San Juan
General San Martín (Jujuy)
San Luis
San Rafael (Mendoza)
Gualeguaychú (Entre Ríos)
San José de Feliciano (Entre Ríos)
San Francisco (Córdoba)
Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires)
John Paul II, Young People and Suffering
Rafael Tronquini
What do you remember about John Paul II in his latter years of illness. What witness did he give the Pope give you in that period?
I especially remember the last year of his life. There was so much media coverage and images of the Pope who had difficulty speaking. But his love for me and all young people around the world was incredible. John Paul II was the first Pope I knew. In 2005 I was 21 and the Pope, with his great wisdom, was like a grandfather figure for me… I would say that he was a travel companion! He said so many amazing things. In the parish youth groups he was a reference point, an example of someone who continued to love in painful situations.
I wanted to respond to the invitation he gave at the Canada World Youth Day in 2002 and so in 2007 I took part in the WYD in Cologne. It was a chance for me to really experience the unity of the Church. I will be eternally grateful to John Paul II for the proposal he launched to all of us young people to share that unforgettable meeting and when I went to visit his tomb I thanked God for the gift of his life. After that GMG I understood lots of things; I committed myself above all to following Jesus in the joys and sufferings everyday life.
The Pope tried to find God/Jesus in his pain: can you tell us something about this idea?
Jesus’ walk to Calvary, his death on the cross and his resurrection come to mind. I believe that if we love Jesus we can have this same experience of resurrection. When I arrived home in Brazil after the WYD I heard that my grandmother was really unwell. I thought: What can I do? What can I say? John Paul II came to mind and I remembered how he faced suffering. A few days later my gran died. It was the first time I lost someone close to me. Losing her and John Paul II- very different but both very much loved people- in the same year was a new situation for me. I think that, when faced with illness, we can’t expect to find answers if we don’t love. We can find God’s face in those who are ill and truly love them. Jesus who died on the cross out of love is waiting for us to offer all our pain to Him.
The day the Pope passed away my sister called me at work crying. I couldn’t understand what she was saying; I could only imagine that it was bad news. When I understood that John Paul II had passed away I too started crying but at the same time I thanked God for the impact that John Paul II had had in my life.
Do you too have the ideal of “Jesus Forsaken”? What does this mean to you?
Yes I am a member of the Focolare and Jesus Forsaken is central to the Spirituality of Unity. What does this mean for me? It means choosing him forsaken, in his nothingness, in his cry: “Why have you forsaken me?” I want to choose him in that moment when he made himself nothing, in the climax of his love for the whole of humanity. And so when I’m tired after having studied hard or after a long day at work I remember that, in that tiredness, I can find an aspect of Jesus Forsaken and this pushes me love. This also helps me overcome temptations in order to be a coherent Christian and gives me the strength to start again when I make mistakes. When evening comes I offer all my sufferings, my limitations and my failures to him because he already took all this upon himself. He is unity.
