With what eyes do we look at the world and our fellow travellers in the adventure of life? It is a question of vital importance, in an era like ours marked by polarisation and disagreements, loneliness and distances between the haves and the have-nots, without forgetting the increasingly pervasive presence of artificial intelligence. Yet, at the same time, the thirst for harmony and truth grows.
Chiara Lubich used to say that everything depends on which “eyes” we look at people with. If we look with the eyes of the heart, which are the eyes of Love, we will not stop at appearances, we will instead grasp the deeper reality that is hidden in every human being. And from the gaze of the heart proceeds action, the quality of the relationship, becoming close, being near to the other person. (1)
In 1961 Chiara wrote:
If you enter the Gospel … you’ll immediately find yourself on the mountain ridge. Therefore, already at the top, already in God, even though looking over the side you’ll see that the mountain is not one mountain but a mountain chain and that for you, life is to walk along the crest up to the end.
Every Word of God contains both the minimum and the maximum that he can ask of you, so when you read, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt 19:19), you have the law of fraternal love at its highest degree.
Your neighbour is another you, and you must love him or her bearing that in mind. When neighbours cry, you must cry with them, and when they laugh, laugh with them. If they lack knowledge, be ignorant with them. If they have lost a parent, make their suffering your own. …
What has value for you is God who is both their Father and yours. Don’t make excuses for love. Your neighbours are those who pass next to you, be they rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, brilliant or uneducated, holy or sinful, a fellow citizen or a foreigner, a priest or a layperson, whoever.
Try to love whoever passes next to you in the present moment of your life. You will discover within yourself a new energy and strength you did not know you had. They will add flavour to your life, and you will find answers to your thousand whys. (2)
Chiara Lubich
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Our translation of the Italian text found in: See Vicinanza, lo stile di Dio nella vita e nel pensiero di Chiara Lubich, A cura di Povilus J. e Ciccarelli L., Città Nuova Editrice, Roma 2024, p. 5.
(…) Looking back today, we can understand what we can learn from December 7th, the day the Movement began decades ago. It affirms that a charism of the Holy Spirit, a new light, came down on earth during those days, a light which, in the mind of God, was destined to quench the burning thirst of this world with the water of wisdom, to warm it with divine love and thus give life to a new people nourished by the Gospel. This is what it tells us, above all.
And because God acts concretely, he immediately provided the first brick for the building that would serve his purposes, the building that is our Movement. He decided to call me, a girl like many others, and this led to my consecration to him, my “yes” to God, soon followed by the “yes” of many other young women and men.
That day speaks of light, then, and of the total gift of ourselves to God, so as to be instruments in his hands to achieve his goals.
“Light” and “giving oneself to God” are two realities that were extremely useful at that time when there was general confusion, reciprocal hatred, war. It was a time of darkness, when God seemed to be absent from the world, absent with his love, his peace, his joy, his guidance. It was a time when no one seemed interested in him.
“Light” and “giving oneself to God” are two realities that heaven wants to repeat to us today, too, when many wars continue to rage on our planet. (…)
“Light” means the Word, the Gospel, which is still too little known and, above all, too little lived. (…)
They arrived two by two by motorbike, the most common form of transport for getting to the town of Manono in Katanga province in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ninety-two priests from 8 dioceses of the ecclesiastical province of Lubumbashi met together in this town for one of the Focolare Movement’s periodical retreats. The Bishop of Manono, Mgr Vincent de Paul Kwanga Njubu invited the Focolare to hold the meeting there, as he had been struck by the testimony of his priests who had participated in a similar retreat in Lubumbashi in the past.
Mgr Oscar Ngoy wa Mpanga, the Bishop of Kongolo, a diocese which is 300 km from Manono, who had also been struck by young priests who had participated in similar retreats organised for seminarians, also asked all the priests in his diocese to join this retreat. Forty-three arrived. The local press described the retreat as ‘unforgettable’. At its conclusion, the bishop offered everyone a lunch which the participants subsequently shared with the city hospital bringing great joy to the patients.
Members of the Focolare community of Lubumbashi took care of the organisational part (even transporting all the pots and pans for cooking), and the programme was entrusted to members of the Focolare Movement’s International Centre.
