[:it]Dalla prefazione di Sergio Zavoli
[:it]La “cosa pubblica” è un affare che mi riguarda[:es]La vida pública es una situación que me interpela[:fr]La «chose publique» est une affaire qui me concerne
[:it]Quell’amore “speciale” che rivoluziona
A united world is possible!
As in previous years, United World Week this year was held contemporaneously in major population points around the world, ranging from the tsunami-stricken areas to the U.S.A., Africa, Middle East and other “hot spots,” from Moscow to Patagonia.
The motto: “Give a hand to our city,” highlighted the commitment of the “Youth for a United World” (the promoters of United World Week) to do something for their own city, town, or village, with special outreach to the needy. In view of leading more and more people to believe that “A united world is possible!” the youth got local institutions and entities involved. They also collected the impressions of the adolescents who just concluded their ‘Run4Unity’ relay race in 300 cities all over the world.
United World Week was concluded on Oct. 15 and 16 with two “planetary phone calls,” where the youth participants in about 100 localities were linked up to listen to Chiara Lubich’s message and exchange impressions and experiences.
Birth of the idea. Ten years ago, at the conclusion of the Genfest 1995 in Rome, a proposal was launched to the youth all over the world, to public and private institutions, both national and international; in short, to everyone. It was not only a proposal; rather, it was an appointment – United World Week. Its aim? To highlight and give value to initiatives that promote unity … at all levels.” At ten years from that historic moment, the balance sheet is positive – all ten editions of United World Week have attracted wide-scale participation all over the world.
News of United World Week around the globe
Indonesia: In Medan, there were meeting points at the University throughout the week, to get acquainted and to work together for the victims of the tsunami and the earthquake at Nias; also scheduled: a marathon race and an ecology project to clean up the city (population: 3 million). Singapore: Initiatives to promote dialogue and understanding among youth of different religions by following the “Golden Rule.” Everyone was invited to make a commitment to build “a more united Singaporean society.” Signatures were collected to accompany a declaration that will be presented to the government. India: In Mumbai, there were fund-raising activities for the building of an orphanage; in New Delhi: Cineforum and visit to the poor in the houses of Mother Teresa; in Goa, prayer vigil for peace.
U.S.A. : In Manhattan, New York, at the Jesuits’ Fordham University, one of the activities of the United World Week was a program entitled “Interreligious Dialogue: A Way to Peace.” Argentina: In Rosario, night at the theater to benefit Project Africa in collaboration with one of the city’s universities. Bolivia: “We chose one of the most disadvantaged cities – El Alto. A revolution deposed the President of Bolivia two years ago. This city, situated 4,000 m above sea level and inhabited mostly by descendants of the Aymara (the first people of Bolivia), symbolizes our efforts to build unity among the Bolivians. Together with adult members of the Movement, for more than a year now we have been holding monthly sessions dedicated to discussion of current national issues, viewed in the light of the Gospel. We named these initiatives ‘De El Alto al Alto’.” This was what the Youth for a United World of Cochabamba wrote us, as they organized the activities for the United World Week together with their Aymara friends, all of them “high level” projects. Brazil: At Sao Paulo, 123,000 calendar notebooks were printed containing the United World Week calendar of activities as a reminder of its message and how it can be put into practice. Tanzania: In Iringa, following the encounter with the municipal authorities to inform them of the initiatives of the Youth for a United World, there was an ecology-inspired activity and a meeting organized at the orphanage. Lebanon: The Youth for a United World have for some months now been working in teams to get the involvement of public institutions and to try to respond to Lebanon’s current problems. One of the strategies is interreligious dialogue. Scheduled for the United World Week: social activities with Muslim families in Nabaa; artistic and cultural activities like painting and music; forum on new politics at Beirut’s Faculty of Medicine; ecology day. Italy: In Loppiano (Florence): forum on “Fraternity – A Response to the Terrorist Emergency;” soccer match with friends of the Arab community of Figline Valdarno. In Lazio region: culinary contest; forum on the theme of immigration; meal service to the poor; program for children patients at Genzano Hospital; conclusion at Nettuno with various “unity workshops.”
[:it]Meditazioni per la vita pubblica
Peace Landmarks
The Young for Unity raced across the globe’s symbolic sites Places that had known suffering:tsunami-stricken Medan (Indonesia): the relay race, held at the University of Sumatra Utara campus, took place at 6 a.m. (local time) in view of the hot climate. Johannesburg (South Africa): the sports activities took place at Regina Mundi, a place which had a significant role in the end of apartheid.
To appeal for the end of all conflicts: In New York (U.S.A.), the race course included the road past the United Nations. In Jerusalem (Israel), a message of peace was carried to the respective sacred places of the three monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism). In Nagasaki (Japan), the relay race started at the point where the atomic bomb was dropped 60 years ago. It closed with a meal at the clinic for radiation victims. In New Caledonia, the appointment was at St. Louis, site of frequent conflicts between the people of Wallis and of Melanesia, the island’s natives.
Places that symbolize unity: In Panama, the race course included the Bridge of the Americas which unites the north with the south of the continent. Slovak and Hungarian participants crossed the Mount Valeria bridge over the Danube, which had been built to mark the end of rivalry between the two nations. In Seoul (Korea) the race took place in a place which is symbolic of the unity between the two Koreas.
Significant spots: From Marathon (Greece), the city from which the modern sport got its name, the race followed the route which unites the city to Athens. In Oslo (Norway), the relay was in the form of a canoe race along the fjords. In Mexico City, there was a stop-over at the Anthropological Museum, a monument to the nation’s pre-Hispanic, indigenous culture. In Melbourne (Australia), the starting point was Federation Square, symbol of Australia’s multiethnic society. In Amman (Jordan), the race passed around Mount Nebo, and included a telephone link-up with Baghdad (Iraq).
Interreligious participation: This was a characteristic of most of the events, especially in Coimbatore (India) where both Christian and Hindu youth competed. The relay race between Christians and Muslims in Cairo (Egypt) took place against the backdrop of the Pyramids. In Buenos Aires (Argentina), a large number of Jewish young people participated, while in Bangkok and in Chiang Mai (Thailand), Christian and Buddhist youth competed.
In Italy: 30 relay races took place which touched cities like Oniferi and Orani (Nuoro, Sardinia), the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, the ‘Sassi’ (tr. – ‘Boulders’) in Matera, the Square of the Miracles in Pisa, and the Palace of the Normans in Palermo.
[:it]Programma radiocronaca: “R4U RADIO”[:es]PROGRAMA RADIO CRONICA
“Let our cities live again”
“Let our cities live again” is the motto of the relay race entitled ‘Run4unity.’ Boys and girls of different languages, cultures and religions have fixed an appointment from 11 to 12 a.m. on Sunday, October 9, in the most important places of their respective countries to ask that universal brotherhood become a reality as soon as possible. The worldwide event is a day dedicated to sports as a way of bearing common witness to building a united world. It involves a number of cities and has for its guideline the Gospel’s ‘Golden Rule’: “Do unto others what you would have others do unto you,” which is present also in the sacred books of the main religions of the world. By walking, running, on skates or on bicycle, the participants all over the world have set as their goal those places where there is tension or which are recognized as landmarks of peace. They will also pass by headquarters of local and international institutions. In Rome the relay race will conclude at St. Peter’s Square with the hope of having a word of greeting from the Pope during the Angelus. Countries of the Northern and Southern hemispheres will offer a sharing of goods by giving the participants the chance to donate thingsthey own, which will then be distributed to the disadvantaged young people in their respective cities or to maintain scholarships for youth in war-torn or poverty-stricken countries.
There will be radio updates in streaming and telephone link-ups in real time from 11 p.m. (Italian time) of Saturday, October 8 to 11 p.m. (Italian time) of Sunday, October 9 with Noumea (New Caledonia), Coimbatore (India), Jerusalem (Israel), Fontem (Cameroon), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Sao Paulo (Brazil), New York (USA). From October 10 to 16, the boys and girls participating will pass the race on to the youth of the Focolare Movement who will celebrate the World Unity Week (www.mondounito.net), a worldwide appointment which includes round table forums, demonstrations, cultural evenings and activities on the subject of peace and unity in all levels of society, with the aim of rendering public opinion and institutions more sensitive to the ideal of a united world and to generating universal brotherhood among all.
Word of life of October 2005
These decisive words fix our lives in God and then, with the light and strength that comes from this, they launch us into the service of humanity. With these words Jesus answers a question posed by a group of Pharisees and some of Herod’s men: were they obligated to pay taxes to the occupying Roman powers? This was a trap set up to trick him. If Jesus would have answered yes, the Pharisees would have accused him of collaborating with the enemy and he might have lost the trust of the people. If he would have answered no, then Herod’s men, who were connected with the Roman authorities, would have said that he was subversive and would have accused him of being a political agitator. Jesus then asked them to show him a silver coin used to pay taxes and to tell him whose image and inscription was on it. They answered that it was the Emperor’s. If it is the Emperor’s, Jesus said, then give to the Emperor what is his. He thus recognized the value of civil authority and institutions. But his answer goes beyond this dimension, indicating what is truly important: to give to God what is already his. Just as the image of the Emperor is on the Roman coin, so too has the image of God been imprinted on the heart of every person: he created us in his image and likeness (see Gn 1:26). We therefore belong to him and must return to him. Only to him should be given the total and exclusive tribute of our lives. What is most important is not paying the taxes due to the Roman Emperor, but giving to God our own lives and our own hearts.
«Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God»
How should we live this Word of Life? By renewing our respect, our sense of responsibility for and our commitment to civic affairs, by honoring the law, protecting life, and maintaining the safety and order of society’s structures: public buildings, roads, means of transportation, and so forth. We can do it, not by taking a back seat but by offering an active contribution, decisive and well-thought-out ideas, proposals, and suggestions on how to improve our neighborhood, city and nation. We can volunteer our services in social and healthcare agencies, and we can increasingly improve the quality of our work. By fulfilling our responsibilities with competency and love we can truly serve Jesus in our brothers and sisters, and thus help the government and society to respond to God’s plan for humanity and to be completely at the service of each human person.
«Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God»
Andrea Ferrari, a bank clerk in Milan, was able to live out this Word of Life in the office where he worked. “Every morning,” he once wrote, “just a few minutes before 8:30, I walk into the office building, punch the time clock and my day at work begins. It’s an odd sort of job; I’m always coming and going, up and down stairs, waiting in front of closed windows, receiving and giving out forms — and I’ve been doing it for years now. If I keep loving always, even when under stress, for example, with letters that have to be written over and over again, I will have done all that is expected of me, because I feel quite certain that Jesus is the one who has chosen this place for me.” “I am a bank clerk,” he would say with simplicity to Jesus, “and I want to serve you as a bank clerk. This is my life, Lord. I want to fill it with Love!” An elderly woman remarked that she always felt Andrea treated her not as an anonymous customer but as a “person.” One day she wished to express her thanks and brought him a bag full of fresh eggs! At thirty-one years of age, Andrea lay dying in a hospital in Turin, as a result of a traffic accident. “Am I to die like this, alone, without seeing anyone?” The nun nursing him responded that one needs to accept the will of God. On hearing these words, Andrea took courage and smiled. “We have learned to recognize God’s will as our ideal, always, even in the small things,”1 he responded, and then he added with his usual wit, “even in front of a red light.” He had obeyed God, and in this obedience of love he returned to God. Chiara Lubich
[:it]I segni dello Spirito nel Novecento
Bishops of different Churches received by the Orthodox Church Patriarch Teoctist I
In response to the invitation of Rumanian Orthodox Church Patriarch Teoctist I and his Synod, the annual international Meeting of Bishops from different Churches, friends of the Focolare Movement, was held this time in Bucarest, Rumania, a country considered to be, in many ways, a bridge between the East and West.
The Patriarch himself opened the meeting which was attended by bishops from 19 different countries. The Orthodox Church was represented by bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, of the Patriarchates of Rumania, Serbia, and of the OrthodoxChurch of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Also present were Bishops of the Syrian-Orthodox Church from Syria, India and the Netherlands. The Anglican Church of England was also represented, as well as the Lutheran Churches of Germany and Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Rumania and the United States. A Bishop of the Methodist Church of Brazil participated, and 14 Catholic bishops from different countries.
