness, striving only, only, only to love. It’s the only way to be able to make a gift of our holiness to Mary one day. …

Let’s set off again, as if today were the first day of our revolution of love, the first day of our  Holy  Journey.  Let’s  set  off  again,  not  thinking  of  anything  else,  because  love  sums  up everything. Let’s try to love every neighbour as ourselves; and do so by “immersing ourselves” in every situation.

Chiara Lubich

(From LUBICH, C; Edited by Michel Vandeleene, Conversazioni in collegamento telefonico, Cittá Nuova, Roma, 2019, pp. 120-121).

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