I need patience!

Know how to wait

The caterpillar on a leaf, looked around and saw all those insects who sang, who jumped, who ran, who were flying, and all the insects were in constant motion.

Only he, poor man, he had no voice, did not run and did not fly.

With great effort he could move, but so slowly, that when he turned from one leaf to another he thought he had gone all the way around the world!

Yet he did not envy anyone! He knew he was a caterpillar, and that caterpillars have to learn to spin a thin burr for weaving, with wonderful art, for their little house.

Therefore, with much effort, he began his work.

In a short time the caterpillar found himself locked in a warm cocoon of silk, isolated from the rest of the world.

"And now?" He wondered.

"Now wait," replied a voice. "A little 'patience and see."

At the right moment the caterpillar awoke, and was no longer a caterpillar.

He stepped out of the cocoon, with two beautiful wings, painted in bright colours, and immediately he rose high in the sky.

It is sometimes difficult knowing how to wait! We have all our unique gifts and we rush to show them thinking they are ours! Once I realise yet again that they are God’s love for our neighbour, they will shine in the right moment, not before and not after! For that I need patience!

Give courage to our neighbour

How quick am I to pounce if my neighbour makes a mistake! How quick do I pass judgement without even knowing the full facts! How quick do I call someone who holds different opinion political or otherwise, a liar or a cheat, or somebody who is not honest whilst putting me in the best possible light of honesty and integrity! Fool me: by doing this I have become the very person I condemn in the other! Jesus asks me time and again to love with his love, which puts all categories to one side in order to be always with the person next to me: There is no obstacle, because love conquers all, and that love is always concrete, is full of action! I was struck by a reflection written by Chiara Lubich on the adulteress.

Jesus wants to expose man's hypocrisy, when he sets himself up as the judge of his brother who is a sinner, without recognising that he himself is a sinner. His words emphasise the well-known declaration: 'Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged'. (Mt. 7:1-2)(…)

 

(…)We must remember that we too are sinners when we are faced with any of our brothers or sisters. We all have sinned and if it seems to us that we have not made any big mistakes, we should bear in mind that we may not always appreciate the weight of circumstances that has caused others to fall so low and to separate themselves from God in the way they did. How would we have acted if we had been in their place?

 

In any case we too have broken the bond of love which should unite us to God. We have not been faithful to him. In a way we have fallen into the sin of adultery in terms of our relationship with God.

 

If Jesus, the only sinless man, did not throw the first stone against the woman taken in adultery, we too should not throw the first stone against anyone.

 

In conclusion. We should be merciful to everyone, and react against certain impulses which move us to condemn without pity. We must know how to forgive and forget. We should not keep the remains of judgements and resentment in our heart where anger and hatred may breed and separate us from our brothers. We should see each person as if they were new.

 

By having love and mercy towards everyone in our heart instead of judgement and condemnation, we will help others to begin a new life and each time we will give them courage to start again. (…)

It is very encouraging! I can start again despite all that has happened, all the mistakes I made. So if God allows me to start again I must allow my neighbour to start again!  

Love covers everything

Below is a reflection by Chiara Lubich that came to mind when I reflected on the fact that love covers everything. If I want to be serious about living the New Commandment then love must be at the centre of my life, of every action in the present moment!   

(…) Christians must aim there: on true love, knowing apart from anything else has value when it is inspired and conducted by charity and all the rest counts for nothing, at least for the final account of their lives. This is how Christians must commit their lives so that at the end of each of their action they can say: this is a work that will remain. This is what they must make  of their daily work, of writing letters, of taking care of personal affairs, of educating their children, of engaging in conversation, of taking trips, of choosing clothes, of eating, even of sleeping, down to the smallest of their actions… when meeting all unforeseeable things that God will ask of them day by day.

This is how it must be – and it is enormously consoling – for those who can do so little because they are sick  or confined in their beds or who remain inactive during an endless convalescence.

This, precisely this is how it must be – how many times have we said it and forgotten it – because what really counts is not our work, our writing, or even our apostolic activities; what counts is the love that must animate our life.

And this is possible for everyone.

For God every action in itself is indifferent. Love is what counts. Love gets the world moving. Even if someone has a mission to fulfil, it will be fruitful to the extent that is infused with love (…)

 (Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City, London. P 83)

Simple and yet difficult! It’s training programme. The more I love in each moment, the more it becomes a way of life, the new way of life.  

The love that makes us brothers and sisters

If we are brothers and sisters we are equal! God loves each one of us individually as his children! He love each of us, without exception, so if we want to reply to his love for me I must do the same: love everybody considering everyone in the present moment a brother or a sister! It’s a challenge! I found this reflection by Chiara by Pope Paul VI from 1972.  

In the Pope’s 1 message for the World Day of Peace, to 'all peoples living in 1972', there is a passage near the end addressed to ‘sons and daughters of the Catholic Church’. In it the Pope invites us to 'bring to humanity a message of hope through a fraternity which is truly lived and through an honest and persevering effort for greater, true justice'.

