WORD OF LIFE
New City Magazine - January 2010
http://www.newcityph.com/archive/1001/word.htm
MIRACLES within REACH
by Chiara Lubich
“God will dwell with them; they will be his people” (cf. Rev. 21:3)
“See, the home of God is among mortals.He will dwell with them; they will be his people,and God himself will be with them” (Rev 21:3).
This month’s Word of Life is an exhortation: if we want to be part of his people, we must allow him to live among us.
But how is this possible, and what can we do to have a foretaste, while still on earth, of the endless joy we will have in seeing God?
This is exactly what Jesus revealed to us, this is the very meaning of his coming: to communicate to us his life of love with the Father, so that we too can live it.
We Christians can live this phrase even now and have God among us. Of course, to have him among us requires certain conditions, as affirmed by the Fathers of the Church. For Basil, the essential condition is living according to the will of God; for John Chrysostom, it is to love our neighbor as Jesus did; for Theodore the Studite, it is mutual love; and for Origen, it is accord in thought and in feeling, so as to arrive at that concord which “unites, and contains the Son of God.”
The key for allowing God to dwell among us is found in Jesus’ teachings: “Love one another as I have loved you” (cf. Jn 13:34). Mutual love is the key to the presence of God. “As long as we love one another, God will live in us,” (1Jn 4:12) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’’ (Mt 18:20), says Jesus.
“God will dwell with them; they will be his people.”
In this light then, the fulfillment of all the promises of the Old Covenant - “My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Ez. 37:27) - is not far off and unattainable.
Everything is already accomplished in Jesus who continues, beyond his historical existence, to be present among those who live according to the new law of mutual love, that law which is the norm that makes them a people, the people of God.
This Word of Life is therefore a pressing call, especially to us Christians, to witness through love to the presence of God. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’’ (Jn 13:35). Living out the new commandment sets forth the conditions for the presence of Jesus among all people.
We cannot do anything unless this presence is guaranteed, a presence which gives meaning to the supernatural brotherhood that Jesus brought on earth for all humanity.
“God will dwell with them; they will be his people.”
First of all, it is up to us, Christians, even though we belong to different ecclesial communities, to let the world see “one people” made up of every ethnic group, race, and culture, adults and children, sick and well – one people to which we can apply the words referred to us about the first Christians: “Look at how they love one another and are ready to give their life for one another.”
This is the “miracle” humanity is waiting for in order to regain hope. It will also make an essential contribution to progress in ecumenism, the journey towards full and visible unity among Christians. It’s a “miracle” within our reach, or better, within reach of the One who, dwelling among his own united by love, can change the destiny of the world and lead all humanity towards unity.
Showing posts with label Chiara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chiara. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Chiara in our Family Life
HOW THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE MOVEMENT AFFECTS OUR LIFE,
OUR FAMILY, OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS
(This was our tribute to Chiara on her 1st Death Anniversary)
Eden; Good afternoon everyone! I am Eden.
Edna: And I am Edna
Eden: We were married in 2001 and gifted with three (3) beautiful sons, ages: 7, 5, and 3. We live in Banaybanay, Davao Oriental. I work in the Local Government as Secretary to the Municipal Council.
Edna: The movement is a gift of God to me personally, to our growing family, and to all our life’s endeavor. At first, I was not attracted to the movement and we had a lot of struggle as Eden was already ahead of me in giving himself to the movement and I did not understand why he kept on attending the movement’s activities here in Davao, even though I sometimes showed and told him of my opposition.
Eden: Yes, those were difficult moments for me because I have already learned to love the movement’s charism, the members who are my spiritual family and the activities we did when I was still here in Davao. Embracing Jesus on the cross in that situation, I would sometimes give in to my wife’s opposition just to be in unity with her.
Edna: Seeing my husband’s struggle while giving in to my opposition made me realize that I was not loving and allowing him to be himself at all. I tried to die to my preference - that he stay at home often – and I joined him in attending the movement’s activities, like the annual summer retreat called Mariapolis. There with him, I saw – the beauty, goodness and truth in the Focolare.
Eden: Edna’s heroic act of unity with me marked the beginning of our journey together as husband and wife with Jesus in our Midst. In fact, we named our three sons JIM short for Jesus in the midst. Jesus in the Midst with her made me strong in going against the current of our political system which is shadowed with the culture of death: corruption, injustice, hatred, disunity, etc. As a secretary of the Municipal Council, I became involved in the mining operation due to the participation of the Local Government in the Memorandum of Agreement with the permitee and the operator who happened to be our distant relative. Thus, by association, his adversaries became hostile to me even to the point of sending me death threats through cell phone.
Edna: At first, Eden tried to hide the situation from me, but accidentally I opened his cell phone and became aware of it. I felt so anxious since our two children were going to school and I am working, as a High School teacher, 20 kilometers away from home. Together, we embraced with much love and unity the suffering Jesus in that emotional and psychological turmoil. The loving support of the sisters of Eden gave us peace and security while we were in our respective works.