(Interview by Corinna Muehlstedt, for Bavarian Radio – 18 March 2011)
Münster
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Hamburg
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Hannover
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Mariapolis Center in Solingen
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Leipzig
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Dresden
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Zwochau Mariapolis Center
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Frankfurt
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Heidelberg
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Beatification of John Paul II
The beatification of Pope John Paul II is by now imminent and together with the whole Church we feel enveloped by an immense joy and profound gratitude. Joy and gratitude for the gift She is giving to us in recognizing the holiness of this great Pope, expressed in his well-spent and consumed life, up to the last moment, for God and for us human beings. The extraordinary richness of his teachings continues to amaze, as well as his witness of love which has aroused gratitude worldwide both in Christians and faithful of other religions, and in people with no religious faith. On occasion of the 25th anniversary of his pontificate, he had confided to us the source from which everything derived: the intimate secret of that relationship – as successor of Peter – which connected him to Jesus: “Twenty-five years ago I experienced the divine mercy in a particular way. Christ said also to me, as he once did to Peter: ‘Do you love me more than these?’ Every day in the depths of my heart the same dialogue takes place between Jesus and Peter. In the spirit, I fix my eyes on the benevolent gaze of the risen Christ. He, despite knowing my human frailty, encourages me to respond with trust like Peter: ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you’.”[1] Today, this event of the Church makes us penetrate into the dimension of that “something more” lived out by John Paul II day after day, with heroism. Together with all the other Movements, we have experienced the special love of John Paul II in his recognition of the role they have in the Church, an expression of its Marian dimension. Already in 1987, in speaking to the Roman Curia, he had highlighted the importance of this dimension: “The Church lives in this authentic ‘Marian profile,’ this ‘Marian dimension’ …. The Immaculate Mary precedes all the others, including Peter himself and the Apostles. … This link between the two profiles of the Church, the Marian and the Petrine, is profound and complementary. This is so even though the Marian profile is anterior not only in God’s design but also in time, as well as being supreme and pre-eminent, richer in personal and communitarian implications …”.[2] Opening wide the doors to the novelties brought about by the Holy Spirit in the historical meeting in St. Peter’s Square of the ecclesial movements and new communities on the vigil of Pentecost 1998, John Paul II acknowledged that the two profiles “are co-essential as it were to the Church’s constitution. They contribute … to the life, renewal and sanctification of God’s People.”[3] 
Beyond the important public events, Chiara Lubich was connected to this great Pope by a personal and deep relationship: the private audiences, often granted with lunch invitations, his presence in many public events of the movement, personal letters and phone calls on special occasions, were “milestones in our movement’s history,” urging Chiara to express herself like this in 2005, at the moment of his death: “I too can personally bear witness to his saintliness.”[4] “He made himself so ‘nothing,’ that sometimes, coming out of our audiences with him, we felt an intense direct union with God alone. Therefore the Pope led you to God, like a true mediator, annulling himself when he has reached this aim.”[5] “We are filled with awe and gratitude for so great a love. At the same time, we are grateful to God for having been able to be close to him, to help him as sons and daughters, and, as a ‘sister,’ as he referred to me in his last letter.”[6] “The Focolare Movement’s experience,” wrote Chiara on that occasion “during these last 27 years is proof of that ‘greater love’ dwelling within John Paul II’s heart. This ‘greater’ love of his called for our love in return; thus the Pope entered into the depths of each member of the movement’s heart. Simple human words, therefore, cannot express who he was for us.”[7] How can we forget the visit of the Holy Father to the international Centre of the Movement at Rocca di Papa on August 19, 1984? On that occasion he explicitly acknowledged the presence of a charism in Chiara’s spiritual experience. He affirmed: “In the Church’s history there have been many radicalisms of love …. There is also your radicalism of love, of Chiara, of the focolarini …. Love opens the way. My wish is that this way, thanks to you, may always be more open for the Church!”[8] And how can we forget some of his expressions about us? During his speech at the Familyfest in Rome, on May 3, 1981, he improvised saying: “Our spirituality is open, positive, optimistic, serene and conquering… You have even conquered the Pope… I said that I wish all of you to be Church. Now I want to say that I wish the Church be you.”[9] And in 1983, on March 20th, during the New Humanity Day: «Many times, when I am sad, what comes to me is… ‘focolarini.’ And I find a consolation, a great consolation!”[10] During his numerous trips as a pilgrim all over the world, he had learnt to recognize our “focolarino people,” as he used to call it, drawing – as Chiara once said – comfort and support from it. In the course of his long pontificate, more than once we felt a special love from him, the profoundness of his paternal glance and nearly his predilection. We remember with gratitude the warm affection shown to Chiara and to a number of us in many circumstances, but also his determining role in recognizing the particular charism given by God to the Church and to humanity through Chiara. An aspect of particular spiritual affinity between Chiara and John Paul II can be recognized in feeling and living the Church as communion, the expression of God’s love for all people. From here came his proposal, expressed in the apostolic letter Novo Millenio Ineunte, for the Church of the third millennium: to live the spirituality of communion in order to bring the Risen Jesus back in the heart of the world.[11] So, in this moment in which we celebrate with immense joy the beatification of John Paul II, we feel once more strongly called by him and by Chiara, with one voice, to fully live the spirituality which God has given us.