I want to consider for a moment this request of the Pope to his sons and daughters to offer the world a lived fraternity, in order to see how we can put it into practice and give humanity a message of hope. First of all, we can ask ourselves: is there among us Catholics a basis for creating a more heartfelt fraternity? And further: is today's world open to this? If we look at the Church and humanity, we'll see how both are subject to two contrasting tensions.

The Church today, too, as in every age, walks along a way of the cross since it has the same destiny as its Founder. A frenzy of new ideas seems to menace the roots of faith and morality, raising doubts about everyone and everything. An overall protest estranges some of the Church's best sons and daughters, impoverishing it by the loss of even those chosen and sent in its name to announce the Gospel. The hierarchy itself is at times put on trial by those who, because they want to humanize everything, disregard the value of the ecclesiastical magisterium. Humanity, in which the Church lives and which every tremor strongly affects it, is torn by division and by the unleashing of the instincts against every form of order and every structure that binds everyone together.

Then there are the social imbalances, the continual outbreaks of war that keep men with bated breath for fear of a world conflict and all those moral evils of today that we know. In short: disorientation in every field. However, we can see parallel to this tragic but true picture, a vague but felt desire for fraternity, for unity that surmounts existing barriers and focuses at the world taken as a whole. It’s a unity that is not just an aspiration but which, in the political field for example, is already a realization in different forms, all inspired legiti¬mately or not, by the testament of Jesus.

At the same time, there is an increase in the number of nations which hope to resolve the most serious tensions in a peaceful way. In the social field, the air is vibrating with a sense of solidarity, felt by most adults and especially young people. And along with so much bad news, there is the recent surprising phenomenon of great numbers of young people rebelling in the name of Christ against the slavery of sex and drugs. The Church, the Pentecost of the Council, continues to raise its authoritative voice above the world's whisper and gives it hope again. It’s a voice that calls on the divine to shine out so as to make this earth come alive and calls on faith to confirm itself again more beautifully and more truly and be freed from all attachments. It’s a voice which urges the moral order to re-establish itself to save humanity from its own ruin, which exhorts social structures to be Christianized, priests to be light in the world, bishops to co-operate with the Pope so that unity in diversity may shine forth all the more. And there is the clear, strong and sure voice of the Pope who, in order to instruct and 'to confirm his brothers', constantly announces the truth and puts forward again the Council's teaching, clarifying it for the people of God. Yet another attractive and present day characteristic of the Church stands out: varied charisms of the Spirit are echoing the desires of the Holy Spirit himself in the Second Vatican Council, calling on Christians to be Church in the deepest meaning of the word, that is, to be communion, lived fraternity.

From this comes a revival of movements of different origins animated by a marked sense of fraternity, in a world that is calling out for this, but often in the name of those who do not know how to really give it fraternity. At times, these groups themselves cannot nor know how to measure the power they possess precisely because they are Christians. Love is needed in order to form fraternity. And by now this is known to everyone in the world to a greater or lesser degree. The Muslims too, who do not believe in the Trinitarian God but only in the One God are, in different areas, responsive to a fraternity based on love.

But the love that a Christian brings – and here is the utterly deep mystery and hidden power that once made fruitful can work miracles – is different from any other love existing in the world, however noble and beautiful it may be. It is a love of divine origin, God's very own love shared with men and women, who being grafted in them, become sons and daughters of God. This is the cause and origin of an incomparable reality: human fraternity on a higher level, supernatural fraternity. It is in this fraternity that an event occurs which reminds us of Christmas: Christ is born among peoples as Emmanuel, God with us. In this fraternity Christians are united in the name of Christ who said: 'Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them' (Mt. 18:20).

It is a kind of fraternity that can – even where the Church finds itself obstructed in its ministry – make Christ present among peoples. It means spiritually present, but truly present. It is this fraternity that can bring Christ among the people, into homes, into schools, into hospitals, into factories, into every community or meeting. The Council and the Pope often emphasized that the community united like a family in the name of the Lord enjoys his presence. It is that fraternity that makes us Church, as Odo Casel points out : 'It is not that the one Church breaks up into a plurality of different communities, nor that the multiplicity of different communions united together forms the one Church. The Church is only one, wherever it appears, it is all entire and undivided, even where only two or three are gathered in the name of Christ.2 Now maybe we Christians do not always take account of this extraordinary possibility.

By acknowledging it this Christmas, God will give us the grace to welcome and to make more fruitful such a gift. In this fraternity, everywhere and with everyone, we need not anxiously think how we can sort out human problems on our own. If we so wish (and it is enough to be united in his name, that is in him and in the way he wishes), Christ is among us and with us, he, the Almighty! This gives us hope. Yes, it gives us great hope. In our Christian families, in our groups and in our movements for whatever Christian goal they were formed, and in the activities to which we dedicate our efforts, we must certainly revive a little of that unity. That unity, that fraternity that makes Christ present among us and makes us Church, openly declaring to one another this desire of ours, without any fear of false modesty. If Christmas reminds us to what extent God has loved us, and that is, to the point of making himself one of us, it is easy to understand how the logic of his love makes him always want to be a partner in our doings and desirous to live in a certain way among us, sharing our happiness, our grieves, responsibilities and weariness, above all giving us a hand as our Brother.