Eden: By the grace of God, with the support of our immediate family and the prayers of the community, we were able to calmly surmount the fear and entrusted everything to the mercy of God. Thanks, I am still alive!
Edna: The world of politics, as Eden said, really requires solid foundation and faith to be able to stand firm in doing the right thing. During election day of 2007, I witnessed Eden’s zeal to keep the process of election clean when he confronted people who were grossly violating the rules.
Eden: I felt hurt because the claw and pang of the law was used against me and sued in court for advocating the law to be obeyed. Thanks to the unity, courage and much love by my wife during that moment, I was encouraged to face the accusation. The focolare community was all out behind me during those difficult moments. From time to time, I received words of encouragement and acts of concern for the resolution of my case. Those moments of trials enabled me to enter into the agony of our Lord, and found Jesus Forsaken on the cross who suffered much more than I do, as my inspiration to love even more including those who caused our suffering.
Edna: The word of life and the daily password to live the present moment with love were very useful instruments to be faithful in doing the will of God. I remembered one time, when I arrived in school, one of my fellow teachers, with loud voice, was unstoppably and angrily airing her clamor against another teacher. The word of life immediately flashed in my mind and I silently prayed, “God what is your will at this moment?” After listening to her, I came closer and lovingly touched her back to ease the pain that she was going through until she calmed down.
Eden: Chiara is really a mother to us who equipped and fed us with all practical and spiritual food for our soul.
Edna: Chiara taught us to live the culture of sharing and so we tried to live simply in order to be able to set aside some amount or things for those who are in need in our family, neighborhood, and cell of environment.
Eden; As Volunteers of God, we are trained to live the different aspects of this life that consequently produce a balanced way of living. With mutual love and readiness to die one for the other, we saw to it that we have time in sharing our souls. We also invite others to share with us the life of unity through the word of life and the new city, the magazine of the Focolare. We do our daily family prayer, meditation and attend mass and sanctify all our activities by offering them to Jesus. We give time for rest and recreation. We keep our surroundings orderly and clean and as educators it was natural for us to study; and we keep in touch with the focolare center through the modern way of communication, and much more.
Edna: Jesus in the others and even in strangers made us open our house for the neighborhood and students who need a place while taking their lunch. We share with them the God-given free and abundant potable water. When new neighbors were constructing their house, we offer them electrical connection. This is our joy.
Eden: Life in the movement is truly a journey, exciting, joyful, difficult, risky. There are guides though. But, we need to be focused on the road. When we sometimes detour, Chiara would say, ‘start all over again’, meaning go back to the right way. Love again with the love of the Lord, the crucified and Risen One.
Edna: Had it not been for Chiara, we would not have found so much meaning in our family life. This is her legacy. Thank you, mother Chiara. We thank you for bringing us forth to birth. We will always be a family for you.
OUR FAMILY, OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS
(This was our tribute to Chiara on her 1st Death Anniversary)
Eden; Good afternoon everyone! I am Eden.
Edna: And I am Edna
Eden: We were married in 2001 and gifted with three (3) beautiful sons, ages: 7, 5, and 3. We live in Banaybanay, Davao Oriental. I work in the Local Government as Secretary to the Municipal Council.
Edna: The movement is a gift of God to me personally, to our growing family, and to all our life’s endeavor. At first, I was not attracted to the movement and we had a lot of struggle as Eden was already ahead of me in giving himself to the movement and I did not understand why he kept on attending the movement’s activities here in Davao, even though I sometimes showed and told him of my opposition.
Eden: Yes, those were difficult moments for me because I have already learned to love the movement’s charism, the members who are my spiritual family and the activities we did when I was still here in Davao. Embracing Jesus on the cross in that situation, I would sometimes give in to my wife’s opposition just to be in unity with her.
Edna: Seeing my husband’s struggle while giving in to my opposition made me realize that I was not loving and allowing him to be himself at all. I tried to die to my preference - that he stay at home often – and I joined him in attending the movement’s activities, like the annual summer retreat called Mariapolis. There with him, I saw – the beauty, goodness and truth in the Focolare.
Eden: Edna’s heroic act of unity with me marked the beginning of our journey together as husband and wife with Jesus in our Midst. In fact, we named our three sons JIM short for Jesus in the midst. Jesus in the Midst with her made me strong in going against the current of our political system which is shadowed with the culture of death: corruption, injustice, hatred, disunity, etc. As a secretary of the Municipal Council, I became involved in the mining operation due to the participation of the Local Government in the Memorandum of Agreement with the permitee and the operator who happened to be our distant relative. Thus, by association, his adversaries became hostile to me even to the point of sending me death threats through cell phone.
Edna: At first, Eden tried to hide the situation from me, but accidentally I opened his cell phone and became aware of it. I felt so anxious since our two children were going to school and I am working, as a High School teacher, 20 kilometers away from home. Together, we embraced with much love and unity the suffering Jesus in that emotional and psychological turmoil. The loving support of the sisters of Eden gave us peace and security while we were in our respective works.