“The presence of the Risen Lord in the midst of his people: center of ecclesial life and heart of our shared witness,” was the title of the meeting, the theme which was developed in the reflections offered. The mystery of Jesus who becomes present – as he promised – where “two or more are united in his name” was the topic the bishops wished to deepen as a means to communicate the Faith in these present times and a way to reach full visible communion of the Church of Christ. Theological and spiritual reflections were interwoven with moments of dialogue and exchange of experiences which demonstrated the action of the Risen Christ in daily life and in the most varied environments.
Chiara Lubich gave an important contribution to deepening the mystery of Jesus’ presence through a videotaped conversation, since this presence of Jesus in the community is the characteristic of the charism of unity.
Contact with the monastic life, liturgy and iconography of the orthodox Church in Rumania, was an enrichment and an added impulse towards reaching a more profound communion with the Rumanian Orthodox Church and with other Churches existing in the country.
In turn, bishops coming from different countries were able to offer their witness of fraternal communion to this nation which, in answer to the cry “unity, unity” gave a significant contribution to the cause of Christian unity on the occasion of John Paul II’s visit to Rumania in 1999.
Patriarch Teoctist: let us solve the problems together with love
05/10/2005 
Rumanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist, who invited and hosted the annual international meeting of 40 bishops, friends of the Focolare Movement, at the Patriarch’s Palace in Bucarest, also attended some of the sessions. The bishops’ reflections centered on the title and theme: “The presence of the Risen Lord in the midst of his people: center of ecclesial life and heart of our shared witness,” as a contribution to full communion among the Churches. Two video-taped conversations of Chiara Lubich developed the theme of the meeting, particularly characterized by the warm brotherly relationships among the participants. The Patriarch gave the welcome address at the beginning of the meeting and attended the last day, where also representatives of different Churches and of the civic society were present. During the conclusion, Focolare members of different ages and vocations offered their experiences of living out their commitment among the youth, in the family, in the parish and in the sphere of economy and of politics. Among the 300 people present, there were also some members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Rumania. In his closing remarks, the Patriarch said: “We see the world moving ever farther away from Christ; love is lacking (…). Unfortunately, I also have to note that we are still far from that moment when we can give a shared witness that we are totally at the service of the Word of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us love one another so that we can give the witness of being one mind: it is a word which always warms our hearts. During these days I had the chance to listen to special things (…). Hearing the young people share their experiences, I thought how advantageous it would be if we bishops and our Churches would try to see together, as the young people do, the problems that embitter us (…). I say this with all sincerity, because I see here before me the Catholic bishops of the Bizantine rite. We of the Rumanian Orthodox Church recognize that in our relationships with them, we are far from justice and truth, and above all, from the love of Christ. Let us also try – following the example of these young people and of these our brothers – to find ways of solving the problems that we still have. We can do it if we want.” Conscious of the unsolved issues between the Catholic Church of the Bizantine Rite in Rumania and the Rumanian Orthodox Church, problems linked to the confiscation of ecclesiasial property during the communist regime, Patriarch Teoctist’s words deeply struck those present and brought back to mind the people’s cry of “Unity! Unity,” which in 1999 accompanied the embrace between the Patriarch and John Paul II, then on his visit to Rumania. The Divine Liturgy on Sunday, celebrated by Patriarch Teoctist was a very solemn moment. After his homily, he invited Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, Archbishop of Prague and main promoter of the meeting, to say a few words. The convention also included an encounter with the entire Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Rumania, made up of the Catholic bishops both of the Latin as well as the Bizantine rite.
The Catholic Mass concelebrated in St. Joseph’s Cathedral, where the hymns of the Catholic choir alternated with those of the Orthodox students of the Faculty of Theology of Cluj, was an eloquent sign of communion. The Catholic bishops and those of other Churches entered together in procession in the crowded cathedral. The Catholic Archbishop of Bucarest Joan Robu said in his homily, “This week you have lived among us as a spring of life, of new ideas. This offers me true hope of unity.” Also included in the programme of the meeting was the possibility to get to know the monastic life of Curtea de Arges, Bistrita and Horezu and the very rich liturgy and iconography of the Rumanian Orthodox Church. Visits were also made to the different Christian communities (Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican) present in Bucarest and there was participation in their respective liturgical celebrations.
The Orthodox Church was represented by bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, of Rumania, Serbia, and the Orthodox Church of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Also present were members of the Syrian-Orthodox Church from Syria, India and the Netherlands. The Anglican Church of England was also represented, as well as the Lutheran Churches of Germany, Rumania, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, and the United States. The Mar Thoma Syrian Church of India was represented by a bishop. A Bishop of the Methodist Church of Brazil also participated, and there were 14 Catholic bishops from different countries present.
Joy comes from giving of oneself, also in sports activities
Dear participants of the 3rd Sportmeet International Congress, I learned that you are gathered in Trent, the city where the Focolare Movement was born, for the Congress entitled “Sport and Joy – Joy runs together with true sport.” I extend a particular greeting to all those present and to all the people of the city who will join you. To you, my ardent wish that this event may contribute to the expansion of “Trento Ardente” (Ardent Trent), a reality always very dear to us. From ancient times, sport has been conceived as a time of rejoicing both for participants and spectators. It is not just by chance that the Olympic Games have endured up to our times Christianity later gave value not only to the men and women who won, but also to the glory rendered to God who created people who are particularly gifted physically (be they individuals or groups), not to mention the contribution of the teachers, trainers and supporters. With Christianity in particular, the losers learned the value of their suffering and defeat, because the Son of God has given value to these. Those who lose may even experience a deeper joy, that which comes from having given: given of themselves in endless hours of training or in co-operating as a team member that when united gives wholly of itself during a public performance. Inner joy, the purest joy can come only from giving, from loving, on the part of the winners (if they strove and won out of love) as well as the losers (if they, too, strove and lost out of love). Sport, then, becomes something true, worthy of being raised up to its dignity in society, something that provides true recreation for people in this very stressful civilization of ours. True sport then becomes an element that generates closeness, brotherhood and peace among peoples and nations. In ancient Greece, all wars were suspended during the Olympic Games. May we not fall short of the example those people set for us. With this wish, I greet all of you again, the youth in particular, whom I wish would experience the joy of true sport. Chiara Lubich
Sport and Joy: joy runs together with true sport
“The growth of sports in society and its consequences,” “Sport and the ambition to succeed and get rich,” “The educational value of the sport models offered by the world today,” “Is happiness found in practicing, or in achieving success in sports?” These issues and concerns of the sports’ world formed the nucleus of discussion in an international Congress entitled ‘Sport and Joy: joy runs together with true sport.’ The event was held in conjunction with the United Nations International Year of Sport and Physical Education. It was promoted by Sportmeet for a United World, which aims at initiating a dialogue with the world of sports regarding the ties that link physical activity, sport and happiness – quite a challenging correlation in our times, when the experience of lasting personal and collective happiness seems to be an illusion.
Experts, educators and people involved in the sports’ world helped define the theme of sport and joy and its sociological, economic, educational and psychological implications.
What is Sportmeet all about? It is a worldwide network of people involved in the field of sports, who aim to help build a more united world precisely through sports activities. Sportmeet is one of the expressions of the Focolare Movement. Forthcoming appointments October 9, 2005: Sportmeet will collaborate with Run4Unity, a planetary relay race promoted by the Young for Unity of the Focolare Movement. The 24-hour race for peace is currently being organized in 10 cities around the world (www.run4unity.org).
Together for peace and unity in Central America
“Like you, most Salvadorians believe that to work together to build a more united Central America is not a utopia, but an aspiration inscribed in the very culture, history, and even in the topography of our region,” affirmed the President of El Salvador), Antonio Elias Saca, in his welcome address to the 2,000 people gathered in the Amphitheater of the El Salvador International Fair. The president recalled the region’s pre-Columbian cultural unity, the efforts to achieve political unity with the Central American Republic during the post-independence period (1821-1842), as well as the new efforts at unification during the latter half of the 20th century through the institution of the MERCOMUN.
The participants – many of whom were young people – came from Central American countries. As in many other regions of the world, here too a process of unification is currently taking place due to the growing awareness that only in collective efforts can a solution to current social conflicts be achieved and peace strengthened.
“There is much talk about economic, social and political integration, but also a religious integration should take place as well,” emphasized Dr. Rodrigo Samayoa of the Allianza Republicana Nacional (National Republican Alliance) Party. This meeting, the first of its kind in the region’s history, was promoted by ecclesial Movements, new communities and groups belonging to different Churches, which have started directing their efforts towards achieving greater collaboration, and thus contributing to the spiritual unity of the region and of the whole Latin American continent.
The dignitaries present at the meeting included representatives of such political parties as the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) and the Democratic Revolutionary Front. Their presence was particularly welcome, considering that not many years have passed since these groups passed from the option of violence to that of politics, to restore social justice in their country. “Events like these bring us spirituality and hope, where one gives and receives,” commented Violeta Mejivar of the FMLN.
The journey towards unification received the encouragement of Pope Benedict XVI who, in his message read by the Apostolic Nunzio, Archbishop Luigi Pezzutto, exhorted everyone “to be open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to progress in the journey you have undertaken, committing yourselves to building up a world faithful to God, more full of the spirit of solidarity, more just and fraternal.”
The many experiences shared revolved around the theme of peace, a new lifestyle favorable to dialogue and integration of different peoples and cultures, family values and solidarity with the poor of Central America and the world. They were offered by members of Savior of the World Movement, Charismatic Movement, Cursillos, Heraldos del Evangelio (Heralds of the Gospel), Focolare Movement, Young Christ Community, St. Egidio Community, Marriage Encounter, Prayer and Life, and Body of Christ Community.
In her message, Chiara Lubich emphasized specific characteristics of this region, rich in history, culture and art – as evidenced by the great Mayan civilization – but also marked by the sufferings caused by colonialism and civil wars; now it is displaying renewed creativity and innovative collaborative efforts.” Chiara Lubich’s message underlined “the call to unity,” and “the challenge of brotherhood,” as the way to fulfill this call.
Prof. Andrea Riccardi of St. Egidio Community emphasized in his message that in El Salvador and in other parts of the Americas, “there is a need for people who dream of a new world of peace. I feel that the meeting in Salvador brings us closer to this goal.”
The culminating point of the event was the declaration of a commitment to peace and brotherhood presented by the delegates of the different Movements and new communities and the religious leaders of different Christian Churches: Gregorio Rosa Chavez, Catholic auxiliary bishop of El Salvador; Barahona, bishop of the Anglican Presbyterian Church; Hector Fernandez of the Lutheran Church; Miguel Tomas Castro of the Baptist Church; and Santiago Flores of the Reformed Calvinist Church.
September, the date chosen for the meeting in San Salvador, is a symbolic month because of two dates: the 11th, anniversary of the terrorist attack on New York; and the 15th, anniversary of the Independence of Central American countries.
“Together for Central America” came as a sequel to the large meeting of 10,000 people in May 2004, in Stuttgart, Germany. Entitled “Together for Europe,” it was aimed at giving a “soul” to the process of unification of the European continent.
Arts at the heart of Interdependence
Professor Benjamin Barber,
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,
I still remember very well the second Interdependence day in Rome. I wish I were with you in Paris, though, I’m present with this message.
This third step along our road places the Arts at the heart of Interdependence, for this way of life can build deep relationships among individuals and among peoples.
The encounter of civilizations, now irreversible, has led us far from our old cultural views. We realize now that they were often inadequate or biased because they were deprived of relationships between peoples. This is very good.
But there’s the other side of the coin: many of us were not ready for these changes. A feeling of insecurity prevailed, together with intolerance, caused by the fear that we might lose both our own way of thinking and our deepest values.
It can’t be so.
Among the material and spiritual ruins of the Second World War, my first companions and I discovered that Love is the only Ideal that always remains. This Love is God, who sustains and gives meaning to everything.