For him, it is not enough to represent himself to us every time we solemnly join together for the Eucharistic celebration, or to be particularly present in other ways such as in the hierarchy or in his word... he wishes to be with us always. And all he needs are two or three Christians... and they don't necessarily have to be saints! All that is needed are two or more men of good will who believe in him and especially in his love. If we do this, there will be an upsurge of living cells in the Church which, in time, will be able to animate the society that surrounds them until they penetrate the whole mass. This mass, then enlightened by the spirit of Christ, will be better able to fulfil God's plan for the world, and give a decisive thrust to the peaceful, irresistible social revolution, with consequences we'd never dared hoped for. If the historic Christ healed and satisfied the hunger of souls and bodies, Christ mystically present among his own knows how to do just as much now. If the historic Christ asked his Father, before dying, for oneness among his disciples, Christ mystically present among Christians knows how to bring this about. If we human beings are united in Christ's name, tomorrow we will see people united. To help us respond to all that God is asking of us through the Pope, much seems to have been prepared for us by the Holy Spirit. We need to give new impetus to our Christian life which is always too individualistic, often mediocre, but above all, lacking in authenticity.This rule of life ought to inform every kind of diplomacy, and with God it can be done because he is not only the master of individuals, but king of the nations and of every society. If all diplomats in the exercise of their duty were inspired in their actions by charity towards the other State as to their own, they would be enlightened by the help of God to such an extent as to contribute to the establishment of relationships among States as they ought to exist among human beings.

Charity is a light and a guide, and the one who is sent as an emissary has all the graces to be a good emissary.

May God help us and may we co-operate, so that from heaven the Lord may see this new sight: his last will and testament brought to life among the nations.

It may seem like a dream to us, but for God it is the norm, the only one that guarantees peace in the world, the fulfilment of individuals in the unity of a humanity that by that point would know Jesus.

Become “one” with the person next to us in the present moment

“When someone weeps, we must weep with them. And if they laugh, rejoice with them. Thus the cross is divided and borne by many shoulders, and joy is multiplied and shared by many hearts. Making ourselves one with our neighbour is the way, the main way, of making ourselves one with God. (…)

Making ourselves one with our neighbour for love of Jesus, with the love of Jesus, so that our neighbour, sweetly wounded by the love of God in us will want to make himself or herself one with us, in a mutual exchange of help, of ideals, of projects, of affections. Do this until establishing between the two of us those essential elements for the Lord to say, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’ (Matt. 18:20.) Until, that is, as far as it depends on us, the presence of Jesus is guaranteed, so that we walk through life, always, as a little Church on the move – Church whether we are at home, at school, in a garage or in Parliament.

Walking in life like the disciples of Emmaus with that Third among them, who gives divine value to all our actions.

Then we are not the ones acting in our life, we who are miserable and limited, lonely and suffering. The Almighty walks with us. And whoever remains united with him bears much fruit.

From one cell come more cells, from one tissue many tissues. Making ourselves one with our neighbour in that complete self forgetfulness which is possessed (without realizing it or specifically trying to do it) by someone who thinks of the other, their neighbour.

This is the diplomacy of charity, which has many of the expressions and aspects of ordinary diplomacy, hence it does not say all that it could say, for this would not be liked by others or be pleasing to God. It knows how to wait, how to speak, how to reach its goal. The divine diplomacy of the Word who becomes flesh to make us divine. This diplomacy, however, has an essential and characteristic mark that differentiates it from the diplomacy spoken about by the world, for which to say diplomatic is often synonymous with reticence or even falsehood.

The divine diplomacy has this greatness and this property, perhaps a property of it alone: it is moved by the good of the other and is therefore devoid of any shadow of selfishness.

This rule of life ought to inform every kind of diplomacy, and with God it can be done because he is not only the master of individuals, but king of the nations and of every society. If all diplomats in the exercise of their duty were inspired in their actions by charity towards the other State as to their own, they would be enlightened by the help of God to such an extent as to contribute to the establishment of relationships among States as they ought to exist among human beings.

Charity is a light and a guide, and the one who is sent as an emissary has all the graces to be a good emissary.

May God help us and may we co-operate, so that from heaven the Lord may see this new sight: his last will and testament brought to life among the nations.

It may seem like a dream to us, but for God it is the norm, the only one that guarantees peace in the world, the fulfilment of individuals in the unity of a humanity that by that point would know Jesus.