Maria Voce
[1] John Paul II – Homily for the 25th anniversary of his pontificate – 16.10.2003 [2] To the cardinals and officials of the Roman Curia – 22.12.1987 [3] John Paul II – To the ecclesial movements and new communities – 30.5.1998 [4] Chiara Lubich – A Greater Love – Living City, May 2005 – Vol.44, No.5, p. 5 [5] Mariapoli n. 4-5/2005 [6] Chiara Lubich – A Greater Love – cit. [7] Chiara Lubich – A Greater Love – cit. [8] Speech of John Paul II to the members of the Focolare Movement – 19.8.1984 [9] Speech of John Paul II to the married couples participating at the meeting “Family and Love” – 3.5.1981 (expression not quoted in the published speech) [10] Speech of John Paul II to the participants of the international meeting of the «New Humanity Movement» – 20.3.1983 (expression not quoted in the published speech) [11] See Novo Millennio Ineunte, n.43
Berlin
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Stuttgart
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Nürnberg
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Munich
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The Resurrection
Christianity is true because Jesus is risen.
So that he wouldn’t be taken from that pitiful tomb a large stone blocked the entrance and in front of that there was a guard. But the story took another direction, through which he left and opened up eternal life, even in death.
The Church exhorts, on the mouth of the empty tomb: heads of State, Kings and magistrates to understand; that which is difficult to understand; so much so that the same mistakes are endlessly repeated: they come from one dictatorship and prepare another; they take note of the second war and plan a third; they take care of people in disasters by adding to their mourning.
Through the countryside of the resurrection pass the delicate figures of women. In these love has overcome fear: and when the apostles had gone to ground hiding, the women came out and looked for the one who is Love: they discovered that He had risen. They find the confirmation of the Gospel: that the religion of Jesus is a duel against death, a victory over it; in fact its substance is love, which knows no limits. Beauty ends, honour terminates, justice stops at the margins of law, but love knows no barrier, it goes beyond the furrows of evil, the background of death. With the sacraments we can assure a continual resurrection from evil, which is the substance of death: and the sacraments, the substance of life, are produced by love, as redemption and as the Church.
Christians are not allowed to despair; they are not allowed to lose heart when faced with death. Their house can collapse, their riches scatter: they will pick themselves up, and take up the fight again: the fight against evil. Christianity lasts whilst it remains firm in the belief of the resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ, our Leader, draws us into and makes us participants in it through his life, he obliges us to never despair. He gives us the secret to lift ourselves up in every fall. He gives us the arms for the fight and the strength to conquer death. The spirit, if it is rooted in Christ, prevails. Ours is a religion of life; the only one in which death has be victoriously, and if we want it, definitively banished.
Today, we are on earth, but linking ourselves to the Christian spirit, people rise again. So, like Mary, who took her son freed from the nails of the cross and held him in her arms, the Church holds our crucified humanity in its womb and prepares it for the resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ must be the reason for us to be reborn in our faith, hope and charity: victorious in our actions against the tendency of death, each one with their neighbour reborn in a unity of affection, every nation reborn, in agreement of actions, with other nations.
St Augustine, in a talk about Easter and the process of our resurrection, couldn’t find better words than to quote the apostle of love who says: – We have passed from death to life because we love our brothers.
And therefore: let us love one another, to help each other to live. In this way we will rise again.
Igino Giorndani, published in Le Feste, Turin, 1954
Apulia
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Campania
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Tuscany
Kappara
[:it]Video: Chiara Lubich, Argentina 1998[:es]Video: Chiara Lubich, Argentina 1998[:zh]1998年4月9日盧嘉勒的復活節祝賀詞與視頻（意大利語）
The Risen Jesus among those who live mutual love
Buenos Aires, 9 April 1998
Televised message by Chiara Lubich - Italian Soundtrack
Dearest people of Argentina,
Here is my wish for this splendid nation of Argentina.