This unique discovery led us to start loving the person next to us. Always and everywhere we got an immediate answer from every man or woman of whatever culture, faith, tradition. This is because the DNA of Love lies in the heart of every person, even if it is sometimes hidden.
Looking at the world in this way, we can see we are brothers and sisters of every man or woman we approach, because we are children of the one God, who is Love. If we look back at history we can identify certain occasions when fraternity has been lived. This is what is happening today, here.
Then we can rely on the strength of Love to take up the present historic challenge of multiculturalism.
Love loves everyone; it moves every heart so that a communion of goods may be achieved. It loves the other’s homeland as well as its own, it builds up new structures so that war, terrorism, quarrels, hunger and the thousands of evils of the world draw back.
Love takes an active part in lively dialogues between people of the most diverse religions, based on the « golden rule » – « do for the others what you’d like them to do for you » – present in all the holy books, and it reconstructs the spiritual history of mankind.
Love makes the men and women of this earth able to embrace the whole world, able to offer their own values as a gift to the others, able to enhance the values of the other cultures, in order to work out a global wisdom, which is so necessary today.
Then humankind will live up to a fraternal interdependence, as one family capable of building structures that can express the movement from unity to diversity and vice versa.
I ask God, the source of Love, to help us make this dream come true.
Chiara Lubich
Liliana Cosi’s address
It’s a great honor and joy for me to be here and to represent Chiara Lubich, the founder and president of the international Focolare Movement, on this occasion.
The link between Chiara Lubich and Pr. Barber is much more than a deep friendship. It is a reciprocal convergence of views and commitments.
Since the first Interdependance Day which took place in Philadelphia, U.S.A., it became obvious that the main goal of the Focolare Movement – to work for the unity of the human family – strongly supported all the values of the Interdependence ideal.
According to Chiara Lubich, universal brotherhood is the basis and the guarantee of true interdependence among peoples. The recent tragic events in the world show that fraternity is an inalienable condition to reach a future of peace. But fraternal interdependence requires the contribution of all the powers, not only the political ones but also the cultural and spiritual ones.
The topic of this third Interdependance Day, “Arts and culture at the heart of Interdependence” really moved me, it’s almost prophetic.
When I met the focolare Movement in the sixties, I was ballet dancer at the Scala of Milan and I was about to leave for the Bolshoi, in Moscow. The life style of the focolare opened new perspectives to me, well described by the following words of Albert Camus :
“Often he who has chosen the fate of the artist because he felt himself to be different, soon realizes that he can maintain neither his art nor his difference unless he admits that he is like the others. The artist forges himself through a continuous to-and-fro between himself and the others, midway between the beauty he cannot do without and the community he cannot tear himself away from.”
In fact, in the course of my long international career, I have experienced how much relationships with others and brotherhood have been a source of inspiration for me, especially through the creation of an international school of ballet dance with a Rumanian dancer. As a matter of fact, I discovered with amazement how enriching it is to put aside one’s own inspiration and culture in order to welcome those of someone else.
But this model of brotherhood has also generated various projects and meetings among artists of different ages, trends and cultures, where they could experience the fruitful sharing of talents, inspirations and compositions. Many young artists have become interested in this new way of working, and they are searching for new artistic expressions, which are open to a transcending dimension.
Chiara Lubich once said : “The artist is probably the closest to God (…) He is able to transmit what is the most sacred on earth : the human soul.”
The Focolare Movement would like to contribute to the revelation of the high vocation of the artist. It implies that the artist should let his soul be expanded through love and communion with others, and that he should draw from his inner self an art, that witnesses the suffering and distress of human kind, but also reveals its deepest aspirations and the infinite which each person has within him or her self : art as a sign of hope for the whole world.
Relying on the strength of love to take up the present historic challenge of multiculturalism
“We can rely on the strength of Love to take up the present historic challenge of multiculturalism.” A love that is rooted in God and “makes the men and women of this earth able to embrace the whole world, able to offer their own values as a gift to the others, able to enhance the values of the other cultures, in order to work out a global wisdom, which is so necessary today. Then humankind will live up to a fraternal interdependence, as one family capable of building structures that can express the movement from unity to diversity and vice versa.”
This is the heart of Chiara Lubich’s message, read at the conclusion of the Interdependence Day held in Paris from September 10-12, 2005.
The three-day-meeting consisted of cultural and political events affirming global interdependence as a civic strategy for peace and justice. The participants included Harry Belafonte, United Nations Cultural Ambassador; Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders); Adam Michnik, Polish Solidarity Movement co-founder; and a large number of political dignitaries.
Interdependence Day started being held after the September 11 terrorist attack. It is an initiative of American democratic political scientist Benjamin Barber, professor at the University of Maryland, born out of his conviction that “it is not sufficient to say no to war; we must build up an alternative.” The objective of Interdependence Day is to prepare individuals and groups, by promoting formation activities in schools for example, to commit themselves to international cooperation and become citizens not only of their own communities and nations, but of the interdependent world, knowing that each person can be a principal agent of change. This initiative is shared by a large number of people in America and in other countries who believe in multilateralism, in dialogue among cultures, and in the need for a global citizenship. The first Interdependence Day, sponsored by CivWorld, an affiliate of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland , was held on September 12, 2003 and was celebrated in Philadelphia – the home of American Independence – as well as in Budapest, to establish its international character. The 2004 celebration included the signing of a new European Charter of Interdependence. It was held in Rome Italy, hosted by Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni. Chiara Lubich of the Focolare Movement and Andrea Riccardi of the Community of St. Egidio were among the participants. In this year’s Interdependence Day, held at the American University of Paris, the Focolare Movement was represented by Liliana Cosi, prima ballerina and co-director of the Cosi-Stefanescu Classical Ballet Company and exponent of the artistic disciplines of the Focolare Center of Studies. Liliana Cosi presented the Focolare Movement and its contribution in the field of arts.
From drug trafficking to a life spent for a united world
I come from the southern province of Colombia, a region of farmers with a strongly individualistic culture, where each one tries in every possible way to escape poverty. The family is not given much importance; one enjoys the company of “friends,” but only a few. God? God is far away. I too had only one major concern: to get rich. In a place like this, it was easy for me to enter the drug scene. I started working on the plantation, then I joined in small-scale distribution – just the right job for someone who wants to make easy money. Fortunately my conscience began to bother me. At night I would read the Bible I borrowed from someone, and I realized that what I was doing was completely opposed to what the Bible says. It was during this period of my life that some of my cousins invited me to a youth meeting. There I found something special: the young people wanted to put the Gospel into practice. When I went back to work, I decided to give it a try: I began by changing some of my attitudes. In short I tried to “re-educate” myself, but the point was that I could not continue staying in that circle. My customers tried to convince me that it was only a question of selling medicine and God was out of the picture, because he created us free and we had to earn our daily bread. I reached the conclusion that the only way to get out of the circle was to leave. Most of the people I knew could not understand my decision, not only because I was letting go of “the best business ever,” but also because my choice exposed me to serious risks: I was defying “the law of the toughest.” But I made it. I started spending my time for other people by working in public organizations. I got in touch with those young people who wanted to put the Gospel into practice, to see what we could do together for our country. I told them of my desire to live a new life; they then spoke to me of the Economy of Communion. Before, I thought that one had to be rich to be able to give; now I understood that one can also give the little that he has. I organized a group to help other people like me, and we started several activities: a gym, a soccer team, and service projects for the needy. In all this, we tried to break through the barrier of individualism and build up a sense of community and inter-action. For example, our neighbor’s house burned down. We asked him what kind of help he needed most; he asked for cement to build a water tank. We worked to earn the money, we paid for the cement and gave him the receipt so he could get the cement himself. There was a father of seven children who could not finish building his house because he had no time. He asked us to get the wood he needed, found along a steep mountain trail, 4 kilometers away. It took us 8 hours straight to do the job, but the man could not stop thanking us for this favor. We also went to a home for the elderly, to bring them farm products. This is how a chain of sharing began. It makes us feel more united and allows us to overcome old grudges and divisions, giving us a real sense of brotherhood. (J.S. – Colombia)
Fraternity, political agent for peace
Colombia is a country plagued by guerrilla warfare and drug trafficking – wounds that nonetheless have been unable to suppress the people’s vitality and urge to react. Like other countries of the so-called New Continent, signs of reawakening are emerging, especially from the new generations. It was thanks to their initiative that a meeting of youth from different Latin American countries took place from September 8 to 10 at Tocancipà, an important region of industrial development near Bogotà. The aim of the meeting: to unite peace forces in Colombia and throughout the continent. Title: “Fraternity: a political agent for peace.” Promoters: politically committed youth members of the Focolare Movement, the Third Millenium Generation, and the Promised Land Foundation. The challenge posed by the meeting was decidedly praiseworthy: Colombia has been suffering serious internal conflicts for over 20 years, between government forces and guerilla elements. The result, a yearly death toll of close to one thousand among the civilian population, union workers, politicians, human rights activists and journalists. Then there is the sad phenomenon of the desplaçados – the two million or more persons who are forced to leave the rural areas and move to the cities, leaving behind their houses and possessions. The Colombian meeting was held just a week after the meeting of the first Latin American university parliament in Buenos Aires, and just a few months after the recent “Cities for Unity,” meeting held at Rosario (Argentina) – the first convention of Latin American mayors, promoted by the members of the International Political Movement for Unity (MPPU) belonging to the Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Here, too, the youth played a major role. Moreover, several MPPU courses for formation for the youth for young people began a year ago in Argentina, one more sign of the new initiatives that are emerging in the “New Continent.” “Without you, peace cannot be full:” With these words, the young people extended the invitation to their peers to join the meeting. The price of admission: let fraternity guide your every action.
Among the objectives of the meeting: to listen to what the youth have to say about the problems in Latin America; to propose together concrete solutions that could have a direct impact on achieving the common good of each one’s community of origin; to promote interaction between the youth and public and private institutions, and to create a network among those who work to build a peaceful, just, worthy, autonomous and fraternal society.
The programalso included a presentation of the experience of Argentina’s socio-political formation schools, and of “the practice of fraternity” worked out in one Latin American city. Round table discussions revolved around such topics as conflict and peace; fraternity as a pro-peace methodology in the context of problem situations in Latin America, especially Colombia; the need to found a new economic paradigm and the Economy of Communion. Discussions were then followed by workshops.
[:it]La fraternità nella città[:fr]La fraternité dans la ville[:pt]A fraternidade na cidade
Chiara Lubich's commentary on the Word of life of September 2005
Despite the difficulties that they had with the civil authorities and the citizens, a small Christian community had come to life in Philippi and a few years later Paul wrote a letter to urge these believers to remain loyal and steadfast in their duties as citizens.
A little further down, in the same letter, Paul reminded them that for Christians our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20). This, however, does not exempt them from performing their social and political responsibilities. On the contrary, precisely because they are citizens of the Kingdom of Christ, Christians are strongly motivated to put themselves at the service of everyone and to build up the earthly city in justice and in love.
«Conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ»
Through these words, Paul was asking the Philippians to conduct themselves as true Christians. We sometimes think that the Gospel does not provide solutions to earthly problems and that it brings about the Kingdom of God only in a religious sense. But this is not the case. It is Jesus in that Christian, in that man or woman—when God’s grace dwells in that person—who builds a bridge, opens up a road, and so on. And, as another Christ, every man and woman can give his or her own specific contribution in any field of human activity: science, art, politics, and so on.
«Conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ»
But how can we be other Christs so that we can work in and make a real impact on society? We can do so by adopting his lifestyle as it is revealed in the words of the Gospel. If we welcome and live out his word, we will be increasingly in tune with his thoughts, his sentiments, and his teachings. His words enlighten everything we do; they realign and correct every aspect of our lives.
Yes, by living the Gospel we will become Christ like, and as he did we will devote our lives to others. Through loving we will contribute to building brotherhood. All the words of the Gospel can, in fact, be summed up in love of God and neighbor, and if lived out, they lead us to love.
