Following on from yesterday's reflection today is more powerful and I am full of joy in the knowledge that God loves each of us immensely individually, because it is his kind of love, not mere human love, because it is universal and yet individual!
Chiara said that at the very beginning of the Ideal is a
name, precisely, the name “God,” who presented himself to Chiara’s soul with
this great attraction; God, the ideal that Chiara chose. Initially, Chiara
said, he “was just a simple name for us.” They believed in him; in the city of Trent
What did
the disaster of the war do? It highlighted the fact that God was worth more
than everything else, because all the rest ended, toppled and crumbled. So this
disaster of the war served to wipe out everything and to show God alone. Then
God’s light entered, illuminated and enveloped the soul. Chiara uses this
expression, just as you wrap a child in swaddling clothes…. The light of God
enveloped the soul, without suppressing the previous thought, but slowly
replacing it.[2]
Therefore it changed.But how did this happen? You remember what happened, we
know this, we all know it, right? In 1943 Chiara was a very young teacher. A
priest, maybe seeing that she was so good, so happy to help her pupils –
because she was a teacher – he asked her to offer an hour of her day for his
intentions. What did Chiara reply? “Why not the whole day?” So you already see
her generosity: someone asks you something, you don’t just give them… what they
ask for but much more: “Why not the whole day?”
This priest, touched by her
generosity, made Chiara kneel down and he said to her, “Remember that God loves
you immensely.”
Recently, I had the opportunity
to hear from this priest how he recalls this episode. He said that there were
two or three teachers there, but he remembers Chiara, he hardly saw the others.
He remembers Chiara because when he said those words… and he said: “I have no
idea why I said those words!” – one thing…, it seems that God made him say them
– “I remember that when I said those words Chiara became enflamed.” This is the
expression he used: “Chiara became enflamed.” The others were there but Chiara became
enflamed.
Truly this announcement… maybe
because Chiara already saw the priest as a representative of God. She was a
Christian and Catholic, she took this announcement as coming from God… and
there she was enflamed. This being enflamed means being totally on fire because
of this reality: “God loves you immensely.”
These were the words of the
priest. The words of Chiara were: “It was
like a flash of lightening!”
Do you know what a flash of
lightening is? Lightening, a flash of lightning that comes in… and it’s fire,
even that is a flame, right? In order to explain that moment Chiara said: “It was like a flash of lightening. God
loves me, immensely. … I said it, I repeated it to my companions: God loves you
immensely. God loves us immensely.”[3]
God manifested
himself to Chiara. He made her discover his love, his paternity, his providence
which envelops everyone and everything. It was a manifestation of who God is,
that God is Love.
Chiara
discovered a knowledge of God that she never had before. Now she “knows” who he
is. God is not only the Eternal, the Almighty, the Creator, the Lord… God is
Love, God is Love. It’s something new. Discovering God’s action in her own life
and in the history of humanity, in her companions’ lives, showed her that
everything that God does is Love.
Chiara stated: “the novelty flashed through my mind, for us it was an absolute novelty,”
which determined a radical change, a true conversion in Chiara and in the first
focolarine, as she said, in their way of seeing things, of viewing history, in
their behaviour and in their response to this love.
Because
of a particular grace, Chiara immediately felt that God’s love was not only for
her, but that it reaches out to everyone, it’s personal for each one. Most
probably this was the first spark of that collective spirituality to which God
was calling Chiara, this “something more.” Chiara immediately understood that
she had to communicate it, that she had to talk about it, that it was not
something that regarded only her, it regarded everyone. It was a sign that God
chose her precisely for this function: to illuminate her with this light so
that she could transmit this light to others. And so she said it: “God loves
you; God loves you.”
In the
numerous letters that she wrote in those early times, to her companions and
pupils, to her mother and relatives, to everyone, this phrase was always
repeated: “God loves you; remember, God loves you, God loves you.” She felt the
need to communicate this to everyone and to engage everyone in this different
vision of the human being.