I will not wish something of my own, but something which is in the air of current history.
As we know, beyond our way of seeing things there is another: the one of He who guides history, God.
Now and again He gives signs which indicate His will: the signs of the times. One of these for the present is unity.
Despite the wars which exist in the world, despite the disasters and the inequalities, many things tell us that the world is tending towards unity.
The States in the civil and political world say it, like the European, African, Asian or American countries, which are striving to unite even if in different ways and for different goals. International bodies and organizations, like the UN, say it. The religious world says it. This is the reason we speak of ecumenism and interreligious and intercultural dialogue.
It is also unity I wish for this nation. It already exists, but we can go in depth. How? With fraternal love among everyone, between families, generations, cities and provinces, respecting every identity, in order to transform this society into one big family.
If we do this, the Risen One, which Easter celebrates, will be in the midst of everyone, because He said so.
He will improve everything in every field of human endeavour. He will be Argentina’s fortune, the country’s big chance, its secure future.
Best wishes to all, great and small! My heartfelt greetings especially to those who may be suffering in any way.
Chiara Lubich
Easter 2011: Bringing the Risen Jesus to the streets of the world
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| “Dearest all ,
The Good News that we are still called to live today is that Jesus is risen and is alive in our midst through our mutual love. The evangelical message of 2,000 years ago is still relevant today and draws us all into a new commitment in life and giving witness. The wish that I would like to reach each one of our large family everywhere is to always walk with Him, the Risen One, through the streets of the world.” Maria Voce |
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San Pedro
Encarnación
Ciudad del Este
Santa Rita
Caazapá
Caaguazú
Coronel Oviedo
San Lorenzo
Lambaré
Capiatá
Sohag
كلمة الحياة نيسان 2011
صلّى لتبتعد عنه تلك الساعة، ولكنّه عاد وأسلم ذاته كلّيًا لإرادة الله:
“ولكن ليس ما أريد أنا، بل ما أنت تريد”
كان يسوع يعرف تمام المعرفة أنّ آلامه لم تكن بالحدث المفاجئ، وليست نتيجة قرار بشريّ وحسب، إنّما هي مخطّط الله عليه. سوف يُحاكَم وينبذه الناس، لكنّ الكأس التي سيشربها، تأتي من يد الله.
يُعلّمنا يسوع أنّ للآب مخططَ محبّة على كلّ إنسان، وهو يخصّ كلَّ واحد منا بمحبّة شخصيّة. وفي حال آمنا بهذه المحبة، وتجاوبنا بدورنا معها بمحبّتنا له، فسيؤول كلّ شيء إلى خيرنا. وبالنسبة إلى يسوع ، ليس من أمر، حتّى آلامه وموته، قد حدث صدفة.
ومن ثمّ جاءت القيامة التي نحتفل بها خلال هذا الشهر.
إنّ مَثَل يسوع الذي قام من الموت يجب أن يكون نوراً لحياتنا. يجب أن نرى في كلّ ما يحصل ويحدث من حولنا، حتّى ما يؤلمنا، أمرًا يسمح به الله أو يريده لأنّه يحّبنا. عندها سيكتسب كلُّ شيء في الحياة معنىً ويحمل معه فائدة، حتّى تلك الظروف التي في حينها قد تبدو لنا أنّها تلامس العبث، أو التي لا يفهمها العقل، أو التي ترمي بنا، كما حدث ليسوع، في هوّة من اليأس المميت. يكفينا آنذاك أن نردّد معه وبفعل ثقة كليّ بمحبّة الآب:
“ولكن ليس ما أريد أنا، بل ما أنت تريد”
ما يريده الله منّا هو أن نحيا حياتنا وأن نشكره بفرح على نِعَمِ الحياة. ولكن، قد نظنّ أحيانًا، بخاصّة عندما تواجهنا الآلام، أنّ إرادته أمر مفروض علينا ويجب الاستسلام أمامه، أو هي تتابع أحداث رتيبة مملّة تتوالى في حياتنا.