We often speak about love and it may seem unnecessary to emphasize it again this time. But it is not so. Our “old self” (Rom 6:6) is always prone to withdraw into privacy, to cultivate our own little interests, to ignore the people who pass before us, to remain indifferent in the face of the common good and the needs of humanity around us.
We need to rekindle the flame of love in our hearts. And we need new eyes with which to look around us and realize what may be needed to improve our society. Love will give us the insight and creativity to see the right roads to take and give us the courage and strength to pursue them.
«Conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ»
This is what Ulysses Caglioni did; he was a good friend of ours who spent his life in Algeria together with Christians and Muslims, giving a witness of Gospel love to everyone with simplicity and concreteness.
He did not live for himself. He always put the needs of his brothers and sisters first. He had a special love for each one, and gave of himself unsparingly. He shared in their joys, their accomplishments, and their hopes, but also in the struggles, the uncertainties, and the sufferings they experienced in the first decade of their independence.
When, in fact, in the 1990s the nation went through a period of civil disorder and terror in which no Algerian citizen (almost all Muslim) was spared, the impact was also felt on the small Christian community made up of foreigners. Ulysses decided then, together with other Christians, not to leave and go back to his native Italy.
During an interview with one of the newspapers, he stated: I remained in Algeria for many years while everything was going smoothly. Now the situation has become precarious and dangerous, but I don’t think that I can leave; it would not be following the Gospel to flee.
When on September 1st, two years ago, following an illness he left for heaven, his Muslim friends offered this testimony: There was such love among us that everything that happened was lived together and shared. Ulysses was the bridge, the link between Christianity and Islam. In a country where intolerance is exalted, we have learned to listen, without prejudice, without passing judgment. Ulysses taught us to do everything out of love, to be love.
Chiara Lubich
[:it]Nuova Umanità – Maggio-Agosto 2005
[:it]Discorso di Sua Santità Benedetto XVI ai rappresentanti di alcune comunità musulmane[:es]Discurso del Santo Padre Benedicto XVI en el encuentro con los representantes de comunidades musulmanas[:pt]Discurso de Bento XVI/3
Address of Pope Benedict XVI during the Youth Vigil
Dear young friends, In our pilgrimage with the mysterious Magi from the East, we have arrived at the moment which St Matthew describes in his Gospel with these words: “Going into the house (over which the star had halted), they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him” (Mt 2: 11). Outwardly, their journey was now over. They had reached their goal. But at this point a new journey began for them, an inner pilgrimage which changed their whole lives. Their mental picture of the infant King they were expecting to find must have been very different. They had stopped at Jerusalem specifically in order to ask the King who lived there for news of the promised King who had been born. They knew that the world was in disorder, and for that reason their hearts were troubled. They were sure that God existed and that he was a just and gentle God. And perhaps they also knew of the great prophecies of Israel foretelling a King who would be intimately united with God, a King who would restore order to the world, acting for God and in his Name. It was in order to seek this King that they had set off on their journey: deep within themselves they felt prompted to go in search of the true justice that can only come from God, and they wanted to serve this King, to fall prostrate at his feet and so play their part in the renewal of the world. They were among those “who hunger and thirst for justice” (Mt 5: 6). This hunger and thirst had spurred them on in their pilgrimage – they had become pilgrims in search of the justice that they expected from God, intending to devote themselves to its service. Even if those who had stayed at home may have considered them Utopian dreamers, they were actually people with their feet on the ground, and they knew that in order to change the world it is necessary to have power. Hence, they were hardly likely to seek the promised child anywhere but in the King’s palace. Yet now they were bowing down before the child of poor people, and they soon came to realize that Herod, the King they had consulted, intended to use his power to lay a trap for him, forcing the family to flee into exile. The new King, to whom they now paid homage, was quite unlike what they were expecting. In this way they had to learn that God is not as we usually imagine him to be. This was where their inner journey began. It started at the very moment when they knelt down before this child and recognized him as the promised King. But they still had to assimilate these joyful gestures internally. They had to change their ideas about power, about God and about man, and in so doing, they also had to change themselves. Now they were able to see that God’s power is not like that of the powerful of this world. God’s ways are not as we imagine them or as we might wish them to be. God does not enter into competition with earthly powers in this world. He does not marshal his divisions alongside other divisions. God did not send 12 legions of angels to assist Jesus in the Garden of Olives (cf. Mt 26: 53). He contrasts the noisy and ostentatious power of this world with the defenceless power of love, which succumbs to death on the Cross and dies ever anew throughout history; yet it is this same love which constitutes the new divine intervention that opposes injustice and ushers in the Kingdom of God. God is different – this is what they now come to realize. And it means that they themselves must now become different, they must learn God’s ways. They had come to place themselves at the service of this King, to model their own kingship on his. That was the meaning of their act of homage, their adoration. Included in this were their gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh – gifts offered to a King held to be divine. Adoration has a content and it involves giving. Through this act of adoration, these men from the East wished to recognize the child as their King and to place their own power and potential at his disposal, and in this they were certainly on the right path. By serving and following him, they wanted, together with him, to serve the cause of good and the cause of justice in the world. In this they were right. Now, though, they have to learn that this cannot be achieved simply through issuing commands from a throne on high. Now they have to learn to give themselves – no lesser gift would be sufficient for this King. Now they have to learn that their lives must be conformed to this divine way of exercising power, to God’s own way of being. They must become men of truth, of justice, of goodness, of forgiveness, of mercy. They will no longer ask: how can this serve me? Instead, they will have to ask: How can I serve God’s presence in the world? They must learn to lose their life and in this way to find it. Having left Jerusalem behind, they must not deviate from the path marked out by the true King, as they follow Jesus. Dear friends, what does all this mean for us? What we have just been saying about the nature of God being different, and about the way our lives must be shaped accordingly, sounds very fine, but remains rather vague and unfocused. That is why God has given us examples. The Magi from the East are just the first in a long procession of men and women who have constantly tried to gaze upon God’s star in their lives, going in search of the God who has drawn close to us and shows us the way. It is the great multitude of the saints – both known and unknown – in whose lives the Lord has opened up the Gospel before us and turned over the pages; he has done this throughout history and he still does so today. In their lives, as if in a great picture-book, the riches of the Gospel are revealed. They are the shining path which God himself has traced throughout history and is still tracing today. My venerable Predecessor Pope John Paul II, who is with us at this moment, beatified and canonized a great many people from both the distant and the recent past. Through these individuals he wanted to show us how to be Christian: how to live life as it should be lived – according to God’s way. The saints and the blesseds did not doggedly seek their own happiness, but simply wanted to give themselves, because the light of Christ had shone upon them. They show us the way to attain happiness, they show us how to be truly human. Through all the ups and downs of history, they were the true reformers who constantly rescued it from plunging into the valley of darkness; it was they who constantly shed upon it the light that was needed to make sense – even in the midst of suffering – of God’s words spoken at the end of the work of creation: “It is very good”. One need only think of such figures as St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St Ignatius of Loyola, St Charles Borromeo, the founders of 19-century religious orders who inspired and guided the social movement, or the saints of our own day – Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio. In contemplating these figures we learn what it means “to adore” and what it means to live according to the measure of the Child of Bethlehem, by the measure of Jesus Christ and of God himself. The saints, as we said, are the true reformers. Now I want to express this in an even more radical way: only from the saints, only from God does true revolution come, the definitive way to change the world. In the last century we experienced revolutions with a common programme – expecting nothing more from God, they assumed total responsibility for the cause of the world in order to change it. And this, as we saw, meant that a human and partial point of view was always taken as an absolute guiding principle. Absolutizing what is not absolute but relative is called totalitarianism. It does not liberate man, but takes away his dignity and enslaves him. It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true. True revolution consists in simply turning to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love? Dear friends! Allow me to add just two brief thoughts. There are many who speak of God; some even preach hatred and perpetrate violence in God’s Name. So it is important to discover the true face of God. The Magi from the East found it when they knelt down before the Child of Bethlehem. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”, said Jesus to Philip (Jn 14: 9). In Jesus Christ, who allowed his heart to be pierced for us, the true face of God is seen. We will follow him together with the great multitude of those who went before us. Then we will be travelling along the right path. This means that we are not constructing a private God, we are not constructing a private Jesus, but that we believe and worship the Jesus who is manifested to us by the Sacred Scriptures and who reveals himself to be alive in the great procession of the faithful called the Church, always alongside us and always before us. There is much that could be criticized in the Church. We know this and the Lord himself told us so: it is a net with good fish and bad fish, a field with wheat and darnel. Pope John Paul II, as well as revealing the true face of the Church in the many saints that he canonized, also asked pardon for the wrong that was done in the course of history through the words and deeds of members of the Church. In this way he showed us our own true image and urged us to take our place, with all our faults and weaknesses, in the procession of the saints that began with the Magi from the East. It is actually consoling to realize that there is darnel in the Church. In this way, despite all our defects, we can still hope to be counted among the disciples of Jesus, who came to call sinners. The Church is like a human family, but at the same time it is also the great family of God, through which he establishes an overarching communion and unity that embraces every continent, culture and nation. So we are glad to belong to this great family that we see here; we are glad to have brothers and friends all over the world. Here in Cologne we discover the joy of belonging to a family as vast as the world, including Heaven and earth, the past, the present, the future and every part of the earth. In this great band of pilgrims we walk side by side with Christ, we walk with the star that enlightens our history. “Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him” (Mt 2: 11). Dear friends, this is not a distant story that took place long ago. It is with us now. Here in the Sacred Host he is present before us and in our midst. As at that time, so now he is mysteriously veiled in a sacred silence; as at that time, it is here that the true face of God is revealed. For us he became a grain of wheat that falls on the ground and dies and bears fruit until the end of the world (cf. Jn 12: 24). He is present now as he was then in Bethlehem. He invites us to that inner pilgrimage which is called adoration. Let us set off on this pilgrimage of the spirit and let us ask him to be our guide. Amen.