“… since that moment,” Chiara recounted,
“we… perceived God present everywhere
with his love: throughout the day, in our enthusiasm, in our resolutions, in
joyful and comforting events, in situations that were sad, awkward, or
difficult. He was always there, he was present everywhere. And he explained to
us that everything is love: all that we were and all that concerned us; … that
nothing escaped his love…; that his love enveloped Christians such as us, the
Church, the world, and the entire universe.”[4]
Everything.
So we
ask ourselves: was this discovery that Chiara made new for her? And yet Chiara
was a Catholic Christian, she had to know that in Scripture it is written that
God is Love. Certainly, she knew it, she knew it because we learn it in
Catechism, all the children at that time learned in their Catechism lessons
that God is Love, certainly! Also Chiara had learned it, but it was a new
reality. And Chiara herself said: “Christians…,”
including herself and her companions, “were
no longer so aware, in their thinking and acting, of the reality of God-Love
announced by St. John
And when Chiara went to Paderborn Germany
Many times there are acts of
charity, we make lunch for the poor or prepare parcels for them, but without
spirit, without love. In addition, the church environments are not beautiful,
the churches are not beautiful. The people who are supposed to show God, to make
God known, are not dressed well and have no sense of harmony. How come? How
come?
Some generous people might say:
“Yes, I’m available for God, I teach catechism, I teach catechism in the
parish,” maybe even some of you do this. But can we possibly reduce loving God
to an hour of catechism every week? You go for an hour to teach catechism, to
do something for God well, then the rest of the time, for the rest of the day
God has nothing to do with your life. How can this be? How is it possible?
Chiara
said that while she was feeling oppressed by this sense of incoherence, “How can it be that God is Love and we live
like this?” While she was oppressed by this impression, something happened:
the Holy Spirit kindled this awareness of God’s love and ignited what John Paul
II later defined as “the first inspiring spark”[7] of
the Movement. He made Chiara understand that love was at the heart of the
Christian message and consequently that it was an absolute must to put it into
practice, that we cannot live Christianity without living love, without
responding to God who is Love.
Therefore God manifested himself
as a discovery: God is Love. This epiphany of God required an immediate
response. What was the response? “And we have believed in love.” The answer
from Chiara and her first companions was to believe in love; therefore a
response that was concretized in a basic choice: living each of his words, choosing
the Gospel above everything else, because God is Love and therefore each of his
words are Love.
This
discovery took place precisely during the war, as we said before. Therefore,
Chiara said: “Beneath the bleakness of
death and destruction, we opened our eyes and saw the Sun. It offered us its
Light and Warmth. And so we turned towards God, as to Someone who was entering
more fully into our lives, after having swept our house, because of his
permissions,” that is with the war, with all the disasters that existed, “of all that could have been secondary. … He
shone out in our hearts as Father, King and Brother, as Everything, and he
dictated a law which in the last analysis was called ‘Love’.”[8]
Love,
then, the new Law given by God for a new world, a world that we also want to
build today, that we too want to make new. The Church is also awaiting this new
world, as we can see from its documents … the civilization of love, about which
Paul VI already spoke, this need for love in order to build a new world.
Chiara
said: “To discover, or better, to
re-discover that God is Love…,” because, in fact, it’s already something
well-known from Scriptures, but “to
re-discover that God is Love is the greatest adventure of a person today.”[9]
And Pope
Benedict XVI, not by chance opened his pontificate with a letter entitled
precisely Deus Caritas est, God is
Love, urging all Christians, from its very first words “to call forth in the
world renewed energy and commitment in the human response to God's love” (n.1).
This is what the Church awaits.
In his last encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, which came out
recently, he reminds us that charity in truth “is the principal driving force
behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity” (n.1). And
he says that “charity is love received and given…,” therefore reciprocal; love
received and given: received by God and given by us to others. “As the objects
of God's love, men and women become subjects of charity, they are called to
make themselves instruments of grace, so as to pour forth God's charity and to
weave networks of charity” (n.5).