إنّ إرادة الله هي صوت الله في داخلنا، يُحدّثنا بلا انقطاع ويدعونا إليه، إنّها الطريقة التي يعبّر لنا بها عن حبّه ليهبنا ملء حياته. يمكننا أن نُشبّهها بالشمس وأشعّتها: الأشعّة هي بمثابة إرادة الله على كلّ إنسان. كلّ منّا يتبع شعاعًا مختلفًا عن الذي يسير فيه الآخر الذي يحقّق إرادة الله عليه أيضًا. جميعنا نتمّم إرادة واحدة هي إرادة الله، لكنّها تختلف من الواحد إلى الآخر. ونحن نعلم أنّ تلك الأشعة كلّما اقتربت من الشمس، اقتربت من بعضها بعضًا. هكذا، وبقدر ما نقترب من الله محققّين بشكل كامل إرادته الإلهيّة، يقترب واحدنا من الآخر إلى أن نصبح جميعنا واحدًا.
وإن عشنا على هذا النحو كلّ شيء في حياتنا قد يتبدّل. وبدل أن نتوجّه إلى مَن نرتاح إليهم ونخصّهم بمحبّتنا ونفضلّهم وحسب، سوف نحوّل اهتمامنا نحو جميع مَن تضعه إرادة الله على دربنا. وبدل أن نفضّل القيام بما يعجبنا سنصبح مستعدّين للقيام بما تقترحه علينا مشيئة الله ونفضّله. وأن نعيش إرادة الله بكلّ كياننا في اللحظة الحاضرة “بل ما أنت تشاء”، سوف يحملنا على التخلّي عن كلّ شيء وحتّى عن ذواتنا “ولكن لا ما أنا أشاء”. نحن لا نسعى وراء التخلّي بحدّ ذاته، بل نحن نبحث عن الله من دون سواه؛ فنكون بالنتيجة قد تخلّينا عن ذواتنا. وعندها يكون فرحنا كاملاً. يكفينا أن نغوص في اللحظة الحاضرة وأن نحقّق فيها إرادة الله ونحن نردّد:
“ولكن ليس ما أريد أنا، بل ما أنت تريد”
إنّ الماضي لم يعد بين أيدينا، والمستقبل ليس ملكًا لنا بعد. مثل ذلك المسافر في قطار؛ لكي يصل سريعًا إلى هدفه لا يسير داخل القطار ذهاباً وإياباً بل يجلس هادئًا في مقعده. هكذا لنثبت في اللحظة الحاضرة، لأنّ قطار الزمن يمشي من تلقاء نفسه.
فلنحبّ إذًا تلك الابتسامة التي يجب أن نعطيها، أو العمل الذي علينا أن نقوم به، أو السيّارة التي نقودها، أو الطعام الذي نُحضّره، أو البرنامج الذي نُنظّمه أو من يتألّم بقربنا.
لا تعود المحن أو الآلام تخيفُنا إذا كنّا نعرف، على مثال يسوع، أن نرى فيها إرادة الله أي محبّته لكلّ واحد منّا. لا بل يمكننا أن نردّد هذه الصلاة:
“أعطني يا ربّ ألاّ أخاف شيئًا، لأنّ كلّ ما سوف يحصل هو إرادتك! أعطني ألاّ أرغب بشيء لأنّ ليس هناك ما أرغب به أكثر من إتمام إرادتك وحدها.
ما المهمّ في هذه الحياة؟ وحدها إرادتك مهمّة!
أعطني ألاّ أخاف شيئاً لأنّ إرادتك تسكن كلّ تفاصيل حياتي.
أعطني ألاّ أفتخر بشيء، لأنّ كلّ شيء نابع من إرادتك”.
كيارا لوبيك ( نيسان 2003)
Dominican Republic: The generosity of the young people
It was a special Saturday for the large Focolare family in the Domincan Republic. Seven-hundred people met in the Church’s Casa San Paolo, a small country with a dozen provinces, two-hundred by three-hundred kilometers, but rich in local beauty and “campanalism” with both its positive and negative implications.