Eden: By the grace of God, with the support of our immediate family and the prayers of the community, we were able to calmly surmount the fear and entrusted everything to the mercy of God. Thanks, I am still alive!
Edna: The world of politics, as Eden said, really requires solid foundation and faith to be able to stand firm in doing the right thing. During election day of 2007, I witnessed Eden’s zeal to keep the process of election clean when he confronted people who were grossly violating the rules.
Eden: I felt hurt because the claw and pang of the law was used against me and sued in court for advocating the law to be obeyed. Thanks to the unity, courage and much love by my wife during that moment, I was encouraged to face the accusation. The focolare community was all out behind me during those difficult moments. From time to time, I received words of encouragement and acts of concern for the resolution of my case. Those moments of trials enabled me to enter into the agony of our Lord, and found Jesus Forsaken on the cross who suffered much more than I do, as my inspiration to love even more including those who caused our suffering.
Edna: The word of life and the daily password to live the present moment with love were very useful instruments to be faithful in doing the will of God. I remembered one time, when I arrived in school, one of my fellow teachers, with loud voice, was unstoppably and angrily airing her clamor against another teacher. The word of life immediately flashed in my mind and I silently prayed, “God what is your will at this moment?” After listening to her, I came closer and lovingly touched her back to ease the pain that she was going through until she calmed down.
Eden: Chiara is really a mother to us who equipped and fed us with all practical and spiritual food for our soul.
Edna: Chiara taught us to live the culture of sharing and so we tried to live simply in order to be able to set aside some amount or things for those who are in need in our family, neighborhood, and cell of environment.
Eden; As Volunteers of God, we are trained to live the different aspects of this life that consequently produce a balanced way of living. With mutual love and readiness to die one for the other, we saw to it that we have time in sharing our souls. We also invite others to share with us the life of unity through the word of life and the new city, the magazine of the Focolare. We do our daily family prayer, meditation and attend mass and sanctify all our activities by offering them to Jesus. We give time for rest and recreation. We keep our surroundings orderly and clean and as educators it was natural for us to study; and we keep in touch with the focolare center through the modern way of communication, and much more.
Edna: Jesus in the others and even in strangers made us open our house for the neighborhood and students who need a place while taking their lunch. We share with them the God-given free and abundant potable water. When new neighbors were constructing their house, we offer them electrical connection. This is our joy.
Eden: Life in the movement is truly a journey, exciting, joyful, difficult, risky. There are guides though. But, we need to be focused on the road. When we sometimes detour, Chiara would say, ‘start all over again’, meaning go back to the right way. Love again with the love of the Lord, the crucified and Risen One.
Edna: Had it not been for Chiara, we would not have found so much meaning in our family life. This is her legacy. Thank you, mother Chiara. We thank you for bringing us forth to birth. We will always be a family for you.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Chiara's Birthday
Grazie, Chiara, grazie!
22 January 1920 is the birth date of the woman I consider a saint.
Chiara Lubich who died on 14 March 2008 left on me and my family a great imprint.
Love was her message. She taught no new doctrines, but, her faith in the Crucified and Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, was so strong and concrete that magnetized millions of well-meaning followers from different walks of life.
On her Birthday, I'm inspired to blog again. I cannot hold myself anymore. I refrained from blogging for some time now because of a personal struggle with politicians who I want to love but seem to be too heavy a cross for me. Day after day, only Chiara's message "to start all over again" that had sustained me on the train of charity and God's Will.
The Art of Loving that Chiara taught the members of the Focolare has become a second nature that I cannot but love everyone, see Jesus in the other, make unity with the others except in sin, love my enemy and be the first one to love.
Jesus in the Midst, the reality that is so spectacularly present in our meetings, is her legacy. It is so because of that mutual and selfless love among the members. This builds our families, villages and communities into a haven of communion - a trinitarian experience.
Selflessness is modeled in Jesus Forsaken. The nothingness of the Son gives back to humanity the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One uniting those who love the other totally to the point of losing oneself so that Jesus in the Midst is generated and sanctified.
Pray for us, O Chiara, during this trying times and help us understand the dark nights of the senses, of spirit, of God, and of culture.
22 January 1920 is the birth date of the woman I consider a saint.
Chiara Lubich who died on 14 March 2008 left on me and my family a great imprint.
Love was her message. She taught no new doctrines, but, her faith in the Crucified and Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, was so strong and concrete that magnetized millions of well-meaning followers from different walks of life.
On her Birthday, I'm inspired to blog again. I cannot hold myself anymore. I refrained from blogging for some time now because of a personal struggle with politicians who I want to love but seem to be too heavy a cross for me. Day after day, only Chiara's message "to start all over again" that had sustained me on the train of charity and God's Will.
The Art of Loving that Chiara taught the members of the Focolare has become a second nature that I cannot but love everyone, see Jesus in the other, make unity with the others except in sin, love my enemy and be the first one to love.