It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Don’t
you think that Chiara did precisely this? It’s true, isn’t it? If we look at
Chiara’s life and at the Movement she founded, we can say that she was truly
this brilliant “instrument” in the hands of God to make herself an instrument
of grace, to pour out the charity of God and weave networks of charity. How did
she weave networks of charity? Through the Movement, by building the Movement.
Therefore, is this story of the
past or is it a story for today? Is it a story that regards Chiara and her
first companions or is it a story that regards us? It’s a story that regards
us, it’s a story that regards me personally, it’s a story that regards each one
of us. After all, this is what entered our lives when we came to know the
Ideal. In a more or less explicit way, each one of us understood something:
someone understood that they had to love their neighbour; another understood
that they had to live the present moment; another understood that they had to
do the will of God; another understood that they had to love Jesus in
suffering; another understood.… Many things.
But what is it that entered deep
down in our lives? This is what entered: God who loves us entered, God who made
himself known as Love entered. This generated and must continuously generate a
conversion: our response, this new choice of God’s love. At the same time, it
built up the Movement; this awareness started the Movement. Chiara, with this
awareness started… she constructed the whole Movement.
And then “This believing in love,” said Chiara, “this finding ourselves in the arms of the Father – a God who is Love
- in the arms of love, transformed us into a different type of Christian.”[10]
“This new type of Christian,” said Chiara, “can be seen in the child” - we all become children! - “the child, the one who recognizes who the
Father is, the one who no longer feels alone, because he knows that he is
loved.”
How many people suffer loneliness.
To no longer feel that we are alone – because we know that we are loved by God
– and to make others feel the same.
“This child, this little one who thrives in the powerful faith of
belief in God's love is called….” What name do we use? “Popo” [“child of the Gospel”].
“A popo is someone who believes in love,”
said Chiara, “… A popo imitates the
Father. … He wants to live on a supernatural level, always with Jesus in the
midst… he sees the plans of God. … He is someone who is always surprised to see
all the Providence
In
these words of Chiara we, pope and popi, find our deepest identity, which
doesn’t mean us: focolarine and focolarini; it means all those Christians who
recognise themselves in these words of Chiara, in this figure, in this type,
whether we are a gen 4, a
cardinal, a religious, a focolarina or a focolarino, why not? We are all pope and popi, all children, children who have discovered God’s love, who
have believed in God’s love and who have chosen to live for this love.
First
of all, where does this returning to God-Love lead us? It leads us to
re-discover this calling. We ourselves are the first to re-discover this
calling and all that it has brought about in the Movement and in the Church. It
leads us to recognize all the achievements of the Movement as achievements of
God’s love.
When
the New Families Movement started, when the Youth for a United World Movement
started, when the New Humanity Movement started, when the dialogues started,
whatever achievement of the Movement, it didn’t start because we thought there
was a need. For example, the family had that need, so let’s start the New
Families Movement so that we can respond to the need of the family. No. It
started because some families started to believe in God’s love and to respond
to this love of God.
What
is the result? The result is the New Families Movement, which now also tries to
solve family problems, but it’s a consequence. The basis, the starting point,
the spark was that some families started to believe in God’s love. Some young
people, urged on by the gen, started to discover, to believe in God’s love:
therefore the daily Jesus forsaken, dying for one’s own people…; all the
responses that this choice of God’s love brings about, because if we must be
instruments of this love of God, we cannot be indifferent to the reality around
us.