This was brought out during the meeting between Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti with 150 young people who are close to the Movement in the Domican Republic. Priscilla, for example, shared how she had moved from her province, Santiago Rodriguez, which is rural and famous for its large banana cultivations, nearer to the capital, in order to study psychology. The adjustment to the new environment, the people, and the way of living wasn’t easy. But being close to the youths of the Focolare helped her to insert herself into her new surroundings, and even to become a leader among her friends.
The young audience sat in silence. It seemed strange, given the exuberant vitality of Dominican youths, who are also capable of great depth and generosity. The questions showed their desire to be radical. And so Maria Voce insisted on speaking about “vocation” and aspiring for great things: «At your age there is a love for taking risks, the spirit of adventure, doing something different. It’s precisely at your age that you have the grace to do something crazy! You can have a lunacy for God, following his call, even if you aren’t sure of it. It’s worth it. » Giancarlo Faletti undscored how «It is in the nature of young people to search, in school they do research, they search for work, sport, love, involvement. It is in these things that each person’s potential is brought into evidence, and also the capacity to listen. Not only to listen to exterior voices, but above all, to the interior voice that asks me why I’m doing what I do. I can’t hide myself in front of so many things, in front of such a busy life: I must listen to the voice that asks me where my life is going. »
The influence of egotistical urges and a lack of clarity also emerged during this meeting, the noise of the city, of temptation and sin: «Our amplifier,» Maria Voce replied, «is the presence of Jesus in our midst, who makes his voice heard, and he makes it heard loudly, even more loudly than all the other noises.» Chiara Luce Badano, the young woman of the Movement who was recently beatified, is an example for their lives, who helps them to face their difficulities even when, what is accepted as normal becomes a cause of judgement against them because of their involvement in a Christian lifestyle that goes against the current. «Well, is it more important to be concerned that your companion is happy with you, or whether God is?» asked Maria Voce. Then «But these young people should be able to feel the joy that there is among you.» It’s not a matter of becoming isolated, but of advancing the beauty of life “with Jesus” in order to share with others the beauty of doing this “together”.
One young woman named Marguerita commented on what Maria Voce said: «When Maria voce spoke to us of Jesus who cried out his abandonment on the cross, I realized that it’s not only suffering, living it doesn’t doesn’t leave us with our suffering, but it brings us the joy of living with Him and for Him.» Pablo from Santo Domingo underscored that «the simple joy that I experienced today is like a virus that I have to spread to my friends.» «You’re generous, » Maria Voce concluded, «you’ve shown me that you are. And so you’re capable of great things. Let’s carry on without any fear to give even more. »
By Michele Zanzucchi
Dominican Republic: “Café con leche” social project
We know that the Dominican Republic is the “Switzerland of the Caribbean”. The central districts of the capital, Santo Domingo, resemble Miami or Houston, but they remain unable to conceal the serious social inequalities that affect Dominican society as a whole. It is nothing like the plight of their Haitian neighbors who are struggling to survive, even though a million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, doing the toughest jobs as construction workers, longshoremen, and banana plantation workers. And you cannot talk about “pockets” of poverty, because here there are entire neighborhoods where it is difficult to lead a decent life.
One such place is Herrera in the El Café area, where Maria Voce went to visit one of the social projects being developed by the Focolare Movement, a school named “Café con leche” – “Coffee with milk – which calls to mind the mulattoes – neither coffee nor milk – the majority of the population in the Dominican Republic. The school has over 500 students who attend morning and afternoon classes in a building that has gradually been growing larger and larger since 1990 when the project was begun.
Everything began with Marisol Jiménez. Seeing the state of extreme poverty in the district and the children in their state of semi-abandonment, she began by organizing a choir in the local parish. Then she organized a summer camp for children, which was repeated for two years and involved 500 children. It soon became clear to her that something had to be done to raise the educational level of the children, many of whom were unable to read or write. Gradually, she was able to engage her friends in the project until, in 1995, the school was opened with three teachers and around ten students.