Jesus in the Midst, the reality that is so spectacularly present in our meetings, is her legacy. It is so because of that mutual and selfless love among the members. This builds our families, villages and communities into a haven of communion - a trinitarian experience.
Selflessness is modeled in Jesus Forsaken. The nothingness of the Son gives back to humanity the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One uniting those who love the other totally to the point of losing oneself so that Jesus in the Midst is generated and sanctified.
Pray for us, O Chiara, during this trying times and help us understand the dark nights of the senses, of spirit, of God, and of culture.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Some Treasures of Chiara Lubich
I am blessed to have received some treasures of a Saint. Chiara Lubich, the foundress of the Focolare Movement, died last March 14, 2008. Among the many words of wisdom I learned from her, these are very valuable and among the earlier lessons that convicted me to the God Who is Love.
A RADICAL CHOICE
“… We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” When you realize this, your life changes radically. If you are objective enough to recognize that nothing is lasting, “all is vanity of vanities” and everything is relative, you will discover the sense of the absolute and make a firm choice of God because he alone does not come to an end. God will be the ideal of your life.
If you are sincere, you must make your life comply with this ideal without compromise, or reservations. How can this be done? There is a definite answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is logical, because it would be absurd to commit your mind, your heart and your strength to something transitory. Only the absolute can be loved with all your heart.
God is still no more than the name of someone in whom perhaps you believe but you do not know. Now he becomes more real in comparison with the emptiness of everything else. If you begin to love him, he makes himself known.
ACTION NOT FEELINGS
Love is not a feeling but action. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love;” “If a man loves me, he will keep my word.” Love for God in practical terms is doing what he wants from us. “Not everyone who says to me: “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
You must unite your will with the Will of God. You must want it: your only will must be the Will of God. But aspiring to carry out the Will of God other than in the present moment is an illusion. The moment we are living in is all that is really ours.
A WAY FOR EVERYONE
Starting to act according to the will of God in the present moment is the beginning of an evangelical commitment. Soon, as God sees that you are loving him sincerely in the present moment, he shows himself to you and gives you his light. Gradually many questions you have always wondered about find an answer and many aspects of your life are linked by a new logic.
“My food is to do the Will of Him who sent me.” You can say the same to yourself, and you realize that the more you carry out the will of the Father, the more you become like Christ.
You no longer imitate Jesus Christ superficially in an external way. You do not strive to copy him in appearances, for instance in an outward show of poverty, in physical penances or literally traveling without luggage, but you want to resemble him in the most intimate aspect of his personal life, the heart of his life, in doing the will of the Father.
“Anyone who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar,” refusing to admit the truth. But when anyone does obey what he said, God’s love comes to perfection in him. We can be sure that we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in him is living the same kind of life Christ lived.”
This way is open to everyone. It is not restricted to one particular calling in life. It can be lived by men and women, by people of all ages. What really matters is that each person, wherever they are, tries to do what God suggests. Here is a realistic and practical possibility of uniting people of all kinds: doing the Will of the Father and finding as a result of relationship of brothers with the Son.
Each man has his own life and the Will of God is expressed in a different way for everyone, but it is the same Will of God which links everyone together and with the Father and the Son.
Life is transformed. So many things separate people but this one Will carried out by each person makes men brothers. They find that they are united with one another and with Christ, and through Christ with the Father. “So that you and we together may share in common life, that life which we share with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.”
This is how Christ is united to the Father. He is the living will of the Father: his will and action. It is up to us to act like him.
TOTAL RISK
If you choose to do God’s Will, your whole life must change. You must reconsider the plans you have made for the future. You must throw off your old way of looking at things and become adaptable, ready to accept new or unconventional ideas. The struggle you must now wage is against yourself.
Unless you want to deceive yourself, you must live fully in the present and not rely on a future which may never come. God is a Father; it is absurd to be afraid of what he wants us to do. He can only want our full development and happiness. He knows men better than they know themselves. They can surrender themselves to him without fear.
You must believe in love, but you must not confuse surrender with lack of commitment. On the contrary, it means carrying out each moment what you understand to be the Will of God with all your heart, your strength and your intelligence. If you are always to go with whatever God suggests, you must be ready to change continually as circumstances demand. In this way you become flexible.
You have taken the plunge. You have set out on and adventure, without knowing where will it take you, but certain that it can only lead to the most perfect fulfillment of your personality since you have placed yourself in the hands of the creator of the universe, of life and of time.
You discover that God has an original plan for each man. If we let him work freely in us, he is ready to create masterpieces of our lives as he did with those we call saints. But he has chosen to need man’s agreement, freely given, moment by moment, to his creative love.
VIOLENCE
Violence is needed. The old man in us must die in order to let the new man live. In order to listen to the voice of your conscience, you must shut out the appeals of the world that prey on you.
Your relationship with others must change. Instead of only seeking the company you find congenial, go out to each person you encounter without discriminating or holding back.