(Chiara Lubich, Meditations, New City London, 2005) 

As yourself

I noticed that with time it there has been a bit of dust settling on the most important aspect of my life: Being love, being what God wants me to be. So in these days I want to reflect on the “Art of loving” as Chiara explains it. I found it a real conversion, a turning back to my roots, because being love is the only way that makes sense in my life.

Every word of God contains both the minimum and the maximum that he can ask of you, so when you read, “love you 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 neighbour cry, you must cry, and whey laugh, laugh with them. If they lack knowledge be ignorant with them. If they lost a parent make their suffering your own.

You and they are members of Christ and if one or the other is suffering, it is the same for you.

What has value for you is God, who is both their Father and yours.

Do not seek to be excused from loving. Your neighbours are those who pass next to you, be they rich or poor, beautiful or not, holy or sinful, a fellow citizen or a foreigner, a priest or a layperson, whoever. Try to love whoever appears to you in the present moment of your life. You will discover within yourself an energy and strength you did not now you had. It will add flavour to your life, and you will find answers to your thousand questions why.

(Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City, London, p 80)

Respect the brother/sister

The entire Gospel shows clearly that ‘our neighbour’ is every human being, man or woman, friend or enemy, to These words can also be found in the Hebrew scriptures (Leviticus 19:18), and Jesus quotes them in response to someone who had been trying to catch him out with a trick question. His answer is in line with a well established rabbinical tradition, begun by the prophets, which tried to understand God’s teaching in the Torah by looking for a unifying principle in all its books. One of Jesus’ contemporaries, Rabbi Hillel, had written, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is all there is in the Torah. All the rest is merely explanation." (1)

All Jewish teachers saw love of neighbour as a consequence of loving God. After all, He had created humanity in his own image and likeness, so it was impossible to love God without loving the people he had made. So this is the real motive for loving our neighbour. It is what has been described as "a great and general principle of the law." (2)

Jesus highlighted this principle, and he pointed out that the command to love your neighbour is similar to the first great commandment: ‘love God with all your heart, mind and soul’. In emphasising the similarity between these two commandments, Jesus bound them together inextricably, and Christian tradition has preserved the link ever since. As the apostle John so clearly states: "If someone does not love the brother or sister whom they have seen, how can they love God whom they have not seen?" (1 Jn 4:20).

The entire Gospel shows clearly that ‘our neighbour’ is every human being, man or woman, friend or enemy, to whom we owe respect, consideration and esteem. Love of neighbour is both universal and personal. It embraces all of humanity and finds concrete expression in the person who is next to us.

But who can give us such a big heart, and stir up in us such a degree of kindness that we feel close to, and regard as neighbours, those who are least like us? Who can make us overcome our self-love, so that we recognise this "self" in others? It is a gift from God. Indeed it is the very love of God which "has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us". (Rm. 5:5).

So it’s not an ordinary love. It’s not just simple friendship or philanthropy. In fact it is nothing less than the love which was poured into our hearts at baptism. This love is the life of God himself. It is the life of the blessed Trinity, in which we participate.

So love is literally everything, but if our love is to be authentic we need to learn something about its qualities as they are described in the Gospel and more generally in Scripture. A few fundamental points sum them up:

Jesus died for everyone. By loving everyone he teaches us that true love is to be given to all. Often the love in our hearts is simply human. It confines itself to relatives, friends and a few others. But Jesus wants our love to be free of discrimination, having no regard for whether people are friendly or hostile, attractive or not, adults or children. This love doesn't notice whether people are members of my Church or of another one, of my religion or another. True love loves everyone, and we should do the same: love everyone.

True love makes us want to be the first to love instead of waiting for someone else to love us. Generally speaking, we love because we are loved, but the Father sent his Son to save us while we were still sinners and therefore not loving. So true love takes the initiative. In other words, we should love everyone, and we should be the first to love.

True love sees Jesus in every neighbour. At the final judgement Jesus will say to us, "You did it to me", (Cf. Mt. 25:40) and this will apply to the good that we do and also, unfortunately, to the bad we do.

True love makes us love both friends and enemies alike, praying for them and doing good things for them. Jesus wants the love that he brought on earth to become mutual so that one person loves the other and vice versa, in order to achieve unity.

All these qualities of love help us to understand and live today’s motto.

True love means loving others as we love ourselves. This should be taken literally. We should truly see the other person as another self and do for them what we would do for ourselves. True love leads us to suffer with those who are suffering and to rejoice with those who rejoice, carrying other people's burdens. As Paul says, it causes us to makes ourselves one with the person who is loved, so it is not just a question of feelings or words. It involves real action.

People of other religious convictions try to do the same thing by putting into practice the so-called 'Golden Rule,' which can be found in all religions. It wants us to do to others what we would like others to do to us. Gandhi explained it very simply and effectively: "I can't harm you without hurting myself".

So this month could be an opportunity to re-focus on love of neighbour. Our neighbour has so many faces: the person next door, a classmate, a friend or a close relative. But there are also the anguished faces of humanity that television brings into our homes from war-torn cities and natural disasters. In the past they were unknown to us: they were thousands of miles away. Now they too have become our neighbours.