Therefore,
God-Love opened our eyes, He opened our eyes to see everyone as brothers and
sisters, because if it’s love for me then it’s love also for the others. If God
loves me immensely and loves you immensely, how can I not love you if God loves
you immensely? Or you? Or you? How can I not love you, if God loves you
immensely? So it is discovering the others as brothers and sisters, because we
are all children of the same Father; feeling the sufferings of humanity,
feeling the suffering of many people and making it our own, taking this
suffering on ourselves. But also sharing the joys, rejoicing, taking full advantage
and participating in everyone’s life. And
it is also Jesus forsaken, because Chiara.… How did Chiara discover Jesus forsaken?
She discovered him as the apex of love, because Jesus forsaken is a God who out
of love became man. Not only did he take all the sufferings of humanity upon himself;
not only this, but he even felt abandoned by God. Is it possible to have more
love than this?
When
Chiara discovered Jesus forsaken, she discovered in him the apex of love, so
much so that she said that Jesus forsaken, totally embraced, is the one who
makes us become Love. Here it is: “Jesus
Forsaken embraced, held tightly to oneself, desired as our one exclusive all,
he consumed in one with us, we consumed in one with him, made suffering with
him suffering: here is everything.” And Chiara said, “This is how you become God, Love.”[12]
So
do you want to become God, Love? Take this way. But you must know that it’s a
way…, that in taking this way you become God, Love. What more do we want?
In
God-Love we really discover the source of the unity that the Work of Mary is
called to live and irradiate among people in order to contribute to the
fulfilment of Jesus’ Testament.
Therefore,
if it’s the source, let’s go back to the source; if everything emerges from
there, if everything starts from there also for us, we must return there.
I
have tried to return to this. Naturally, I have been trying ever since I came
to know the Ideal, and also now, also now. Also during this year in which the
Eternal Father played this joke on me by making me the President of the Work of
Mary. I said: where do I start from in order to do what God is asking of me now,
and to do it in the least terrible way, not to say in the best way possible.
Where do I start from? I start by believing in God’s love, I start by believing
that he is the one who is asking this of me, that he is Love and he will show
me the way to bring this task ahead, just as he showed me the way to bring
other tasks ahead. In the future, he may give me another task and he will show
me the way precisely because he is Love.
I
tried believing in this. And I tell you the truth, now… I have been President
since July 7, 2008 ,
so that means a year and a few months. In this year and a few months, I tell
you the truth that I have experienced God’s love, a lot, very much! So much
that I said – even now to the delegates of the zones who came – that if I
needed proof that God is Love, a witness, it would be enough for me to look back
at this year, to all that has happened this year. So you see, it’s true! It’s
true! It’s not fantasy, it’s true.
Now
you could ask me: “Why? What happened? What happened that made you believe
this?” To tell you the truth, many things have happened. For example, I need
only think of all the declarations I received from those who want to share the
responsibility of the Movement with me: from the gen girls, gen boys, the
focolarini, the focolarine, the religious. Everyone wrote wonderful letters to me
in which they said: “Don’t worry, we are with you, we are praying.” Isn’t this
a sign of God’s love? A gen 4 girl wrote to me: “Don’t be afraid, we’ll take
care of it, we’ll support you!” Isn’t this a sign of God’s love? Isn’t it God’s
love that makes me feel this? So this unity that I found everywhere.
Then
the growth of the Movement, the growth. When the delegates of the zones came
and I heard all that had happened in the zones throughout this year, with all
the branches of the Movement, with all the events that took place, I was
breathless. Just think, Chiara went to Heaven. We could have all been blocked
by sadness, crying because Chiara went to Heaven; we could have lost the
courage to move because Chiara is no longer here; we could have stopped doing
anything because we don’t know how to do it.
Instead,
no! We all rolled up our sleeves and said: “Chiara is in Heaven, Chiara helps
us even more now because she is in Heaven, she is more powerful than before,
because she is completely in God, now it’s our turn.” And we launched
ourselves. This resulted in extraordinary fruits: there are more people in the
Movement, but not only the people, the quality of our life has improved, unity
among us has increased. I don’t have to tell you this because I’m sure that if
I were to ask you, you would tell me that you have experienced all these things
in the zones.
