Our Revolution

below is a talk by Chiara at Payerne in 1982, which struck me very much: 

This is the first idea, the first idea that can already revolutionize our souls if we are sensitive to the supernatural: universal brotherhood which frees us from all forms of slavery, because we are slaves of the divisions between rich and poor, between nationalities: father and children; between black and white, between races; between nationalities, even between different cantons or counties of the same nation. We are slaves, we criticize one another, and there are many obstacles and barriers.

No, the first idea is to free ourselves from all these forms of slavery and to see in everyone, in everyone... "Even in my little boy? Even in that woman who talks too much? Even in that elderly man who doesn’t make any sense? Even in that poor person? Even in that other person? But is it possible?" Yes, in everyone, in everyone, in everyone. We must see them all as possible candidates for unity with God and for unity with one another. We must open our hearts and tear down all the barriers. We must put into our hearts universal brotherhood: I live for universal brotherhood!

So then, if we are all brothers and sisters, we must love everyone. We must love everyone. We must love everyone. Look, these are just a few words, but they bring a revolution! We must love everyone.

 "Even that woman who lives next door... but she criticizes me, she looks down on me, what a character!" Yes, her too. We must love everyone. Those same notes contain some very useful ideas which tell us how to love everyone. It is written there that we must love every neighbour. But which neighbour? The one who passes by us in the present moment of our lives. So we’re not talking about a platonic love, not an idealistic love, but a concrete love: my neighbours now are you; your neighbour is me, and your neighbour is the person sitting next to you or in the seat behind you. We must love not in an idealistic way or in the future, but in a concrete way and in the present, now. We have to love. We have to love.                                                                                                                                                

What happens when people are won over? They too want to love. They too want to make

themselves one with everyone, and they try to make themselves one with us too. What happens? Now

there are two of us making ourselves one, two of us making ourselves one with one another, two of us

loving one another really as Jesus wants.

Jesus wants us to love one another to the point of dying for one another. He doesn’t want us to

love one another waiting to die tomorrow or the day after or next year. He wants us to die now. He wants

us to live dead, dead to ourselves because alive to love. He wants us to live dead.

When two people meet and love one another in this way, then something extraordinary happens,

something extraordinary! Just as when two elements combine and cause a third element, which is not the

sum total of the two elements but something else, when Anthony and Michael love one another in this

way, in this way, with this measure of love, being ready to die for one another, when Anthony and

Michael love one another like this, what happens? There is a third element!

It is no longer Michael plus Anthony, Anthony plus Michael. It’s not a mixture of two persons nor

a group of two or more persons: it is…, it is… Jesus! It is Jesus! It’s Jesus! It’s something wonderful!

“Where two or more are united in my name,” says Jesus (which means in this love, in Me, in this love)

“I am in their midst” which means: in them. Two or more who love one another in this way bring into the world, generate in the world a flame: Christ himself, Jesus himself, the same Jesus, the same Jesus. It’s fantastic! I remember when we had our first experiences in this way of loving, which I wish for everyone, especially for those who have just met our Movement today. We were surprised, enchanted. We used to say, “Oh, unity, unity, what divine beauty! We have no words to describe it. You can’t explain it. It’s Jesus. You can see unity, you can feel it, you can enjoy it with the senses of the soul, but you can’t express it. It’s indescribable like God. You realize what unity is especially when it is missing – it’s as if the sun has gone down. And unity, which is the presence of Jesus in our midst, brings his spirit, the spirit of Christ with all his fruits, which are: peace, a peace never, never, never experienced before; a joy never known before; a desire to love; a spirit of heroism; light: it makes you understand. It helps you to interpret events better. It is the Spirit who guides, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus. Wherever there is this unity, there is the Spirit of Jesus with all his fruits. It’s wonderful! It’s wonderful! Someone might ask, “Would you explain more about this presence of Jesus?” You see, before leaving this earth, Jesus said, “Behold, I shall be with you always, until the end of the world.” Behold, I will stay with you, I will stay with you. Where is Jesus now? We know where he is: he is in his Body, which is the Church. He is with Christians because he dwells within Christians, especially with those who proclaim him. He is present in the successors of the Apostles. He is in the Eucharist. He is in the poor, the sick, the weak. He is in his word, the word of God, it’s Jesus. He is also in the community united in his name. He is here, he is here, he’s in the community gathered in his name… “Where two or more” – this is a sentence very much loved by our brothers and sisters of the Reformed Church: “Where two or more… I am there in their midst.” Jesus is there. Today, in our times, there is a very special sensitivity to this presence of Jesus. Paul VI said so when he affirmed that today the world does not listen so much to teachers as to witnesses, that is, to those who first act and then speak. Paul VI also said that if people do listen to teachers it’s because first of all they are witnesses. We can understand this by looking, for example, at how Mother Theresa of Calcutta is listened to wherever she goes. Why? Because she has a reality to back her up and so she is listened to and accepted. The same applies to other witnesses of our times.

How often we feel that we want to renew the structures of our Church, of both the Catholic Church and the Reformed Church, for example, or also of the Old Catholic Church. Why? Because they are good structures – the parish and the diocese – but there is not always the spirit of the early Christians,unity, the communion of goods, that fervour, that adherence to the word of God.

Let’s bring Jesus into the structures of our Churches. Let’s bring Jesus into our religious orders and congregations. How often these beautiful buds in the Church don’t blossom fully because the sun is missing, love is missing. If we bring love, we’ll see wonderful things happen, a garden in the Church. How often our families are broken by separations, divided by arguments, by divorce and all these things. Let’s bring Jesus in the midst and we’ll see the splendor of families which John Paul II calls “little churches” shine forth again. Let’s bring the presence of Jesus among our Churches: the Catholic Church, the Reformed Church, the Old Catholic Church - let's bring Jesus in our midst. Let’s show how true it isthat what unites us is much more than what divides us because we have baptism, we are all children of God

But we must love one another and then Christ will be in our midst, even among the various Churches or ecclesial communities. He will be present and he will already bear witness to unity. Then the others who do not know Christ will believe in him. At times they are really scandalized by our separation. They believe that Christ is dead because we are divided. But in seeing these Christians who are  going towards complete unification and who are even now very united because of Christ in their midst,

these people will believe in Jesus and say, “Truly, they have the truth.”

We should leave with this proposal. First: I want to love everyone. Second: in order to love them I want to serve them, below everyone, to have the primacy of love. Therefore, I want to make myself one with everyone and bring the presence of Christ in our midst in the world, in this small UK. Yes, on the one hand it is small, geographically, and on the other it is very rich in many,

So let’s start working. Let’s bring Christ. Let’s bring Jesus. Let’s bring God. For him nothing is impossible. “Be confident,” he said, and he repeats it to us, “I have overcome the world.” Then we will see that springtime predicted by Pius XII, and the civilization of love that Paul VI spoke of. We will see our small Switzerland journeying along that “way of life” as our present Pope John

Paul II described this Ideal of unity. Life and not words, life, life. And we know that life is Christ – Christ here in our midst so that Christ may be present in as many places as possible all over Switzerland.