God who is Love.

Below is part of a reflection by Emmaus Voce, President of the Focolare Movement, I found very beautiful!
You know that this is the theme of the year. Naturally it’s not a new theme, why? Because Chiara told us, but even before Chiara, St. John told us in his letter. In the Sacred Scriptures it is written that God is Love; so it’s not a new theme. We can’t even think that I will say something new, or something theological, because I won’t be able to, but not even something new because everything that God wanted to tell us, he already told us. He already told us in Scripture, he already told us through the Tradition of the Church, he retold us in a new and more personal way for us, in Chiara.

               At the same time, precisely because he is God, he is so infinite, so great, that we never discover him sufficiently, we never finish discovering him. It’s as if we enter a ground that we seem to know: we know that there are these trees, there are these flower-beds and flowers, but then we discover that there is still something that we didn’t know, that we hadn’t touched. That’s it, a ground which is known and yet unexplored because it’s God, so we can’t ever think that we have explored him enough.

               And when – Chiara was still alive – we started asking ourselves: … maybe we should start again in choosing one main theme each year, focusing everything on it. We were asking ourselves at the Centre of the Movement what theme we could choose – Chiara was still alive. At a certain point, I remember having said that it seemed to me that such a choice had already been made by God himself, in giving to Chiara the points of the spirituality one after the other, and so, if we want a guideline, we should follow God’s line. He made Chiara understand things like this and we must go ahead in the same way.

               Naturally, now that Chiara is in Heaven we feel even more… how can I say it, that a new era has started: the era post-Chiara. So, the only way that a new era can start is by going back to those ideas which began the first era, Chiara’s era, which marked the whole Movement in such a strong way. That’s why we thought: the first thing we must do is to start again. How many times did Chiara tell us that we need to start again; also us: start again, start again from the beginning, start again from the first ideas, start again but not in the sense of “remembering”… You understand that there is a difference.

Starting again means starting to live those ideas, starting to put them into practice, as if it were the first time we were hearing them, as if it were really… And we must show humanity, the world around us, through our lives, that the Ideal is really something that transforms also today, not only back in 1943 when Chiara discovered the Ideal, but also today. The Ideal enters my life, it transforms my life and transforms something around me. We owe it to humanity to demonstrate this. Chiara showed it to us, to those who were around her, together with her first companions. We are Chiara multiplied today, and we must reflect her in all our environments.

               Are we able to do this? I don’t know if we are, indeed, I would say we’re not. I must be honest, if I think of the greatness of God who is Love and the enormous revolution that this awareness of God’s love in the world can bring about. I see myself as one of many dwarves who want to walk quickly, who want to run but who have short legs, starting with me. We are all inadequate, we are all unable, but we must not be afraid because this is our limit. St. Paul had already said: “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (2 Cor 11:30).

               What do our limitations do? In a certain sense, our limitations force God himself to intervene; and since he is Love, he intervenes with his Love. Therefore we shouldn’t be afraid that we won’t make it. Certainly, we must commit ourselves fully; we must be aware of what we are adhering to, who we’re saying yes to, of the relationship we must have with him; aware yes, but also calm and confident precisely because God is Love. …

               If we live God-Love, if we take this point of the spirituality, truly this point of the spirituality necessarily brings about a revolution in our life which then leads us to living all the other points of the spirituality. We’ll realize it, without worrying, we’ll realize it. to live God-Love. In the Statutes, the first point of the spirituality is described in this way: “They strive,” those who are part of the Movement, everyone, not only the gen boys and girls but everyone, “they strive to love God whom they have come to know as Love, with all their heart, mind and strength….” Meaning, God who revealed himself, whom they have come to know as Love, therefore this God whom they have come to know as Love, “and they choose… as the ideal of their lives (see Mt 22:37 and 1 Jn 4:8,16-18).” Therefore there are two things: on the one hand the discovery - we have come to know that God is Love; on the other our response. What should we do? We should choose Him as the ideal of our lives. This is what God is asking of us in this moment.

(E.Voce, nov 09)