Homily of Pope Benedict XVI during the Eucharistic Celebration
Prior to Mass, the Pope said the following: Dear Young People, I would have liked to tour the hill in the Popemobile and to be closer to each one of you, individually. Unfortunately, this has proved impossible, but I greet each one of you from the bottom of my heart. The Lord sees and loves each individual person and we are all the living Church for one another, and let us thank God for this moment in which he is giving us the gift of the mystery of his presence and the possibility of being in communion with him. We all know that we are imperfect, that we are unable to be a fitting house for him. Let us therefore begin Holy Mass by meditating and praying to him, so that he will take from us what divides us from him and what separates us from each other and enable us to become familiar with the holy mysteries. *** Dear Young Friends, Yesterday evening we came together in the presence of the Sacred Host, in which Jesus becomes for us the bread that sustains and feeds us (cf. Jn 6: 35), and there we began our inner journey of adoration. In the Eucharist, adoration must become union. At the celebration of the Eucharist, we find ourselves in the “hour” of Jesus, to use the language of John’s Gospel. Through the Eucharist this “hour” of Jesus becomes our own hour, his presence in our midst. Together with the disciples he celebrated the Passover of Israel, the memorial of God’s liberating action that led Israel from slavery to freedom. Jesus follows the rites of Israel. He recites over the bread the prayer of praise and blessing. But then something new happens. He thanks God not only for the great works of the past; he thanks him for his own exaltation, soon to be accomplished through the Cross and Resurrection, and he speaks to the disciples in words that sum up the whole of the Law and the Prophets: “This is my Body, given in sacrifice for you. This cup is the New Covenant in my Blood”. He then distributes the bread and the cup, and instructs them to repeat his words and actions of that moment over and over again in his memory. What is happening? How can Jesus distribute his Body and his Blood? By making the bread into his Body and the wine into his Blood, he anticipates his death, he accepts it in his heart, and he transforms it into an action of love. What on the outside is simply brutal violence – the Crucifixion – from within becomes an act of total self-giving love. This is the substantial transformation which was accomplished at the Last Supper and was destined to set in motion a series of transformations leading ultimately to the transformation of the world when God will be all in all (cf. I Cor 15: 28). In their hearts, people always and everywhere have somehow expected a change, a transformation of the world. Here now is the central act of transformation that alone can truly renew the world: violence is transformed into love, and death into life. Since this act transmutes death into love, death as such is already conquered from within, the Resurrection is already present in it. Death is, so to speak, mortally wounded, so that it can no longer have the last word. To use an image well known to us today, this is like inducing nuclear fission in the very heart of being – the victory of love over hatred, the victory of love over death. Only this intimate explosion of good conquering evil can then trigger off the series of transformations that little by little will change the world. All other changes remain superficial and cannot save. For this reason we speak of redemption: what had to happen at the most intimate level has indeed happened, and we can enter into its dynamic. Jesus can distribute his Body, because he truly gives himself. This first fundamental transformation of violence into love, of death into life, brings other changes in its wake. Bread and wine become his Body and Blood. But it must not stop there; on the contrary, the process of transformation must now gather momentum. The Body and Blood of Christ are given to us so that we ourselves will be transformed in our turn. We are to become the Body of Christ, his own Flesh and Blood. We all eat the one bread, and this means that we ourselves become one. In this way, adoration, as we said earlier, becomes union. God no longer simply stands before us as the One who is totally Other. He is within us, and we are in him. His dynamic enters into us and then seeks to spread outwards to others until it fills the world, so that his love can truly become the dominant measure of the world. I like to illustrate this new step urged upon us by the Last Supper by drawing out the different nuances of the word “adoration” in Greek and in Latin. The Greek word is proskynesis. It refers to the gesture of submission, the recognition of God as our true measure, supplying the norm that we choose to follow. It means that freedom is not simply about enjoying life in total autonomy, but rather about living by the measure of truth and goodness, so that we ourselves can become true and good. This gesture is necessary even if initially our yearning for freedom makes us inclined to resist it. We can only fully accept it when we take the second step that the Last Supper proposes to us. The Latin word for adoration is ad-oratio – mouth to mouth contact, a kiss, an embrace, and hence, ultimately love. Submission becomes union, because he to whom we submit is Love. In this way submission acquires a meaning, because it does not impose anything on us from the outside, but liberates us deep within. Let us return once more to the Last Supper. The new element to emerge here was the deeper meaning given to Israel’s ancient prayer of blessing, which from that point on became the word of transformation, enabling us to participate in the “hour” of Christ. Jesus did not instruct us to repeat the Passover meal, which in any event, given that it is an anniversary, is not repeatable at will. He instructed us to enter into his “hour”. We enter into it through the sacred power of the words of consecration – a transformation brought about through the prayer of praise which places us in continuity with Israel and the whole of salvation history, and at the same time ushers in the new, to which the older prayer at its deepest level was pointing. The new prayer – which the Church calls the “Eucharistic Prayer” – brings the Eucharist into being. It is the word of power which transforms the gifts of the earth in an entirely new way into God’s gift of himself, and it draws us into this process of transformation. That is why we call this action “Eucharist”, which is a translation of the Hebrew word beracha – thanksgiving, praise, blessing, and a transformation worked by the Lord: the presence of his “hour”. Jesus’ hour is the hour in which love triumphs. In other words: it is God who has triumphed, because he is Love. Jesus’ hour seeks to become our own hour and will indeed become so if we allow ourselves, through the celebration of the Eucharist, to be drawn into that process of transformation that the Lord intends to bring about. The Eucharist must become the centre of our lives. If the Church tells us that the Eucharist is an essential part of Sunday, this is no mere positivism or thirst for power. On Easter morning, first the women and then the disciples had the grace of seeing the Lord. From that moment on, they knew that the first day of the week, Sunday, would be his day, the day of Christ the Lord. The day when creation began became the day when creation was renewed. Creation and redemption belong together. That is why Sunday is so important. It is good that today, in many cultures, Sunday is a free day, and is often combined with Saturday so as to constitute a “week-end” of free time. Yet this free time is empty if God is not present. Dear friends! Sometimes, our initial impression is that having to include time for Mass on a Sunday is rather inconvenient. But if you make the effort, you will realize that this is what gives a proper focus to your free time. Do not be deterred from taking part in Sunday Mass, and help others to discover it too. This is because the Eucharist releases the joy that we need so much, and we must learn to grasp it ever more deeply, we must learn to love it. Let us pledge ourselves to do this – it is worth the effort! Let us discover the intimate riches of the Church’s liturgy and its true greatness: it is not we who are celebrating for ourselves, but it is the living God himself who is preparing a banquet for us. Through your love for the Eucharist you will also rediscover the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in which the merciful goodness of God always allows us to make a fresh start in our lives. Anyone who has discovered Christ must lead others to him. A great joy cannot be kept to oneself. It has to be passed on. In vast areas of the world today there is a strange forgetfulness of God. It seems as if everything would be just the same even without him. But at the same time there is a feeling of frustration, a sense of dissatisfaction with everyone and everything. People tend to exclaim: “This cannot be what life is about!”. Indeed not. And so, together with forgetfulness of God there is a kind of new explosion of religion. I have no wish to discredit all the manifestations of this phenomenon. There may be sincere joy in the discovery. But to tell the truth, religion often becomes almost a consumer product. People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit from it. But religion sought on a “do-it-yourself” basis cannot ultimately help us. It may be comfortable, but at times of crisis we are left to ourselves. Help people to discover the true star which points out the way to us: Jesus Christ! Let us seek to know him better and better, so as to be able to guide others to him with conviction. This is why love for Sacred Scripture is so important, and in consequence, it is important to know the faith of the Church which opens up for us the meaning of Scripture. It is the Holy Spirit who guides the Church as her faith grows, causing her to enter ever more deeply into the truth (cf. Jn 16: 13). Beloved Pope John Paul II gave us a wonderful work in which the faith of centuries is explained synthetically: the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I myself recently presented the Compendium of the Catechism, also prepared at the request of the late Holy Father. These are two fundamental texts which I recommend to all of you. Obviously books alone are not enough. Form communities based on faith! In recent decades, movements and communities have come to birth in which the power of the Gospel is keenly felt. Seek communion in faith, like fellow travellers who continue together to follow the path of the great pilgrimage that the Magi from the East first pointed out to us. The spontaneity of new communities is important, but it is also important to preserve communion with the Pope and with the Bishops. It is they who guarantee that we are not seeking private paths, but instead are living as God’s great family, founded by the Lord through the Twelve Apostles. Once again, I must return to the Eucharist. “Because there is one bread, we, though many, are one body”, says St Paul (I Cor 10: 17). By this he meant: since we receive the same Lord and he gathers us together and draws us into himself, we ourselves are one. This must be evident in our lives. It must be seen in our capacity to forgive. It must be seen in our sensitivity to the needs of others. It must be seen in our willingness to share. It must be seen in our commitment to our neighbours, both those close at hand and those physically far away, whom we nevertheless consider to be close. Today, there are many forms of voluntary assistance, models of mutual service, of which our society has urgent need. We must not, for example, abandon the elderly to their solitude, we must not pass by when we meet people who are suffering. If we think and live according to our communion with Christ, then our eyes will be opened. Then we will no longer be content to scrape a living just for ourselves, but we will see where and how we are needed. Living and acting thus, we will soon realize that it is much better to be useful and at the disposal of others than to be concerned only with the comforts that are offered to us. I know that you as young people have great aspirations, that you want to pledge yourselves to build a better world. Let others see this, let the world see it, since this is exactly the witness that the world expects from the disciples of Jesus Christ; in this way, and through your love above all, the world will be able to discover the star that we follow as believers. Let us go forward with Christ and let us live our lives as true worshippers of God! Amen.
Benedict XVI: every good wish for a great springtime of hope for Europe and the world
“A prophetic intuition” of the “unforgettable” predecessor, destined to mark out a “great springtime of hope” for Europe and the world: this is Benedict XVI’s definition of the World Youth Day. At the general audience held on Wednesday 24 August the Pope spoke about his trip to Germany, recounting aspects of its most significant moments. Seven thousand filled the Paul VI Hall and included an interfaith delegation from Nagasaki, Japan, and a group of Buddhist religious. From Benedict XVI’s address: “Divine Providence willed that my first pastoral trip outside of Italy should have, precisely as its object, my country of origin and that it should be on the occasion of the great meeting of young people of the world, 20 years after the institution of World Youth Day, established with prophetic intuition by my unforgettable Predecessor.
The ideal embrace with young participants in the World Youth Day began from the moment of my arrival at the Cologne-Bonn airport and became ever more charged with emotions when sailing on the Rhine from the Rodenkirchenbruecke pier to Cologne escorted by five other vessels representing the five continents. Evocative, also, was the pause in front of the Poller Rheinwiesen wharf where thousands upon thousands of young people awaited, with whom I had the first official meeting, called appropriately “welcome festival” and which had as its motto the words of the Magi “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2a). It was precisely the Magi who were the “guides” of those young pilgrims to Christ. How significant it is that all this took place as we prepare for the conclusion of the Eucharistic Year called by John Paul II! “We Have Come to Worship Him”: The theme of the meeting invited everyone theoretically to follow the Magi, and to undertake together with them an interior journey of conversion to the Emmanuel, the God-with-us, to know him, meet him, adore him, and after meeting and adoring him, to then depart bearing in spirit, in the depth of our being, his light and joy.
In Cologne, young people had repeated opportunities to reflect profoundly on these spiritual themes and felt themselves driven by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of Christ, who in the Eucharist has promised to remain really present among us until the end of the world. I recall the different moments that I had the joy of sharing with them, especially in the Saturday evening Vigil and Sunday’s concluding celebration. Millions of other young people from all corners of the earth were joined to these thought-provoking manifestations of faith thanks to providential radio and television connections. But I would like to recall here a singular meeting, the one with the seminarians, young men called to a more radical following of Christ, Teacher and Shepherd. I wished to have a specific time dedicated to them, to highlight also the vocational dimension typical of World Youth Day. Not a few vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life have flowered in these 20 years, privileged occasions in which the Holy Spirit makes his call heard. Very well placed in the rich context of hope of the Cologne Day, was the ecumenical meeting with representatives of the other Churches and ecclesial communities. Germany’s role in the ecumenical dialogue is important whether because of the sad history of divisions or the significant part played in the path of reconciliation. I hope, moreover, that the dialogue, as a reciprocal exchange of gifts and not just of words, will contribute to make that ordered and harmonious “symphony” grow, which is Catholic unity. In such a perspective, World Youth Day represents a valid ecumenical “laboratory.” And how can I not relive with emotion the visit to the Synagogue of Cologne, where the oldest Jewish community has its headquarters? With our Jewish brothers I remembered the Shoah and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. This year, moreover, marks the 40th anniversary of the conciliar declaration “Nostra Aetate,” which opened a new season of dialogue and spiritual solidarity between Jews and Christians, as well as of esteem for the other great religious traditions. Among these, a particular place is held by Islam, whose followers worship the one God and refer gladly to the Patriarch Abraham. For this reason I wanted to meet with representatives of some Muslim communities, to which I expressed the hopes and concerns of the difficult historical moment that we are going through, hoping that fanaticism and violence will be extirpated and that we will be able to collaborate together in defending always the dignity of the human person and in protecting his fundamental rights.
Dear brothers and sisters, from the heart of “old” Europe, which in the past century, unfortunately, knew horrendous conflicts and inhuman regimes, young people relaunched to the humanity of our time the message of hope that does not disappoint, because it is founded on the Word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ, dead and risen for our salvation. In Cologne, young people met and worshipped the Emmanuel, the God-with-us, in the mystery of the Eucharist and understood better that the Church is the great family through which God creates a space of communion and unity among all continents, cultures and races, a — so to speak — “great group of pilgrims” led by Christ, radiant star that illuminates history. Jesus makes himself our travel companion in the Eucharist, and, in the Eucharist — as I said in the homily of the concluding celebration, borrowing a well-known image from physics — effects a “nuclear fission” in the depth of the being. Only this profound explosion of goodness that overcomes evil can give life to the other transformations necessary to change the world. Let us pray therefore so that the young people of Cologne will bear with them the light of Christ, who is truth and love and will spread it everywhere. In this way we will be able to witness a springtime of hope in Germany, Europe and the whole world.”