In an atmosphere of joyful anticipation, with children sitting everywhere, and neighboring families coming to join in the festivities, Maria Voce was able to appreciate the progress that the project has shown, how it has gone ahead with the help of the “adoption at a distance” program of the New Families Movement and the generosity of the Igino Giordani-Foco Foundation, which is now directed by Margarita Rodriguez de Cano.
An incredible series of heroic acts, miracles, spiritual and material growth of the students, have permitted the school to equip hundreds of children to be earning members of the work force. The school is an example of a “holistic education” which is able to involve, support, and appreciate the family, offering hope for human development. The school is also supported by the wood crafts produced by the boys, the clothes and dresses produced by the girls, and other handcrafts that are sold locally and in the United States. The Domincan government and the President of the Republic himself have contributed to the project.
“Even if it all seems small,” said Maria Voce as she stood in the school’s courtyard, “you can feel that love has built something great here. And this remains; love always remains”.
By Michele Zanzucchi
Centro Mariapoli “Madre dell’Umanità”
The Palms
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, amidst cheering and waving of palms, has political significance: not only because the crowd instinctively recognises him as the head of their people but also because, in this circumstance, he himself, the peaceful leader, offers a message of political worth.
On that day, therefore, whilst the multitudes (today we would say ‘crowds’) proclaim him King of Israel, Jesus Christ comes down from the Mount of Olives and – before the whole of Jerusalem, with its white houses and its people gathered around the splendid Temple, in the midst of everyone’s joy – he bursts into tears and cries out: “‘If you too had only recognised on this day the way to peace! But in fact it is hidden from your eyes!
Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side; they will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground; they will leave not one stone standing on another within you, because you did not recognise the moment of your visitation.”
That same day however, the heads of the nation, contrary to the sentiments of the people, rejected his program of peace and confirmed their program of war. That same day they decided definitively to rid themselves of the peaceful Messiah who arrived to Jerusalem on a donkey because this scarlet hero put them face to face with their belligerent messianism.
The entrance into Jerusalem was therefore the celebration of pacific messianism, that is, of a sui generis politics which is crushed by the old sort of politics; an old politics which believed (and which perhaps would believe again) in God and his law but trusted (and would trust again) more in the sword that in the squires; more in army tanks than in the Sinai announcement. This decrepit, lunatic politics sows war even in peace treaties, transforms a nation into an army and turns farmer’s fields into battle grounds.
Jesus’ messianic politics can be summarised under the heading ‘Kingdom of God’: a regime whose constitution is God’s law, a regime that upholds God as its purpose and principle. The nation is organised therein: God’s nation, guided on the tracks of peace. This kingdom of God also translates into a social constitution: it’s law is the Gospel and it entails unity, solidarity, equality, paternity, social service, justice, rationality, truth; it fights against war, tyranny, enmity, error, stupidity…
To search for the Kingdom of God therefore is to search for the happiest conditions for the life of the individual and of society. And this is easy to understand: where God reigns, man is God’s son, a being of infinite worth, who treats other men as brothers, who is treated as a brother by other men, who does unto others as he would have done unto him. In God’s kingdom the world’s goods are fraternally put in common and love circulates with forgiveness; frontiers are worthless, senseless because of the universality of love. Putting the Kingdom of God before all else therefore means raising life’s goal. In this sense we too can say that Christ has “overcome the world”.
Beyond this meaning, Jesus doesn’t deal with politics, nor do the apostles. But their teaching contains principles that, if not of a practical, immediate, biased political nature, they are of soaring and guiding wisdom which supports the great and universal art of governance in every age. Jesus doesn’t touch existing institutions, he transforms their spirit by transforming sentiments of men. He doesn’t tell the soldiers to desert their duties, nor does he tell the tax-collectors to abandon office or the members of the Sanhedrin to step down from the Supreme Court: he simply tells them to carry out their work with a new spirit. He doesn’t create commotion, he brings about revolution. He does this by transforming the spirit there where it needs to be transformed.
(Igino Giordani, Le Feste, SEI, Torino, 1954, pp. 104-110).