Then
Providence
After
two months all that was missing arrived. Isn’t Providence Providence
But
then – now I’ll tell you something that may seem to be arrogant – I felt inside
of me the grace for this task that God entrusted to me. For example, I went to
many places, many of you have seen me in various places, I had meetings with
our people in a number of zones, I answered their questions. In listening to
the answers I gave, I thought: it was the Holy Spirit who said this. And this
other… how was I able to say this? It means that it was the grace, it means
that it was God-Love, through me, who loved those people he had in front of him
and who was telling them something.
So,
in the face of so much love, of so much grace, how can I not believe in God’s
love? I would be crazy if I didn’t believe in God’s love. Certainly the
awareness of my nothingness remains, the awareness that I’m not able to do
anything remains, but the awareness that God loved me.… He always loved me,
since he thought of me, not since I was born but from always. Then he loved me by
giving me life, in that family, with those principles, with those values. Then
he loved me in giving me the Ideal, then calling me to this task in the
Movement. If he loved me up until now, he will keep loving me; why would he
stop loving me at a certain point? He can’t stop loving me because he is Love. Everyone
else can stop loving me, he cannot because he is Love. He cannot do otherwise,
he has to love me, he loves me. This reality is so strong that I say: “What
does it matter to me if I’m not capable, if I’m little? He loves me.”
And
so I say, as Chiara said, and with this I think I can conclude, Chiara said…
I’ll read an excerpt: “I feel powerless,
but I abandon myself to God. Everything is based on a faith that does not
crumble:” that does not crumble, what is this faith that does not crumble? “I believe that God loves me, and in the
name of this Love, I ask of my life and of the lives of those who walk in my
Ideal,” said Chiara, we can say: in our Ideal, “great things,” I ask great things, “worthy of those who know that
they are loved by God.”[13]
…
God is Love, and he is God! It’s not a little love, it’s not a love that does
only a little, it’s God. So we can ask great things of God.
It
seems to me that Chiara is saying this to you today: “Take courage! God loves
you immensely.” … So may Chiara in this moment from Heaven truly be happy to
see 1,000… however many you are in the hall, who have discovered that God loves
them immensely and because of this discovery they are able not so much to do
great things, but to allow God to do great things through them. (Applause)
May
this applause be your “yes” to God who loves you! (Applause)
[1] See C. LUBICH,
Il “trattatello innocuo,” in Erano i
tempi di guerra, Roma 2007, p. 3-4.
[2] See C. LUBICH, God-Love and Charity in the Focolare Movement. To a group of
bishops, Rocca di Papa 13
February 1979 .
[3] Ibid.
[4] C.
LUBICH, A New Way, New City London
[5] C. LUBICH, Second Theme on the Collective Spirituality
– Her current experience, cit.
[6] It was June 12, 1999 .
[7] JOHN PAUL II, Speech to the Focolare Movement,
International Mariapolis Centre, Rocca di Papa, 19 August 1984 , in OR 20-21 August 1984, p. 5.
[8] C. LUBICH, God-Love, writing from 15 October 1959, cit.; C. LUBICH, Il
“trattatello innocuo”, cit., p.
3-4.
[9] C. LUBICH, Sì sì. No no (1973), in Scritti spirituali/2, Roma 1984, p. 160.
[10].
C. LUBICH, The popo, a new type of
Christ’s follower, Montreux, 11 August 1990 . Also see: C. LUBICH, In unità verso il Padre, Rome 2004, p. 75.
[11] See ID,
The popo, a new type of Christ’s follower, cit.
[12] C. LUBICH, Why Have You Forsaken Me The Key to Unity, New City London
[13]. C. LUBICH, Lettera ad Elena, 16 April 1944, in “Città Nuova” 3
(2009) p. 10; See Chiara Lubich, Detti
Gen, Roma 1977, p. 77.
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