[:it]Spagna – Paesi Baschi – Lotta contro la repressione dei diritti dei baschi
[:it]Frère Roger Schutz: una vita coronata dalla palma del martirio[:fr]Frère Roger Schutz : une vie couronnée par la palme du martyre
[:it]Programma del viaggio in Germania di sua Santità Benedetto XVI
[:it]Dopo l’incontro con Gesù, quale il segreto per non perderlo più?
Peoples and religions living together as brothers and sisters
Is it possible to live together peacefully in our society that is ever more multicultural, multiethnic, with multi-religions? A dialogue among religions will be at the centre of the “Festival for a united world”. Thursday, August 18th, at 8 p.m., at Friedenspark, Cologne’s “Park of Peace”, young people from various countries – Israel, Egypt, Belgium, Syria, Lebanon, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines, Madagascar, Germany, Austria and Belgium – will give witness to brotherhood lived in situations that are often characterized by social and political tensions, by indifference and individualism. This will take place at the “Colourdome”, one of Youth for a United World, of the Focolare Movement’s contributions for World Youth Day 2005. Some anticipations: Ossama is Egyptian. He works in a transportation agency. Almost all of his co-workers are Muslim. … It’s a challenge. The first days at work a sense of insecurity began to bother him. He started trying to live as suggested by the “Golden Rule” that many religions share: “Do unto others as you would want them to do to you.” (Matt. 7,12) He started with small acts, such as preparing tea for the workers who came in tired after loading the trucks. Little by little every barrier fell and a true friendship began. Ages, from Southeast Asia. In Asia Christians are a minority among Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims. To know how to dialogue is certainly not taken for granted, it’s an art to be learned. That’s why Ages went to Tagaytay, a small city of the Focolare Movement in the Philippines. There they have courses from the “School of Oriental Religions”, where young people of various religions from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand participate. There are also concrete actions in politics which can contribute to an approach among religions Sylwin from Cebu tells us about it. Reacting to the widespread political apathy, the youth of the Focolare Movement in the Philippines are committed to promoting an active participation in the next presidential elections. The “White Forum” was started a year ago. It uses all means of communication: TV, radio, the press, parish and school contacts, with the involvement of various youth organizations. And youth from other religions take part in their projects.
We are never alone when trials come
Double earnings I live in the southern part of Brazil, in a small town in the state of Santa Caterina, where there are few job possibilities and people are underpaid. One day my father came to see me and shared with me his problem: he didn’t have enough that month to cover the family expenses. Given the circumstances, it seemed quite impossible for me to help him. I felt great pain within but I remembered that I have a Father in heaven and I turned to him with the faith of one of his children, certain that He never abandons us in moments of trial. He would provide us with what was needed. Just in those days I was offered a better job with another company. When I presented my resignation at my current job I was overwhelmed when the manager offered to double my salary because of my good performance and because of my efforts in creating good relationships with my co-workers. In that doubling of my salary I acknowledged the answer from the Father of all: He had taken care of my own father’s need who, when he heard about it, was moved to tears. (S.J. – Brazil) Taken from the book “Quando Dio interviene – Esperienze da tutto il mondo”, Citta’ Nuova Editrice, 2004
Islam – Stories of harmonious living among people of different religions in Italy, by Luigi Accattoli
From the introduction: “(According to a survey), the fear of Islam is growing and the author counteracts the tension by sharing stories of harmonious living together among people of different religions. The work includes over 150 stories set in Italy or lived out by Italians around the world. The author was inspired by his belief that harmonious living among people of different religions is quite common but rarely spoken of. The narration unfolds with the sharing of small details such as gestures or occasional words of acknowledgement to a better way of living by immigrants who have been helped and want in turn reciprocate. It is not difficult to find unusual stories: a Tunisian who is a sacristan in a church in Milan, an engineer of Syrian origin who is the Mayor of a small town in Abruzzo, an entrepreneur from the Piedmont Region who, out of the 30 people that make up his staff, treats as his sons the 6 who are muslims; young Turks or young people of other nationalities who study at the Gregorian University; about 10 Islamic immigrants in touch with the Focolare Movement, families of practicing muslims who send their children to Catholic schools and want them to study the Catholic faith. There are several interviews with muslims employed by the Christian Association of Italian Workers (ACLI) , by CARITAS, by the Astalli Center and even by the Vatican.” “Islam – Storie italiane di buona convivenza” by Luigi Accattoli. Publisher: Bologna, Edizioni Dehoniane, 2004, 222 pp.
[:it]«Abbiamo ricominciato a pregare»[:es]«Hemos empezado a rezar»
Livio and his friends from Marene
Not only has Livio hired 6 Muslims to join the 300 laborers who work in his shop which manufactures chromium and copper-plated mufflers, and spare parts for cars, motorcycles, and wheelchairs for the disabled. He is also the animating spirit behind the “Friends from Marene and Thereabouts Group” (in Cuneo, Italy), which has chosen the “Golden Rule” (“Do to others as you would have them do to you” [Lk 6, 31]) as its motto. Another independent group has sprouted from “Friends of Marene,” with a completely Senegalese membership from Piedmont (Italy) as well as from Senegal itself. “The two groups collaborate, and one thing leads to another,” says Livio. Then he adds: “The story begins 10 years ago. In 1995 I attended a Focolare meeting at Loppiano (in Incisa Valdarno, province of Florence, Italy) which welcomed people of non-religious convictions. There I heard about the Christian art of loving, an ideal of life that was meant for everybody. When I got home, I told my wife that I wanted to try something different, an experience I had never tried before in my life – that of loving without any self-interest. We are still practicing it now, with the help of our four children. “The group was formed in 1997. We found a place where we could meet weekly. Now, people of all ages, colors and creeds come, together with their families, neighbors, relatives, friends and employees. People are always inviting others. We meet to listen to and help each other, and help other people, as well. “This was how the Muslims arrived, too. The first Muslim we met was in great need, so we decided to employ him, since – rather unusually – we had a very big order to fill and we did actually need another worker. We also helped him find lodgings. He fit in quickly, and he introduced his friends to us. Through our Senegalese workers we learned that many of the African immigrants in our area were natives of a region in their country. We became friends with one of them, together with his wife and children. He later spread our ideal of life in his own country. He and his friends always tell us that when they are with us, they feel at home.”
“Sow seeds of fraternity and peace for a deeper understanding of mutual gifts”
Chiara Lubich on dialogue with Islam
Miss Lubich: If I’ve understood correctly, 6.000 muslims, participate in the activities of or rather, are directly involved in the Focolare Movement. Aren’t you afraid that your Movement will be subject to an uncontrollable influence by Islam?
I don’t think so. Participating in the activities of the Movement and above all being part of it in various ways, is not so simple.
It requires demanding training in living , a sustained, attentive, active sharing of objectives. This gives origin to a profound spiritual unity that surpasses all differences among the members of the Movement; a unity which is rooted on great, real and sincerely shared values. The unity achieved does not cancel out the differences, on the contrary, it makes of them elements of mutual enrichment, an opening to a deeper understanding of each other’s gifts.
Judging by the number of muslims involved in your initiatives, one might think that Islam is the Movement’s chief partner when compared to the other religions
I don’t think so. We have warm, profound, fruitful contacts with many Jewish people, with Hindus in India and with Buddhists, mainly in Thailand and in Japan. One need only think of the enduring spiritual friendship built with members of the vast Rissho Kosei-kai movement in Japan. I want to also mention the numerous participants who belong to the traditional religions in Africa who share our spirit and participate in the activities of the Movement. Entire tribes in the Cameroon are involved with the Focolare.
Contact with these spiritual and cultural realities takes place at different levels: from sharing in the joys and sufferings of everyday life to sharing one’s spiritual and material goods. There are meetings between experts in these religions so as to delve into the truth each one professes in order to get to know each other better and to acknowledge the riches that God has sown in humanity’s vast range of cultures. Just recently we held symposiums with Hindu intellectuals (the second such symposium), with Buddhists and in May with Jews at our International Mariapolis Center in Castelgandolfo (Rome)..
The spirit that animates the Focolare Movement seems to be so meek, perhaps one of the most meek of spirits to appear in the vast Catholic family: why do you suppose the most meek of all has chosen to address the most aggressive possible partner?
With regard to the meekness of the Movement’s spirit I should stress the fact that it does not imply surrendering nor passive acceptance, rather, total adherence to one of the Gospel’s beatitudes. Meekness is not a defense, it is an expression of love, therefore it is a force. On the other hand, we have not chosen our partners. We believe God brought us together. As for aggressiveness, generally speaking, we cannot forget the violence we Christians have inflicted on others and for which Pope John Paul II asked forgiveness. We cannot generalize when speaking of the aggressiveness of Islam. We know muslims who have great love for peace, who have a profound, vigorous spiritual life , who want to dialogue. They are the ones, in fact, who help us see Islam in a different light than the very often superficial way it is perceived. Besides, we should bear in mind that meekness authentically lived out by of one of two partners sooner or later leads the other to do the same.
In a letter to the focolarini in 1980 you gave them a directive: “ If in your cities there is a mosque or a synagogue or any other non Christian place of worship, that is your place…” After having heard violent words uttered in mosques would you still give that directive?
I feel it is more relevant than ever. It is the response to Jesus’ invitation to “ make ourselves one” with everyone. Besides, violent words are not preached in every mosque. As a matter of fact experience shows that if those violent words are spoken to people who love peace, those very words often can take on a different dimension and be echoed back to the persons who uttered them in a way that transforms them.
I know that in Pakistan you have established an islamic-christian center at Dalwal, between Lahore and Islamabad. Will it survive the anti-christian sentiment that rages in that country?
I hope so. The future, at any rate, is in God’s hands. Our main concern is to live the present moment planting seeds of fraternity and peace. If at times these seeds perish, that is part of Gospel teachings as well, and for this very reason they will bring about fruits of life that will never pass away, just as Jesus taught..
Have you undergone outside criticism and internal dissent after September 11th because of the monthly newsletter in Arabic written by an Iranian theologian who quotes passages from the Koran and from the Gospel?”
As far as I know there has been neither dissension nor criticism. There is instead an increase in the number of requests for the newsletter and an increase in the number of persons volunteering to help with this work, particularly other muslim scholars.
Luigi Accattoli
An interview published by Corriere della Sera (Italy)
Chiara Lubich's commentary on the Word of life of August 2005
It was evening. The disciples were trying to cross the lake of Tiberias. Their boat was buffeted by a storm and the wind blew against them. They had already experienced a similar situation before (see Mt 8: 23-27). At that time the Teacher had been with them on the boat. This time he had remained on land and had gone up to the mountain to pray.
But Jesus did not abandon them to the storm. He came down the mountain and went out to meet them, walking on the water. He tried to lift their spirits: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid”(Mt 14:27). Was it really true, or only an illusion? Peter, who was doubtful, asked him for a sign: to also be able to walk on the water. Jesus called him over. Peter got out of the boat, but the menacing wind frightened him and he began to sink. Jesus then took him by the hand and said to him:
«O you of little faith, why did you doubt?»
Even today Jesus continues to repeat these words to us every time we feel alone and powerless during the storms that often batter us. These may take the form of illnesses or difficult family situations, acts of violence, injustices that allow doubts to creep into our hearts, if not outright rebellion: “Why doesn’t God see? Why doesn’t he listen to me? Why doesn’t he come to help me and intervene? Where is the God-Love I placed my faith in? Is he merely a ghost, an illusion?”
As he did with the fearful and incredulous disciples, Jesus continues to repeat: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” And just as he came down from the mountain to be close to them in their difficulties, so now too he, the Risen Lord, continues to come into our lives and walks beside us, as our traveling companion. He never leaves us alone in our trials: he shares them with us. Perhaps we do not believe enough in him, and for this reason he repeats to us:
«O you of little faith, why did you doubt?»