It is impossible to do two things at once – the will of God and the will of the old man in you. So your attitude must be positive – to fill yourself with God – rather than negative – to be emptied of self. And then as a result you will discover you are free from your attachments and free from your ‘self’.
And if you realize that you have gone off the rails and revived the old man, the only way to pull yourself up is not to waste time fruitlessly dwelling on your mistakes, but to start loving God again, doing his will which for a moment you had neglected.
ANOTHER LEVEL
And so in doing God’s will with all your heart, your mind and your strength, you find a great peace – the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that Christ alone can give. “Peace among men with whom he is pleased.” On the other hand, outside the Will of God there is only uncertainty, confusion, selfishness and conflict.
By experiencing this contrast, you realize what it means to live at a supernatural level and you learn how to clearly distinguish this way of life from the normal level of existence.
You become aware that you are not making the fullest use of this new way of living that you have discovered. Most of the time, you behave as though it did not exist because your heart and mind are cluttered with so many things but not with God.
And in contrast to this is Christ – the model for anyone who wants to love the Father; Mary, the woman who knew how to live God’s will exclusively: “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let what you have said be done to me.”
GOD NEVER REPEATS HIMSELF
When you live God’s will, all the references to it in scripture begin to form a pattern: “I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” “Let your will be done, not mine.” “I will always do what is pleasing to him.” “I have finished the work that you gave me to do.” “Here I am: as it is written of me in the scroll, I have come, O God, to do your will.”
Two facts become clear if you live these words: the scriptures contain a pattern of life open to everyone; Jesus is indeed, “the true light that enlightens every man”. You must look to him. The greatness of other men and women pales beside him, and they are only of example to us in as much as they too have tried to do solely God’s Will. You will never have to copy the actions of those who went before you. Each man has his own way. God never repeats himself.
GOD IS LOVE
“God is Love”: John’s definition is overwhelming. If you accept it, the logical consequence is believing and trusting utterly in him. You understand the meaning of love: you must be born again of God and be love in action as Jesus was. Accepting the Will of God is accepting God. Answering love with love: this is what it means to live as sons of God, as Jesus.
Christ, the Will of the Father in action, is the word that the Father says to men. He is the expression of the Father: the expression of love. “God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son.” And on the other hand, as a man, Christ had his own will with which he accomplished the will of the Father: the perfect expression of the love of mankind for God.
Being like him by sharing in his life, it is possible for you also to be an expression of love for the Father.
Jesus, God made man, wants to make our humanity divine, to transform it into love, to make it God and make us the children of God.
We should be as much as possible the one will of God, one love, on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus, both God and man, gives you the chance of becoming divine if you freely decide to be united with him: and so, moment by moment, be Jesus, be Mary, “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”, like God, be him, one with him.
THE NEW COMMANDMENT
Christ left many teachings, numerous words of eternal life, but he only gave one commandment: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I love you.”
If we have decided to love God as he wishes, we must love one another in the way he loved. Together with our friends, we must begin to live out this will of God. It is Christ’s testament, the pinnacle of his teaching.
We will be judged finally on brotherly love: “I was hungry and you gave me food…” In fact, “Owe no one anything except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law,”
Love for our brothers is the greatest proof of our love for God.
LOVE YOUR ENEMY
Without love every activity is useless. “If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but I am without love, it will do no more good whatever”.
With love, on the other hand, everything, even the most insignificant action, has value, because wherever we find love, God is to be found. “God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.” There is no sense in doing the slightest thing unless we are united for, “Above all, keep your love for one another at full strength,” and “If, when you are bringing your gift to the altar, you suddenly remember that your brother has a grievance against you, leave your gift where it is before the altar. First go and make your peace with your brother, and only then come back and offer your gift.”
God’s presence among men bound by mutual love and living the gospel literally, fills them with such light – “Anyone who loves his brother is living in the light” – such strength and drive that doing the will of God becomes easy and pleasant.
Even loving your enemies is no longer difficult. Alone, it is practically impossible not to react when someone offends us; once united with others, not only are we able to control ourselves, but to actually return good for evil. “If anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him.”
You do not even resent the insult or harm your “enemy” causes you. “If your enemy is hungry, you should give him food, and if he is thirsty, let him drink. Thus you heap red-hot coals on his head. Resist evil and conquer it with good.”
JESUS AMONG US
Experiencing the unity brought about by mutual love, you soon understand that, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them,” and you see the wonderful effects produced by this unity and particularly prayer in unity because, “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
Christ is present, therefore, among men united in his name. This presence of Christ in the fabric of society is so fruitful that we should be prepared to go to any lengths to safeguard it. Its effects are a new insight, a peace and a courageous certainty. Its absence is felt with equal force when you or someone else turns away from unity. It seems to be the end of everything. That understanding of the word of God as something beautiful, living and essential to real commitment seems to fade.