Love will suggest what we should do in each situation, and, little by little, it will open our hearts to the greatness of the heart of Jesus.

Every neighbour is a gift

I found this explanation of the communitarian spirituality, which in a simple way shows how my neighbour is indispensable for my life. I not alone in my journey to God! He is with me in my neighbour!

In the individual spiritualities it is like being in a magnificent garden looking with admiration at a single flower, the presence of God within. In a collective spirituality we love and admire all the flowers in the garden, every presence of Christ in others. And we love in others as we love him within ourselves.

Since communitarian life must be fully personal as well, it is our general experience when we are alone that, after loving our brothers and sisters, we become aware of our union with God. We may, in fact, pick up a book to meditate , only to find that he wants to speak within us.

So, it can be said that when we go to our brothers and sisters in the right way, by loving as the gospel teaches, we become more Christ, more truly human.

And since we try to be united with our brothers and sisters, in addition to silence we have a special love for the word, as means of communication. We speak in order to become one with others.

We speak in the Movement, in order to share our experiences of living the word or of our own spiritual life, aware that the fire that does not grow is extinguished and that this communion of soul has great spiritual value (…).we speak at major gatherings in order to keep alive the fire of God’s love in everyone.

When we do not speak, we write: we write letters, articles, books, diaries to advance the kingdom of Godin our hearts. We use all the modern means of communication. And we dress like everyone else to avoid a sense of separateness from others.

In the Movement we also practise those mortifications that are indispensable for every Christian life. We do penance as recommended by the Church, but we have special regard for those penances that a life of unity with others entails.

That is not easy, for the “old self”, as Paul calls it, “is always ready to find its way back into us.

Fraternal unity is not established once for all; it must be renewed continually.  When there is unity and through it Jesus in our midst, we experience great joy, as promised by Jesus in his prayer for unity. When unity compromised, the shadows and confusion return and we live in a kind of purgatory. That is the kind of penance we must be ready to practise.

to go to Jesus, to find Jesus, to know Jesus, is a gift

I came across this homily by Pope Francis on Jesus and faith. If I want to love like he did I have to have a relationship with Jesus, because without him how can I have his love?

Faith is a gift that begins in our encounter with Jesus, a real, tangible person and not an intangible essence, ‘mist’ or 'spray'. 

Our real encounter with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit was the focus of Pope Francis Thursday morning celebrated with the Italian State Police who serve the Vatican area.

The Pope drew inspiration for his homily from the Gospel of John in which Jesus tells the crowd that "he who believes has eternal life". He says the passage is an opportunity for us to examine our conscience. He noted that very often people say they generally believe in God. "But who is this God you believe in?" asked Pope Francis confronting the evanescence of certain beliefs with the reality of a true faith:

"An ‘all over the place - god, a 'god-spray' so to speak, who is a little bit everywhere but who no-one really knows anything about. We believe in God who is Father, who is Son, who is Holy Spirit. We believe in Persons, and when we talk to God we talk to Persons: or I speak with the Father, or I speak with the Son, or I speak with the Holy Spirit. And this is the faith. "

In the Gospel passage, Jesus also says that no one can come to him "unless drawn by the Father who sent me." Pope Francis said that these words show that "to go to Jesus, to find Jesus, to know Jesus, is a gift" that God bestows on us.

The Pope said we see an example of this in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, where Christ sends Philip to explain the Old Testament in the light of the Resurrection to an officer of the court of the Queen of Egypt. That officer - observed Pope Francis - was not a "common man" but a royal treasurer and because of this, “we may think he was a bit attached to the money", "a careerist." Yet, said the Pope, when this individual listens to Philip speak to him of Jesus "he hears that it is good news", "he feels joy," to the point of being baptized in the first place they find water:

"Those who have faith have eternal life, they have life. But faith is a gift, it is the Father who gifts it. We must continue on this path. But if we travel this path, it is always with our own baggage - because we are all sinners and we all always have things that are wrong. But the Lord will forgive us if we ask for forgiveness, and so we should always press onwards, without being discouraged - but on that path what happened to the royal treasurer will happen to us too”.

Pope Francis, what is described in the Acts of the Apostles, after the officer discovers the faith we also happen to us: "And he went on his way rejoicing":

"It is the joy of faith, the joy of having encountered Jesus, the joy that only Jesus gives us, the joy that gives peace: not what the world gives, but what gives Jesus. This is our faith. We ask the Lord to help us grow in this faith, this faith that makes us strong, that makes us joyful, this faith that always begins with our encounter with Jesus and always continues throughout our lives in our small daily encounters with Jesus.

We resist the Holy Spirit

I liked this homily by the Pope last Tuesday. For me it is an exam of conscience as well, not just for the Church! If I resist the Holy Spirit, how can I love my neighbour?