Besides being a reproof, these words are also an invitation to revive our faith. Jesus, while he was on earth, made many promises. He said, for example: “Ask and you will receive”(Jn 16:24); “Seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt 6:33); and whoever has left everything for him “will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29).
We can obtain everything, but we need to believe in the love of God. In order to give to us, Jesus asks that we at least recognize that he loves us.
Instead, we often worry as though we had to face life on our own, as if we were orphans, without a Father. Much like Peter, we are more attentive to the turbulent waves that seem to swamp us, rather than to the presence of Jesus who is ready to take us by the hand.
If we stopped to analyze whatever hurts us – the problems and the difficulties – we would be overcome by fear, anguish, and discouragement. But we are not alone! We believe that there is Someone who takes care of us. We need to turn to Him! He is near to us even when we do not feel his presence. Let’s believe in him, let’s trust him and entrust ourselves to him.
When our faith is tested, we struggle and pray, as Peter did when he cried out: “Lord, save me!” (Mt 14:30) or as the disciples did in a similar situation: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mk 4:38) He will never withdraw his help from us. His love is real and he takes on each of our burdens.
«O you of little faith, why did you doubt?»
Jean Luis was a young person who also had “little faith.” Unlike the other members of his family, he doubted the existence of God, even though he was a Christian. He lived in Man, in the Ivory Coast, with his younger siblings, far from their parents.
When the city was taken over by rebel forces, four of the rebels invaded their home, ransacked everything, and, noticing Jean Luis’ athletic build, tried to force him to fight along side of them as a rebel. The younger brothers begged them to leave him alone, but to no avail.
The rebels were about to leave with Jean Luis, when their leader changed his mind and decided to let him go free. Then the leader whispered to the older sister: “Leave right away because tomorrow we will be back,” and he pointed out the road they should take.
“Would it really be safe to go? Was this only a trap?” they later asked themselves.
They departed at daybreak with no money in their pockets, but with a tiny bit of faith.
They walked for almost thirty miles. Then they found someone who paid for them to ride on a truck that was going in the direction of where their parents were living. On the way, total strangers offered them lodging and something to eat. At border crossings no one checked their documents. Finally, they arrived at the home of their parents.
Their mother recalled: “They were not in very good shape, but they were sure they had been guided continually by the love of God!”
The first thing Jean Luis asked was: “Where is the church?” Then he said to his father: “Dad, your God is really powerful!”
Chiara Lubich
What future lies ahead for a multicultural, multiethnic and multifaith society after the terrorist attempts?
“What future lies ahead for a multicultural, multiethnic and multifaith society?” This is the disquieting question not only of England but of the whole Europe and beyond, after the tragedy that struck the heart of London, the most cosmopolitan city of the Old World on July 7, and Sharm el Sheik in Egypt on July 23.
The question is also the title of the Mariapolis, the summer meeting offered by the Focolare in various parts of the world. That of England started on July 24 at Lake District Windermere, northern England; the participants were about 600, including a group of Muslims.
Just last year, on June 19, 2004, Chiara Lubich gave an answer – which is very timely in these days – to the question about a multicultural society. The occasion was a meeting at Westminster Central Hall, attended by over 2,000 people, including leading Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu personalities. Her message is now being shown through videotape in the various Mariapolis.
Not a clash of civilizations, but the birth of a united world. In front of fears for the future, Chiara Lubich presents St. Augustine’s opinion about the migration of peoples occurring during his times. She indicates dialogue as a preventive measure against terrorism, and the “golden rule,” common to many religions, as the way to achieve it: “Do not do unto others what you wouldn’t want others to do unto you.” In other words: a love that knows how to be one with the other, to the point of “getting into the other’s skin… understanding what it means for the other to be Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu.” This is the way to practice reciprocal inculturation and build a society where “cultures are open to one another … in a profound dialogue of reciprocal love. “ She invites the religions to take the strategy of fraternity in order to heal the gap between rich and poor and effect a turning point in international relations.
A large number of echoes have arrived via e-mail from different countries, from Christians, Muslims and faithful of other religions who participated in the Mariapolis held during the summer months. Here is what they write from Los Angeles, where a group of Muslim friends (followers of W.D. Mohammed, leader of The Mosque Cares) were present at the Mariapolis: “Listening to this message of universal brotherhood together, right after hearing the news of the London terrorist attack, was really a sign of hope. Everyone was strongly impressed to see that among us, universal brotherhood was already a reality.” From the Mariapolis of St. Vith (Belgium), where18 different nationalities were represented, they wrote: “What struck the Muslims most was the experience of God’s presence in the midst of the community through mutual love.” The same experience was made in Amman (Jordan), where a group from Iraq was also present, and in Istanbul. A Muslim ex-military man, now a professor, commented: “Here I have seen brotherhood assume another dimension. All that we’ve heard reminds me of the thoughts of Mevlana (a noted Turkish Muslim mystic).” A Muslim woman remarked: “Here diversity has been transformed into unity. We have experienced the rainbow of peace, coloured by love.”
The Cross and the Synagogue – Jews and Christians in Confrontation
The history of Jewish-Christian relationships is a painful one, made up of centuries of violence and defamation. Only a few decades ago have “elder” and “younger” brothers started to look at each other in the eye and speak to one another. While supporters of dialogue are growing in number among the Jews, Christians are recognizing the Jewish roots of their faith with growing conviction. In Brunori’s book, leading exponents of Judaism and Catholicism share their views with readers as they answer a reporter’s questions about such pressing issues as the role of Pius XII during the Jewish persecution, the figure of John Paul II (considered by the Jews as the best Pope in 20 centuries of Christianity), and the legacy he has left in the hands of his successor Benedict XVI. Other topics dealt with are: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the spread of terrorism and the resurgence of antisemitism, as well as the initiatives and hopes of those who are committed to dialogue and who believe that, finally, open relationships, free of prejudice, are possible. Exponents: Jack Bemporad, Riccardo Di Segni, Xavier Echevarria, Rino Fisichella, Innocenzo Gargano, Ada Janes, Leone Jehuda Kalon, Giuseppe Laras, Chiara Lubich, Amos Luzzatto, David Meghnagi, Jorge Maria Mejía, David Rosen, Manuela Sadun Paggi, Joseph Sievers, Ambrogio Spreafico, Elio Toaff, Maria Vingiani. La Croce e la Sinagoga Ebrei e cristiani a confronto edited by Giovan Battista Brunori Franco Angeli Editore
[:it]Chiara Lubich, i Focolari e gli ebrei
The strength to overcome every difficulty
I’ve been in Turkey for some years now because of my work. I have a lot of free time, so I spend it translating some books of spirituality from Italian to Turkish. I spend hours and days in front of the computer, sweating it out to be able to translate materials of Christian spirituality into the Turkish language – a country without Christian roots. At times I would ask myself if what I was doing wasn’t useless, but then I would entrust all my difficulties to the Father. The work I was doing did have a meaning – that of giving Him my time and efforts.
A change of life
I was about to leave for vacation, when the typographer who printed those books phoned me. “I found out that you’re leaving,” he said, “I need to speak to you urgently.” When he came to see me the next morning, I could hardly recognize him. He had lost weight, he looked run down and his eyes were red, as if he had been crying. I let him in and offered him a cup of coffee. “I’m sorry if I have to disturb you,” he started at once, ”but I feel I cannot but tell you what happened to me. Do you know that the book you asked me to print has changed my whole life? I read it over and over again, and it gave me an unimaginable strength, so much so that I was able to start life all over again. My wife left me a month and a half ago. I couldn’t believe it could happen after 26 years of marriage, but our family has been ruined by witchcraft, the evil eye … By the way, do you believe in these things?”
A strength greater than any difficulty
I answered no, and that I believed instead in the Almighty God who guides our lives. He then said, “This is what I understood, as I read that book. How I wish my wife would read it, too. You know,” he continued, “I got to the point of wanting to commit suicide. I’ve actually tried it twice, without success. I used to be on psychiatric treatment, but now I’ve stopped going and have also stopped taking medicines. I understood that within me I have a greater strength which enables me to overcome all difficulties. The central idea I found in that book is like a treasure that I will always keep close to my heart.”
My friend, the typographer, was slowly discovering a God who is living, who is near and helps those who are in need. I promised him that I would pray for his wife’s return. When he left, he seemed changed, younger and lighter.
R.M. – Turkey
Translated from Quando Dio interviene – Esperienze da tutto il mondo Città Nuova Editrice 2004
‘Offer to the Lord the gold of your lives’
My dear young people! 1. This year we have celebrated the 19th World Youth Day, meditating on the desire expressed by some Greeks who had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover: “We wish to see Jesus” (Jn 12:21). And here we are now, making our way to Cologne where, in August 2005, the 20th World Youth Day is to be celebrated. “We have come to worship him” (Mt 2:2): this is the theme of the next World Youth Day. It is a theme that enables young people from every continent to follow in spirit the path taken by the Magi whose relics, according to a pious tradition, are venerated in this very city, and to meet, as they did, the Messiah of all nations. It is true to say that the light of Christ had already opened the minds and the hearts of the Magi. “They went their way” (Mt 2:9), says the Evangelist, setting out boldly along unknown paths on a long, and by no means easy, journey. They did not hesitate to leave everything behind in order to follow the star that they had seen in the East (cf Mt 2:2). Imitating the Magi, you young people are also making preparations to set out on a “journey” from every region of the world to go to Cologne. It is important for you not only to concern yourselves with the practical arrangements for World Youth Day, but first of all you must carefully prepare yourselves spiritually, in an atmosphere of faith and listening to the Word of God. 2. “And the star… went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was” (Mt 2:9). The Magi reached Bethlehem because they had obediently allowed themselves to be guided by the star. Indeed, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Mt 2:10). It is important, my dear friends, to learn to observe the signs with which God is calling us and guiding us. When we are conscious of being led by Him, our heart experiences authentic and deep joy as well as a powerful desire to meet Him and a persevering strength to follow Him obediently. “And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother” (Mt 2:11). There is nothing extraordinary about this at first sight. Yet that Child was different from any other: He is the only Son of God, yet He emptied Himself of His glory (cf Phil 2:7) and came to earth to die on the Cross. He came down among us and became poor in order to reveal to us His divine glory, which we shall contemplate fully in heaven, our blessed home. Who could have invented a greater sign of love? We are left in awe before the mystery of a God who lowered himself to take on our human condition, to the point of giving His life for us on the Cross (cf Phil 2:6-8). In His poverty, – as Saint Paul reminds us – “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9), and came to offer salvation to sinners. How can we give thanks to God for such magnanimous goodness? 3. The Magi found Jesus at “Bêth-lehem” which means “house of bread”. In the humble stable in Bethlehem on some straw lay the “grain of wheat” who, by dying, would bring forth “much fruit” (cf Jn 12:24). When speaking of Himself and His saving mission in the course of His public life, Jesus would later use the image of bread. He would say “I am the bread of life”, “I am the bread which came down from heaven”, “the bread that I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”. (Jn 6: 35.41.51). Faithfully pursuing the path of our Redeemer from the poverty of the Crib to His abandonment on the Cross we can better understand the mystery of His love which redeems humanity. The Child, laid by Mary in the manger, is the Man-God we shall see nailed to the Cross. The same Redeemer is present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. In the stable at Bethlehem He allowed himself to be worshipped under the humble outward appearances of a newborn baby, by Mary, by Joseph and by the shepherds; in the consecrated Host we adore Him sacramentally present in his body, blood, soul and godhead, and He offers himself to us as the food of eternal life. The Mass then becomes a truly loving encounter with the One who gave himself wholly for us. Do not hesitate, my dear young friends, to respond to Him when He invites you “to the wedding feast of the Lamb (cf Rev 19:9). Listen to him, prepare yourselves properly and draw close to the Sacrament of the Altar, particularly in this Year of the Eucharist (October 2004-2005) which I have proclaimed for the whole Church. 