The city of Manono which is about 800 km from Lubumbashi is the third largest city in Congo and represents a mining resource of global importance due to the presence of lithium and other minerals. Unfortunately, however, the population does not benefit from these resources. Entire families spend their days searching for minerals, and children leave school to devote themselves to this work. There is huge exploitation, and very low prices are paid for the minerals. There is even a village where houses are collapsing because minerals are being mined underneath them. The region is in a critical situation, having been devastated in the past by a conflict that destroyed the civil and religious infrastructure and left health facilities and schools in ruins. The school attendance rate is less than 30%. Malnutrition and food insecurity are severely affecting the children, with 15% of them suffering from malnutrition. The Bishop of Manono really wanted the retreat to be held here, and it was the first time that priests came from other dioceses, which was why the presence of such a large number of prelates was greeted with such an atmosphere of celebration. During Sunday Mass, the cathedral’s priest asked all the parishioners to bring water, a rare and precious commodity here, for all those participating in the retreat as a sign of love and welcome. Then the actual meeting days began. There were spiritual themes, meditations on the evangelical counsels and in-depth discussions on synodality. With the participants divided into small groups, there were many moments of communion of life, exchange of testimonies, knowledge, sharing and fraternity.
The spirituality of communion, the discovery of God Love, a new style of ‘synodal’ pastoral work that ‘liberates us from pre-packaged schemes and opens us up to mutual love’ as one person said, were some of the points that struck everyone the most.
Back in Lubumbashi, some members of the Focolare were able to greet a number of Bishops from various dioceses who were there for a meeting of the Bishops’ Conference. The Bishops warmly thanked them for the contribution that the retreats were making to the life of their dioceses. In particular, the Bishop of Manono expressed his gratitude for “the contribution made to the spiritual life of priests and laity, and to a communion among priests that is overflowing onto the lives of the laity, giving them the opportunity to live mutual love and put the word of God into practice“. The Archbishop of Lubumbashi, Archbishop Fulgence Muteba Mugalu, who has just been appointed President of the Bishops’ Conference, also expressed his heartfelt thanks for the retreats that have been held for several years, expressing the hope that this formation which is bearing so much fruit, will continue.
After the retreat, some of the members of the Focolare’s International Centre went to Goma in the north-east, where the focolarini organised two schools of formation attended by 12 young seminarians and 12 priests. The Bishop of Goma, Mgr Willy Ngumbi Ngengele was also present for a liturgical celebration. Several of the guests were unable to attend due to an intensification of clashes near the city. There are 7 million refugees in Congo, including 1.7 million in the North Kivu province where Goma is located. The meeting went into depth on the spirituality of unity and synodality. The programme included a visit to a parish surrounded by thousands of refugees where the parish priest gave a very strong testimony of how the Gospel is being lived. The visit to the “Père Quintard Centre”, run by the Movement and located in the middle of 2 large refugee camps, which offers a service of promotion, education and social development, was also a strong testimony for everyone present. Several saw it as a beacon of hope and asked for similar activities to be initiated in their parishes.
Chiara Lubich Chiara Lubich had an intuition of this in 1977 when she received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in London. Since then, the worldwide expansion of the Focolare spirit has contributed to opening a dialogue with all the major religions of the world. A path that even Chiara had not imagined at the beginning, but that God had revealed to her over time, through events and circumstances; it was a path to pursue towards unity. In this short excerpt, Chiara, in answering a question on the relationship with other religions, reveals the secret to building true universal fraternity: seeking what unites us in diversity. The question put to Chiara is read by Giuseppe Maria Zanghì, one of the first focolarini. (From a reply by Chiara Lubich to a meeting of Muslim friends, Castel Gandolfo, 3 November 2002)
Giuseppe Maria Zanghì: This is the question: “We’d like to ask you, Chiara, how do you feel about the relationship with other religions. What does it make you feel within your heart?”