This is the moment when we must stand our ground no matter what it costs us and go ahead believing blindly in what we have seen in the times of light when we loved. In moments like this any attempt to improve things seems hopeless. Everything seems to be empty and meaningless. We are dissatisfied with everything until unity is reestablished, as a result of an even greater mutual love. Now we know from experience that, “We have passed out of death and into life… because we love our brothers. “Let Christ’s peace be arbiter in our hearts, to this peace you were called as members of a single body.”
UNITY
Without others we can do nothing. Unity is everything because it permits Christ’s presence: unity with God, therefore, being his will in action; unity with others by living out the new commandment, unity with Christ because his presence among men is in fact his presence in each one of them. “May they all be one, Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you.”
Those whom Christ unites and with whom he shares his light and strength – “I have given them the glory you gave to me” – discover that, “Life … is Christ”.
Whereas previously they ‘mixed’ with others, the presence of Jesus ‘fuses’ them into one, like a fire which out of two metals makes a third, an alloy with different features from either of the components.
JESUS IN OTHERS
Mutual love does not mean sentimental feelings. It means the constant sacrifice of everything of myself so that I can live the life of my neighbor. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This means loving my neighbor in order to love Jesus crucified living within him, just as Jesus, once he had become man, took upon himself all the sins and sufferings of mankind.
We have to love our neighbor, therefore, as Christ loved us, entering into him as Christ entered into us: into our humanity, into our sufferings and into our sins without having sinned himself.
Everything which is ours, both materially and spiritually, must be shared with our neighborhood, just as Jesus gave himself to us completely on the cross, and gives us his soul, his body and his divinity in the Eucharist. “All I have is yours.”
Our neighbor is Jesus to be consoled, fed, clothed, visited in prison. Jesus lives in us and we must see him in others. “Insofar as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me,” “because we are members of his body.”
THE DEMANDS OF UNITY
To find the spirit of Christ again, you only have to meet with those who share this way of life. You are all filled with the one spirit. “Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit.” “As long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us. We can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit.”
Going to others is going to Christ. To be one means to be Jesus, to all be Jesus. When unity is complete (which require a total renunciation of ourselves in everything) and we have to part due to work or any other reason, each takes with him no longer his own spirit, in other words his own way of thinking, loving or feeling, but that of Christ which was present in the communion of brothers.
You continue to love everyone you meet without expecting to be loved in return. “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” and preserve that inner peace. Then you will go home to your friends still capable of loving and establishing unity again.
But unity costs us dearly. We have to be small, totally poor, nothing, for God’s love to spread by means of us. The greatness of Mary is that she is the most humble of all.
To be one with our brother means forgetting yourself completely. It means losing everything, even your own soul, in order to live the other person’s joys and sorrows to prove your love for Christ: weep with the person who weeps and rejoice with whoever is happy.
BECOMING SIN WITH SINNERS
Charity is all that matters. When we succeed in making ourselves one with people who have problems – whether these be moral, emotional, intellectual or simply problems of communication – they find life again and love in return. They see the light once more because they feel loved; this light enables them to recover hope and over-despair.
If you act like this you relive the life of Christ: you continue it. He made himself one with us to lead us back to the Father. He made himself darkness with us who were blind to give us light again. “For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.” He made himself death with us mortals to raise us up in his risen life.
We have to love every man in this way. “If anyone is weak, do I not share his weakness? If anyone is made stumble, does my heart not blaze with indignation?” Like Jesus, we must become the other person, so that we may become us and receive the fullness of joy that unity gives us.
A member of the body of Christ united with him continues the redemption in that he passes on fullness of life to others and by suffering other person’s sorrow he continues the passion: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.”
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
When there is charity among us, Christ repeats his words, “Be brave: I have conquered the world.” Alive in us, he continued his work.
You feel you too can say the words of Christ, “I am the light of the world.” Through this small cell, something passes which those who search with a sincere and open heart recognize as coming from God.
This light enlightens men and shows them that the thousands of things they are attached that are nothing compared with Christ, who unconsciously they have been seeking. This light brings a total revolution and breaks through to many souls as a call to leave everything and follow Christ. This detachment is helped by the presence of Christ among those united in his name. They witness the upheavals the coming of Christ provokes. “I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” He did not come to bring the quiet life of the world which breeds such boredom: he came to destroy this false peace, to break up the selfishness of families and to rebuild one family of children of God, a family formed by his brothers, whose father is in heaven.
JESUS FORSAKEN
You must know Jesus Crucified and nothing else. To be crucified with him and especially to be crucified with him in our brothers is the most conclusive proof of our love for the Father, “So that the world may believe it was you who sent me.” This is the example of the saints. They nourished themselves with God by loving the cross: the short-cut to him.
But of all the sufferings of Jesus on the cross, the most terrible was when after hours of the most terrible agony he cried: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The God-man was crying in giving himself entirely for his brothers. He had given everything. Thirty years of his life with his mother, a life of hardship, obedience and devotion. Three years of preaching and every kind of good work. Three hours agony on the cross in which he forgave his executioners, gave heaven to the thief and his mother to men. He gave us his body and blood which he has already given in the mystery of the Eucharist.