Pope Francis’ homily at the mass was centred on the theme of the Holy Spirit and our resistance to it. It took its inspiration from the first reading of the day which was the story of the martyrdom of St. Stephen who described his accusers as stubborn people who were always resisting the Holy Spirit.

Put frankly, the Pope continued, “the Holy Spirit upsets us because it moves us, it makes us walk, it pushes the Church forward.” He said that we wish “to calm down the Holy Spirit, we want to tame it and this is wrong.” Pope Francis said “that’s because the Holy Spirit is the strength of God, it’s what gives us the strength to go forward” but many find this upsetting and prefer the comfort of the familiar.

Nowadays, he went on, “everybody seems happy about the presence of the Holy Spirit but it’s not really the case and there is still that temptation to resist it.” The Pope said one example of this resistance was the Second Vatican council which he called “a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit.” But 50 years later, “have we done everything the Holy Spirit was asking us to do during the Council,” he asked. The answer is “No,” said Pope Francis. “We celebrate this anniversary, we put up a monument but we don’t want it to upset us. We don’t want to change and what’s more there are those who wish to turn the clock back.” This, he went on, “is called stubbornness and wanting to tame the Holy Spirit.”

The Pope said the same thing happens in our personal life. “The Spirit pushes us to take a more evangelical path but we resist this.” He concluded his homily by urging those present not to resist the pull of the Holy Spirit. “Submit to the Holy Spirit,” he said, “which comes from within us and makes go forward along the path of holiness.”

Try to understand the other

z

This is another aspect of loving my neighbour, which has led me this morning to reflect on one of the many effects of love namely love that generates communion. It is the way in which I really understand the other, by being open and in communion. Again, Chiara gave the key to this my understanding, which is a real challenge!

The Christian is called to live life, to swim in the light, to plunge into crosses, but not to pine away. At times our life is exhausted, our intelligence is clouded and our will is undecided, because educated in this world, we have been used to live an individualistic life, which stands in contradiction to the Christian life.

Christ is love and a Christian must be love. Love generates communion: communion as the basis of Christian life and as its summit.

In this communion a person no longer goes to god alone, but travels in company. This is a fact of incomparable beauty that makes our soul repeats the words of Scripture: “how very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!”(Ps 133,1).

Fraternal communion is not, however, a beatific stillness, it a perennial conquest with not only of preserving communion, but also of expanding it among many people, because the communion spoken of here is love, charity, and charity spreads by its very nature.

How often , between those who have decided to go united to God, unity begins to weaken, dust creeps between one soul and another and the enchantment is broken, because the light that had emergedthem all slowly goes out!(…)

We had said we wanted to see only Jesus in our neighbour, to deal with Jesus in our neighbour, to love Jesus in our neighbour, but now we recall that a neighbour has this or or that defect, has this or that imperfection.

Our eye becomes complicated and our being is no longer lit up. As a consequence erring we break unity.

Perhaps that particular neighbour, like all of us, has made mistakes, but how does God view him or her? What really is that person’s condition, the truth of his or her state? If our neighbour is reconciled with God, the God no longer remembers anything; he has wiped out everything with his blood. So, why should we go on remembering?

Who is in error at that moment?

I who judge my neighbour? I am.

Therefore I must myself see things from God’s viewpoint, in the truth, and treat my neighbour accordingly, so that if, by some mishap, he or she has not yet sorted things out with Lord, the warmth of my love, which is Christ in me, will bring my neighbour to repentance, in the same way that the sun dries and heals over many wounds.

Charity is preserved by truth, and truth is pure mercy with which we ought to be clothed from head to foot in order to be able to call ourselves Christians.

And if my neighbour returns?

I must see that person new, as though nothing had happened, and I must begin life together with him or her in the unity of, as the first time, because nothing remains.(…)(Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City London, p 100)

Reflecting on this made me remember the “Golden Rule”: “Do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets” (Mt7:12). 

Have mercy towards those who make mistakes

We all make mistakes, and I for one am quick to jump down my neighbour’s throat to point the mistakes made! But who decides it was a mistake? Was it really a mistake? Is it important? When I read this reflection within me I felt I have to make pact of mercy, to see each familiar person new, as if for the first time so that there is that love amongst us that God wants!

When we have known suffering in all shades of its most frightful forms, in the most varied kinds of anguish, and have stretched out our arms to God in mute, heart-rendering supplication, uttering subdued cries for help; when we have drunk the chalice to the last drop and have offered to God , for days and years, our own cross mingled with his, which gives  it divine value, then God has pity on us and welcomes us into union with him.

This is the moment in which, having experienced the unique value of suffering , having believed in the economy of the cross and seen its beneficial effects, God shows us in a new and higher way something that is worth even more than suffering. It is love for others in the form of mercy, the love that stretches our hearts and arms to embrace the wretched, the poor, those whom life has ravaged, repentant sinners.

