Embrace the sufferings of our neighbour

“Being one with our neighbours means to absolutely forget oneself, forever. Never find ourselves again. It was to lose everything, even our own soul, in order to live the sufferings and joys of the others so as to show Jesus our love: to be crucified with Him who is living in our neighbours and to rejoice with Him.

Our neighbours were our convent where our soul always had to gather. Our neighbours were our penance, the mortifications, because our loving them required the total death of our ego...

And we saw that this “entering” in our neighbours brought about their rebirth.

Only love counts. In this way, becoming sin with our sinner  neighbours, error with our errant neighbours, hungry with our hungry neighbours, excommunicated with our excommunicated neighbours, the Life that was in us passed on to them and they loved us in return. They saw the Light again because they felt the love and in the light, hope that removed desperation, and charity towards us and towards everyone. The Spirit of Jesus invaded other members of his Mystical Body.

It was reliving Jesus’ Life. Continuing His Life. He made himself one with us to lead us to the Father, becoming darkness with us who are in the dark in order to give us the light, sin with us sinners , suffering with us who suffer, death with us who are “dead” in order to give us life and make us rise with Him who rose , so that our life is in touch with every neighbour that passes us by.  Making ourselves the neighbours, like Jesus, in order to make them us. To give them the fullness of joy that community life had given us in mutual love.”

Reading this reflection written by Chiara Lubich gives me the measure of what it really means to love my neighbour. It is not just being polite, doing a good turn, be nice. It is rather to love with the same measure that God loves me, still now in this present moment. It is Jesus that I find in each of my neighbours in the present moment and with him a constant opportunity to carry on a conversation that never ends. I live like this what more can I ask for:  A God who out of love for me has become like me! I am not even sure whether I can possibly appreciate what it means for God to become like me! I sometimes wonder whether we who believe, know what treasure we have in our hands!