All that was left to him was his union with the Father which had made him so powerful on earth and so majestic on the cross. This feeling of God had to penetrate the depths of his soul, the soul of the Son of God, until it was no longer left. Love was extinguished in him. All light was put out. Wisdom was silent. He was cut off – at least in his feelings – from him with whom he had declared himself to be one: “The Father and I are one”.
He had compromised himself too much with mankind. He had made himself one with sinners.
WHEN SOMEONE FALLS AWAY
In time amongst those who have chosen God as their ideal some may fall away. This always comes as a tremendous blow. Just as in unity you find life, in the same way the absence of unity is death. Jesus forsaken is the antidote to death.
When someone forsakes us, we are in a position similar to Christ’s and we rejoice in this sorrow because we have chosen Jesus Forsaken as the only thing that matters in our lives. And if you realize that your brother who is out of unity is also forsaken and must be consoled and loved, unity will often be re-established.
I COME TO BRING FIRE
Those who lived this way are like logs crossed together to be lit and burnt by Jesus among them. What matters is that they are ready to give up everything except unity. If they are, a great number of people who come into contact with them will go away on fire, with the certainty that they have met God, and around them the community will take shape.
Unity will spread everywhere: unity of souls with God: unity within families; unity in the places where people work.
People will start to share. Each man’s needs will become everyone’s concern. The only right will be to serve and the only ambition to be the servant of all. “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all. In the community, the last in other words those who imitate Christ most closely, are soon the first.
VALUES REVERSED
They lived and remained in the world, but they must take care not to be affected by evil. The normal values are reversed. Joy is being poor, pure, patient, persecuted for the sake of justice, gentle; or being separated if necessary when their relations – “a man’s enemies will be those of his own household” – do not understand and try to hinder friendship in Christ. What the world hates becomes pleasant to them because it is a way of being with Jesus.
Amidst difficulties of every kind they are filled with the joy which stems from the choice of God and of other people for his sake.
They acquire the spirit and language of Jesus. His words help them to determine, justify and decide on a course of action. Nothing remains unchanged. The most thorny problems find a solution in mutual love. Everything – science, art, religion, economics, the family, politics, - is penetrated by the spirit of Christ.
He is the beginning of everything and everything must return to him. “For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
LIVING WITH THE FATHER
When men live together as brothers with Jesus, the Father is also drawn to them and lives with them. And he keeps the promises of the gospel to the letter.
“Give and it will be given to you.” Everything you give returns to you multiplied. Trust in God is strengthen and love grows.
“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well,” When each person looks only for God’s kingdom and he reigns among those who love him, everything else revolves around them. He discovers our most fleeting thoughts and desires and fulfills them. He is a Father and shows himself as such. We are no longer orphans when we live with the Father. Eternal life has already begun.
“So do not worry; do not say, ‘What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?’ It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. He uses the most unexpected ways to obtain our needs for us. Those who love most are, accordingly, those who receive most: “For to everyone who has will be given more.” “Take what food and drink they have to offer, for, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Love is the true penance.
“Unload all your worries on to him,” so that he may solve all impossible difficulties: unfailingly he will put everything right.
A RADICAL CHOICE
“… We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” When you realize this, your life changes radically. If you are objective enough to recognize that nothing is lasting, “all is vanity of vanities” and everything is relative, you will discover the sense of the absolute and make a firm choice of God because he alone does not come to an end. God will be the ideal of your life.
If you are sincere, you must make your life comply with this ideal without compromise, or reservations. How can this be done? There is a definite answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is logical, because it would be absurd to commit your mind, your heart and your strength to something transitory. Only the absolute can be loved with all your heart.
God is still no more than the name of someone in whom perhaps you believe but you do not know. Now he becomes more real in comparison with the emptiness of everything else. If you begin to love him, he makes himself known.
ACTION NOT FEELINGS
Love is not a feeling but action. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love;” “If a man loves me, he will keep my word.” Love for God in practical terms is doing what he wants from us. “Not everyone who says to me: “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
You must unite your will with the Will of God. You must want it: your only will must be the Will of God. But aspiring to carry out the Will of God other than in the present moment is an illusion. The moment we are living in is all that is really ours.
A WAY FOR EVERYONE
Starting to act according to the will of God in the present moment is the beginning of an evangelical commitment. Soon, as God sees that you are loving him sincerely in the present moment, he shows himself to you and gives you his light. Gradually many questions you have always wondered about find an answer and many aspects of your life are linked by a new logic.
“My food is to do the Will of Him who sent me.” You can say the same to yourself, and you realize that the more you carry out the will of the Father, the more you become like Christ.
You no longer imitate Jesus Christ superficially in an external way. You do not strive to copy him in appearances, for instance in an outward show of poverty, in physical penances or literally traveling without luggage, but you want to resemble him in the most intimate aspect of his personal life, the heart of his life, in doing the will of the Father.