A love that knows how to welcome back our neighbour who went astray, our friend, brother or a stranger, and pardons an infinite number of times. It is a love that rejoices more over one sinner who comes back than over a thousand of the just and that puts intelligence and possessions at the service of God, so as to enable him to show the prodigal son the happiness caused by his return.

It is a love that does not measure and will not be measured.

It is charity in bloom, which is more abundant, more universal, more down to earth than the charity the soul had before. Indeed it senses within itself the birth of feeling similar of Jesus, and it notices coming to its lips with reference to all those it meets, the divine words: “I have compassion for the crowd” (Mt 15:32). It starts conversations with sinners who draw near, because it has a certain likeness to Christ, such as those conversations Jesus once had with Mary Magdalene, with the Samaritan woman, or with the adulteress.

Mercy is the ultimate expression of charity, and is that which fulfils it. Charity surpasses suffering, for suffering belongs to this life alone, whereas love continues also to the next. God prefers mercy to sacrifice.

(Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City London, p 85)

DIM

Knowing how to lose in front of the other

This is real challenge: how to lose my thoughts, what is most dear to me out of love for my neighbour! In my thoughts Mary at the foot of the cross came to mind as the perfect example that perhaps I overlook many a time. It is so real. Chiara made me reflect on knowing how to lose, when she writes:

We do not think enough about Mary’s “passion” about the swords that pierced her heart, about the terrible forsakenness she felt on Golgotha, when Jesus entrusted her to others...

Perhaps the reason for this this is that Mary knew all too well how to cover her living, tormented agony with sweetness, with light, and with silence.

And yet there is no similar to hers…

If one day our sufferings reach such depths that make everything inside us rebel, because the fruit of our “passion” seems to be taken out of our hands and, moreover from our heart, let’s remember her.

It will be this coldness that will make us a bit similar to her, and which will shape better in our souls the figure of Mary, the All-Beautiful, the Mother of all because by divine will she was detached from everyone, most of all from her divine son.

The desolate is the Saint par excellence.

I would want to relive her in her mortification,

I would want to be capable of being alone with God like her, in the sense that even in the midst of others, I feel drawn to make the whole of my life an intimate dialogue between my soul and God.

(Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City London, p 139)

This will be my “model” that points to the essential in my everyday life. Every time I find it difficult to lose I have o ask myself: Does it matter (DIM)? Is it more important than my dialogue with God in my neighbour?

Exercise an intelligent love

I reflected today on the concept of sanctity! If I love my neighbour, if I try to live outside of myself loving my brothers and sisters in the present moment we can become saints together! Chiara made me reflect, when she writes:

(…)the purpose of a Christian’s life on earth is to achieve sanctity. (…)

(…)The acceleration of life today leave no time for people to catch their breath, and modern means of communication absorb all their free time. They have no time left to think and ask deeper questions. They are entirely indifferent to the idea of sanctity; it has little importance for them. “I don’t think about it; there is no problem.” There is not enough time; there is  no moment of calm, no opportunity for quiet reflection.

Not everyone reaches this point. There are still some who venture on, but soon feel unable to continue and finally lose all  motivation. Other never begin the quest. (…) yet, whether we are in modern times or in times past, sanctity is the only goal for us. It seems to be of little concern right now; it will not always be so. Some day we will be examined on this issue because the final judgement is based on love of neighbour, and that does not exist apart from love of God. With love of God comes perfection, sanctity.(…)Then what the way to holiness today? It makes ann impression on us when we hear a woman, who through contemplation became a great saint and doctor of the church tell us that neither time nor solitude is necessary. That is the conviction of Teresa of Avila, who identified in her extremely rich inner life the essence of prayer, the way of sanctity to which she was called: love. If you cannot always pray, you can always love. You may not be alone and able to enter contemplative union with God, but you are always able to love him. Yes, to love God means to do his will. This is something everyone, every Christian, can do.

(Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City London, p 72)

Suddenly my life has a meaning not just for me, but for others too. To love in the present moment doing God’s will.

Don’t break the relationship with others

Today I reflects how easy it is to break relationships! A word or the lack of a word; a gesture or the lack of an expression, a thought, an assumption, an expectation! I understood that our relationships are really very fragile!

(…)In however many neighbours throughout your day, from morning to night, in all of them see Jesus. If your eye is simple, the one who looks through it is God, and God is love, and love seeks to unite by winning over.

How many people, in error, look at creatures and things in order to possess them. It may by a look of selfishness or of envy(..)

Look outside yourself, not in yourself, not in things, not in person; look at God outside yourself and unite yourself to him. (…)

Look at every neighbour then with love, and love means to give, a gift moreover, calls for a gift, and you will be loved in return. (…)

(Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City London, p 80)

If your eye is simple! That’s the challenge I have to meet every moment and if I didn’t manage I need to start again in the present moment!