Chiara Lubich: I’ve always felt very comfortable in my contacts with the faithful of other religions! Even though we are different from one another, we have a lot in common, a lot in common, and this unites us. Instead, diversity attracts us; it arouses our curiosity. So, I like these contacts for two reasons: because I get to know new things, I enter into the culture of others, and also because I find brothers and sisters who are like me because we have many beliefs in common. The most important of all – as I told you the last time I was here – is that famous Golden Rule, which says “Do not do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.” This sentence can be found in all the most important religions, in their scriptures, in their sacred books. It’s also in the Gospel for Christians. This phrase – “Do not do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you” – means “treat your brothers and sisters well, have great respect for them, love them.” And so, when they discover this phrase in their scriptures and I discover the same phrase in my scriptures, I love, they love, and so we love one another, and this is the basis, the first step towards universal fraternity So the first thing is to live the “Golden Rule.” The second part of the question is about what I feel in my heart when I meet a brother or sister of another religion. I immediately feel a great desire to become friends, to build unity, to have this relationship as brothers and sisters. …
Città Nuova publishing house, in collaboration with the Chiara Lubich Centre, recently published “Diario 1964 – 1980” by Chiara Lubich, edited by Fr. Fabio Ciardi, OMI. Fr. Fabio Ciardi introduced the content of the new book of Chiara Lubich’s Diaries saying, “The Diary is an extremely valuable resource, which allows you to cross the threshold of external events (the ‘external life’) and to penetrate the way in which they are lived (the ‘intimate life’)”. The book is part of the “Works of Chiara Lubich” series. Fr. Fabio told us that even though 5 volumes of this series have already been published and fifteen are in the pipeline, “It is not the complete works because that would require an immense amount of work. Future books include Chiara’s main written works ranging from an introductory first volume that will be a historical biography, followed by her letters, public speeches, what we call founding speeches and then her more informal talks or conversations.” Fr. Fabio added, “The letters and diaries are perhaps the most intimate part of Chiara, the aspect that reveals most about her. When you give speech, it is an elaborate, prepared and revised text. When I access her correspondence or her Diary, there are no filters there. It is a direct grafting with Chiara’s soul. Her Diary and letters are those pages that allow us to have an immediate, direct, unfiltered relationship with her.” Fr. Fabio continued, “Chiara Lubich’s diary is quite special because it didn’t start as a personal diary, but as a way to involve all the members of the Movement in her travels. (…) . At first it started with a description of what happened, so it is a descriptive diary but it soon became an intimate diary. Because what she wanted to communicate was not simply the facts she was experiencing but how she was experiencing them”. The Diaries cover sixteen years and, to help the reader better place and understand Chiara’s texts, Fr. Ciardi made a deliberate editorial choice: “First I gave a general introduction to the entire Diary, year by year. Then I offered an introduction to that year, placing and contextualizing it in the life of the Church, in the life of the world, so that we can grasp what Chiara Lubich was experiencing but with the broader horizon of the life of the Movement, of the Church and of humanity.” For those who want to know how best to read this book and where to start, Fr. Fabio replied: “The first thing I would recommend is to open it at random and read a page. It’s sure to be addictive so then it’s like an invitation to read another page and another. Don’t worry about reading it continuously. You can open randomly and read one day, then another or one year then another. And then maybe this will make you want to follow the thread. So then start again from the beginning and slowly follow this path, which is a journey… Chiara’s path is not easy. It is a troubled journey, there are moments of trial and moments of illness. These are moments when she didn’t write in her diary which begs the question – why not? Maybe because she was living in a moment of darkness. So retracing the whole path chronologically helps to understand this world. But for starters, maybe you can open it randomly and read here and there. Then you’ll want to read it continuously and completely”. Fr. Fabio concluded, “The diary is hers, it is personal, it is her life and this can be deduced above all from the constant conversations with God, with Jesus, with Mary and with the saints that exists in the Diary (…) She reveals her soul to us, she shows us what she has inside. And this resonated with me because it is like an invitation to go on a similar journey, to experience that same intimacy; so in the end by reading Chiara I also reflect myself not in what I am, unfortunately, but in what I feel I should be”.
Carlos Mana
Video: In dialogue with Fr. Fabio Ciardi (subtitles in English)