4. “They fell down and worshipped Him” (Mt 2:11). While the Magi acknowledged and worshipped the baby that Mary cradled in her arms as the One awaited by the nations and foretold by prophets, today we can also worship Him in the Eucharist, and acknowledge Him as our Creator, our only Lord and Saviour. “Opening their treasures they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh” (Mt 2:11). The gifts that the Magi offered the Messiah symbolised true worship. With gold, they emphasised His Royal Godhead; with incense, they acknowledged Him as the priest of the New Covenant; by offering Him myrrh, they celebrated the prophet who would shed His own blood to reconcile humanity with the Father. My dear young people, you too offer to the Lord the gold of your lives, namely, your freedom to follow Him out of love, responding faithfully to His call; let the incense of your fervent prayer rise up to him, in praise of His glory; offer Him your myrrh, that is your affection of total gratitude to Him, true Man, who loved us to the point of dying as a criminal on Golgotha. 5. Be worshippers of the only true God, giving Him pride of place in your lives! Idolatry is an ever-present temptation. Sadly, there are those who seek the solution to their problems in religious practices that are incompatible with the Christian faith. There is a strong urge to believe in the facile myths of success and power; it is dangerous to accept the fleeting ideas of the sacred which present God in the form of cosmic energy, or in any other manner that is inconsistent with Catholic teaching. My dear young people, do not yield to false illusions and passing fads which so frequently leave behind a tragic spiritual vacuum! Reject the seduction of wealth, consumerism and the subtle violence sometimes used by the mass media. Worshipping the true God is an authentic act of resistance to all forms of idolatry. Worship Christ: He is the Rock on which to build your future and a world of greater justice and solidarity. Jesus is the Prince of peace: the source of forgiveness and reconciliation, who can make brothers and sisters of all the members of the human family. 6. “And they departed to their own country by another way” (Mt 2:12). The Gospel tells us that after their meeting with Christ, the Magi returned home “by another way”. This change of route can symbolise the conversion to which all those who encounter Jesus are called, in order to become the true worshippers that He desires (cf Jn 4: 23-24). This entails imitating the way He acted by becoming, as the apostle Paul writes, “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”. The apostle then adds that we must not be conformed to the mentality of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds, to “prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (cf Rm 12: 1-2). Listening to Christ and worshipping Him leads us to make courageous choices, to take what are sometimes heroic decisions. Jesus is demanding, because He wishes our genuine happiness. He calls some to give up everything to follow Him in the priestly or consecrated life. Those who hear this invitation must not be afraid to say “yes” and to generously set about following Him as His disciples. But in addition to vocations to special forms of consecration there is also the specific vocation of all baptised Christians: that is also a vocation to that “high standard” of ordinary Christian living which is expressed in holiness (cf Novo Millennio Ineunte, 31). When we meet Christ and accept His Gospel, life changes and we are driven to communicate our experience to others. There are so many of our contemporaries who do not yet know the love of God or who are seeking to fill their hearts with trifling substitutes. It is therefore urgently necessary for us to be witnesses to love contemplated in Christ. The invitation to take part in World Youth Day is also extended to you, dear friends, who are not baptised or who do not identify with the Church. Are you not perhaps yearning for the Absolute and in search of “something” to give a meaning to your lives? Turn to Christ and you will not be let down. 7. Dear young people, the Church needs genuine witnesses for the new evangelisation: men and women whose lives have been transformed by meeting with Jesus, men and women who are capable of communicating this experience to others. The Church needs saints. All are called to holiness, and holy people alone can renew humanity. Many have gone before us along this path of Gospel heroism, and I urge you to turn often to them to pray for their intercession. By meeting in Cologne you will learn to become better acquainted with some of them, such as St Boniface, the apostle of Germany, the Saints of Cologne, and in particular Ursula, Albert the Great, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and Blessed Adolph Kolping. Of these I would like to specifically mention St Albert and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who, with the same interior attitude as the Magi, were passionate seekers after the truth. They had no hesitation in placing their intellectual abilities at the service of the faith, thereby demonstrating that faith and reason are linked and seek each other. My dear young people as you move forward in spirit towards Cologne, the pope will accompany you with his prayers. May Mary, “Eucharistic woman” and Mother of Wisdom, support you along the way, enlighten your decisions, and teach you to love what is true, good and beautiful. May she lead you all to her Son, who alone can satisfy the innermost yearnings of the human mind and heart. Go with my blessing! Castel Gandolfo, 6 August 2004 JOHN PAUL II
COLOURDOME
The Focolare’s youth, coming from various continents, will communicate their experiences and present some artistic numbers which compliment the catechisms scheduled in Cologne on August 17-18-19, during the World Youth Day, as a preparation for the conclusive day with the Holy Father. “Colourdome” is the name of the initiative of the Youth for a United World, as their contribution to WYD 2005 in Cologne. “Colourdome” aims to express and communicate how the love of the Gospel can colour life, transforming its various aspects. From Tuesday, August 16th to Friday August 19th, the Friedenspark, Park of Peace, in South Central Cologne, along Oberländer Wall, will be transformed into a colourful festival with a central stage, which will be surrounded by 7 areas, each marked by a different colour of the rainbow. With the language of music, theatre, and dance, young people will be invited to meet and exchange reflections and experiences, to celebrate and pray, to relax and participate in sports. Each area will offer a program with various themes: that of the “culture of giving”, dialogue with other religions, the search for the meaning of pain, just to name a few. One of the areas will be dedicated to sports, such as volleyball, street-soccer and various games whose aim is to get to know youth from all over the world. There will be concerts on the center stage every day. A concert by the international band, Gen Rosso, entitled Give Peace a Hand is scheduled for Wednesday evening, August 17th. On Wednesday afternoon, August 17th and Friday afternoon, August 19th , there will be two round table discussions on aid for Tsunami and global solidarity, given by the German Episcopal Conference and the Public Protection (Technisches Hilfswerk).
Interactive areas Red: Time to share for a culture of giving – economy, work, consumerism Orange: Face the world 360� dialogue – dialogue, ethnics, religions Yellow: To be with You suffering has a place – pain, suffering, illness Green: Get the feeling living life to the fullest – sports and leisure time Blue: Discover His Beauty God in culture – art, music, culture Indigo: Think about life vision and planning – society, politics and much more Violet: Hold the line communication and mass media – entertainment, mass media, pubblicity Form more information, email to: sgmu@focolare.org wjt2005@geeintewelt.de
Chiara Lubich's commentary on the Word of life of July 2005
God is Love (1 Jn 4:8). This certainty is the most solid one to guide our lives when we are assailed by doubts as we face huge natural disasters, the violence that human beings can inflict, our own limits and failures, and the sufferings that touch each of us personally.
That he is Love God has shown us and continues to show us in a thousand ways, giving us creation, life (and all the good things connected with it), redemption through his Son, and the possibility of reaching holiness of life through the Holy Spirit.
God shows us his love constantly: he makes his presence felt in each of our lives, following and sustaining us step by step through our various trials. The psalm that this Word of Life focuses on assures us of this by speaking of the unlimited greatness of God, of his splendor, of his power, and also of his tenderness and immense goodness. He is able to bring about prodigious deeds and, at the same time, to be a most attentive father and be even more thoughtful than a mother.
«The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down»
Every so often, we all have to face difficult and painful situations, both in our personal lives and in our relationships with others. At times we experience complete helplessness. We can find ourselves faced with walls of indifference and self-centeredness, and we are caught off guard by events that seem to overwhelm us.
How many painful situations each of us has to face in life! And how we all feel the need for Someone else to step in! In just such a moment the Word of Life can come to our aid.
Jesus allows us to experience our limitations, not in order to discourage us, but to help us experience the extraordinary power of his grace, which reveals itself in those very moments when we cannot make it on our own strength, so that we can better understand his love. There is one condition, however: that we have complete faith in him, as a small child does in his mother. We need to have boundless trust in him, to feel that we are in the arms of a Father who loves us as we are and for whom everything is possible.
We cannot be deterred even by the knowledge of our mistakes because, being love, God picks us up every time that we fall down, as parents do with their children.
«The Lord supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down»
Strengthened by this certainty, we can then entrust every worry to him, every problem, as Scripture invites us to do: “Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you” (1 Pt 5:7).
At the beginning of the Movement, when the Holy Spirit was encouraging us to take our first steps in the way of love, “cast all your worries onto the Father” became a daily exercise for us, one that was frequently repeated during the day.
I remember that I used to say that it’s impossible to hold a burning coal in our hand. You have to immediately get rid of it. With that same quickness, you should cast every worry onto God. I can’t recall any worry that I entrusted to him that he did not take care of.
Of course, it’s not always easy to believe and to believe in his love, but let’s make the effort throughout this month to do so in every instance, even in the most complicated situations. We will witness, time after time, God’s intervention and how he does not forget us, rather he takes care of us. We will experience a power not known before that will release in us new and unimaginable resources.
Chiara Lubich
Chiara Lubich's commentary on the Word of life of June 2005
While he was coming from Capernaum, Jesus saw a tax collector by the name of Matthew seated at the customs post. Matthew had a job that made him despised by the people, for it placed him in the same category as the loan sharks and those who took advantage of others to amass wealth for themselves. The Scribes and Pharisees put him on the same level as the public sinners, and criticized Jesus for being “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” and of eating together with them (Mt 11:19; 9:10).
Jesus, going against all social conventions, called Matthew to follow him and accepted his invitation to dine at his home, as he would later do also with Zaccheus, the head of the tax collectors in Jericho. When questioned about his behavior, Jesus responded that he had come to heal the sick, not the healthy, and to call not the righteous, but sinners. His invitation, also this time, was addressed directly to one of them:
«Follow me»
Jesus had already said these words to Andrew, Peter, James, and John on the shore of the lake. He made the same invitation, using different words, to Paul on the road to Damascus.
But Jesus did not stop there; down through the centuries he has continued to call men and women of every culture and nation. He still does it today: he passes by in our lives, he meets us in quite different places and in different ways, and he makes us feel anew that invitation to follow him.
He calls us to be with him because he wants to build a personal relationship with us, and at the same time he invites us to collaborate with him in his great plan to renew humanity.
He does not care about our weaknesses, our sins, and our limitations. He loves us and chooses us just as we are. His love will then transform us and give us the strength to answer his call and the courage to follow him as Matthew did.
He has a particular love for each one of us, a plan for each person’s life, an individual call. We can feel it in our hearts through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through certain circumstances, or through a piece of advice from someone who cares about us. Even if manifested in different ways, his message spells out the same words:
«Follow me»
I remember when I, too, felt a call from God. It was a very cold winter morning in Trent. My mother asked my younger sister to go and pick up some milk at a place about a mile away from home. Since it was so cold she did not feel like going. My other sister also refused to go. “I’ll go, Mom,” I said, and I picked up the bottle and left the house. Halfway there something peculiar happened: it seemed as though the skies opened up and God reached me with his invitation to follow him. “Give all of yourself to me,” I felt him say in my heart.
It was a clear call that I wanted to answer right away. I spoke with my spiritual advisor about it and he gave me permission to give my life to God forever. It was December 7, 1943. It’s impossible to fully convey what I felt in my heart that day: I had married God. I could expect everything from him.
«Follow me»
This phrase does not only pertain to that specific moment when we make a choice for our lives. Jesus continues to ask us this every day. “Follow me,” he seems to suggest to us as we face our smallest daily chores — “follow me” in that moment of trial we are called to face, in that temptation we have to overcome, in that act of service that needs to be done.
How should we respond concretely?
By doing what God wants from us in the present moment, which always comes accompanied by a particular grace.
Our commitment this month will be, then, to do the will of God with decisiveness; to dedicate ourselves fully to the brothers and sisters that we are called to love, to our work, to our studies, to praying, to resting, and to all the different things we are supposed to do.
Let us learn to listen to the voice of God deep within our hearts, which speaks to us also through the voice of our conscience: he will tell us what he wants from us in every moment, and our part is to be ready to sacrifice everything in order to do it.
“Let us love you, O God, not only more each day, for the days that remain may be few, but let us love you in every present moment with all our hearts, souls, and strength in whatever is your will.”
This is the best way to follow Jesus.
Chiara Lubich