Love without waiting to be loved

Today is all for Erin! It struck me that the most powerful prayer we can say to God is to love one another! God is love! It is his nature. So if we have the same love amongst us he will surely hear us! Let’s make today and tomorrow so dense of the love amongst us that Jesus amongst us is the one who asks the Father! Who best, then his only son! I will remember to love my neighbour in the present moment ready to the extent that I am ready to give my life, especially in the small things! I found a text by Chiara Lubich, which is quite powerful.

(…)It is not enough to practice tolerance or non-violence, nor does mere friendship or goodwill towards others suffice. It is a love which extends indistinctly towards all: young and old, rich and poor, fellow-countryman or stranger, friend or foe. It requires that we be merciful and forgiving. We have to be the first to love others, taking the initiative and not waiting for others to love us. We must love not in words alone, but concretely, in deeds. And forgetting ourselves to be at the service of others implies sacrifice and fatigue.

True peace and unity come about when this way of life is practiced not only by individuals but by people together, united in mutual love. You will have a chance to experience how true this is by loving one another in these days. In the Christian liturgy there is a song which says: “Where there is charity and love, there is God”. God among you, present in your mutual love, will enlighten and guide you on the steps to take, giving you strength, ardor, joy. And the presence of God will unite you in an invisible but powerful net, even when you are far from one another.

Love, therefore: love among all of you and love sown into every corner of the world among persons, groups and nations, using every means possible, in order that, thanks also to your contribution, there be an invasion of love in the world.

Courage my dear young people! I urge you to go forward dauntlessly. Youth is generous, youth does not count the cost. If we all live this way, humanity will become more and more one family and a rainbow of peace will shine out in the world!

I am with you».

Love even those who do not understand us

Today’s motto made me think on the nature of love and I found this reflection very challenging. Of course I often think it is the other who does not understand me, but I also discovered it is my lack of love towards the other that perhaps makes me difficult to understand. How often am I in a hurry, not fully in the present, still only there for the person next to me?

The entire Gospel shows clearly that ‘our neighbour’ is every human being, man or woman, friend or enemy, to whom we owe respect, consideration and esteem. Love of neighbour is both universal and personal. It embraces all of humanity and finds concrete expression in the person who is next to us.

But who can give us such a big heart, and stir up in us such a degree of kindness that we feel close to, and regard as neighbours, those who are least like us? Who can make us overcome our self-love, so that we recognise this "self" in others? It is a gift from God. Indeed it is the very love of God which "has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us". (Rm. 5:5).

So it’s not an ordinary love. It’s not just simple friendship or philanthropy. In fact it is nothing less than the love which was poured into our hearts at baptism. This love is the life of God himself. It is the life of the blessed Trinity, in which we participate.

So love is literally everything, but if our love is to be authentic we need to learn something about its qualities as they are described in the Gospel and more generally in Scripture. A few fundamental points sum them up:

Jesus died for everyone. By loving everyone he teaches us that true love is to be given to all. Often the love in our hearts is simply human. It confines itself to relatives, friends and a few others. But Jesus wants our love to be free of discrimination, having no regard for whether people are friendly or hostile, attractive or not, adults or children. This love doesn't notice whether people are members of my Church or of another one, of my religion or another. True love loves everyone, and we should do the same: love everyone.

True love makes us want to be the first to love instead of waiting for someone else to love us. Generally speaking, we love because we are loved, but the Father sent his Son to save us while we were still sinners and therefore not loving. So true love takes the initiative. In other words, we should love everyone, and we should be the first to love.

True love sees Jesus in every neighbour. At the final judgement Jesus will say to us, "You did it to me", (Cf. Mt. 25:40) and this will apply to the good that we do and also, unfortunately, to the bad we do.

True love makes us love both friends and enemies alike, praying for them and doing good things for them. Jesus wants the love that he brought on earth to become mutual so that one person loves the other and vice versa, in order to achieve unity.

True love means loving others as we love ourselves. This should be taken literally. We should truly see the other person as another self and do for them what we would do for ourselves. True love leads us to suffer with those who are suffering and to rejoice with those who rejoice, carrying other people's burdens. As Paul says, it causes us to makes ourselves one with the person who is loved, so it is not just a question of feelings or words. It involves real action.

People of other religious convictions try to do the same thing by putting into practice the so-called 'Golden Rule,' which can be found in all religions. It wants us to do to others what we would like others to do to us. Gandhi explained it very simply and effectively: "I can't harm you without hurting myself".

So today could be an opportunity to re-focus on love of neighbour. Our neighbour has so many faces: the person next door, a classmate, a friend or a close relative. But there are also the anguished faces of humanity that television brings into our homes from war-torn cities and natural disasters. In the past they were unknown to us: they were thousands of miles away. Now they too have become our neighbours.

Love will suggest what we should do in each situation, and, little by little, it will open our hearts to the greatness of the heart of Jesus.

This love includes politicians or football managers that I speak badly about and condemn from my living room! It includes people who hold opposite views to mine that I quickly judge a liars cheats and dishonest! God loves everyone, and he asks me to love with the same love, because he has given it to me!