“Anyone who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar,” refusing to admit the truth. But when anyone does obey what he said, God’s love comes to perfection in him. We can be sure that we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in him is living the same kind of life Christ lived.”
This way is open to everyone. It is not restricted to one particular calling in life. It can be lived by men and women, by people of all ages. What really matters is that each person, wherever they are, tries to do what God suggests. Here is a realistic and practical possibility of uniting people of all kinds: doing the Will of the Father and finding as a result of relationship of brothers with the Son.
Each man has his own life and the Will of God is expressed in a different way for everyone, but it is the same Will of God which links everyone together and with the Father and the Son.
Life is transformed. So many things separate people but this one Will carried out by each person makes men brothers. They find that they are united with one another and with Christ, and through Christ with the Father. “So that you and we together may share in common life, that life which we share with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.”
This is how Christ is united to the Father. He is the living will of the Father: his will and action. It is up to us to act like him.
TOTAL RISK
If you choose to do God’s Will, your whole life must change. You must reconsider the plans you have made for the future. You must throw off your old way of looking at things and become adaptable, ready to accept new or unconventional ideas. The struggle you must now wage is against yourself.
Unless you want to deceive yourself, you must live fully in the present and not rely on a future which may never come. God is a Father; it is absurd to be afraid of what he wants us to do. He can only want our full development and happiness. He knows men better than they know themselves. They can surrender themselves to him without fear.
You must believe in love, but you must not confuse surrender with lack of commitment. On the contrary, it means carrying out each moment what you understand to be the Will of God with all your heart, your strength and your intelligence. If you are always to go with whatever God suggests, you must be ready to change continually as circumstances demand. In this way you become flexible.
You have taken the plunge. You have set out on and adventure, without knowing where will it take you, but certain that it can only lead to the most perfect fulfillment of your personality since you have placed yourself in the hands of the creator of the universe, of life and of time.
You discover that God has an original plan for each man. If we let him work freely in us, he is ready to create masterpieces of our lives as he did with those we call saints. But he has chosen to need man’s agreement, freely given, moment by moment, to his creative love.
VIOLENCE
Violence is needed. The old man in us must die in order to let the new man live. In order to listen to the voice of your conscience, you must shut out the appeals of the world that prey on you.
Your relationship with others must change. Instead of only seeking the company you find congenial, go out to each person you encounter without discriminating or holding back.
It is impossible to do two things at once – the will of God and the will of the old man in you. So your attitude must be positive – to fill yourself with God – rather than negative – to be emptied of self. And then as a result you will discover you are free from your attachments and free from your ‘self’.
And if you realize that you have gone off the rails and revived the old man, the only way to pull yourself up is not to waste time fruitlessly dwelling on your mistakes, but to start loving God again, doing his will which for a moment you had neglected.
ANOTHER LEVEL
And so in doing God’s will with all your heart, your mind and your strength, you find a great peace – the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that Christ alone can give. “Peace among men with whom he is pleased.” On the other hand, outside the Will of God there is only uncertainty, confusion, selfishness and conflict.
By experiencing this contrast, you realize what it means to live at a supernatural level and you learn how to clearly distinguish this way of life from the normal level of existence.
You become aware that you are not making the fullest use of this new way of living that you have discovered. Most of the time, you behave as though it did not exist because your heart and mind are cluttered with so many things but not with God.
And in contrast to this is Christ – the model for anyone who wants to love the Father; Mary, the woman who knew how to live God’s will exclusively: “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let what you have said be done to me.”
GOD NEVER REPEATS HIMSELF
When you live God’s will, all the references to it in scripture begin to form a pattern: “I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” “Let your will be done, not mine.” “I will always do what is pleasing to him.” “I have finished the work that you gave me to do.” “Here I am: as it is written of me in the scroll, I have come, O God, to do your will.”
Two facts become clear if you live these words: the scriptures contain a pattern of life open to everyone; Jesus is indeed, “the true light that enlightens every man”. You must look to him. The greatness of other men and women pales beside him, and they are only of example to us in as much as they too have tried to do solely God’s Will. You will never have to copy the actions of those who went before you. Each man has his own way. God never repeats himself.
GOD IS LOVE
“God is Love”: John’s definition is overwhelming. If you accept it, the logical consequence is believing and trusting utterly in him. You understand the meaning of love: you must be born again of God and be love in action as Jesus was. Accepting the Will of God is accepting God. Answering love with love: this is what it means to live as sons of God, as Jesus.
Christ, the Will of the Father in action, is the word that the Father says to men. He is the expression of the Father: the expression of love. “God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son.” And on the other hand, as a man, Christ had his own will with which he accomplished the will of the Father: the perfect expression of the love of mankind for God.
Being like him by sharing in his life, it is possible for you also to be an expression of love for the Father.
Jesus, God made man, wants to make our humanity divine, to transform it into love, to make it God and make us the children of God.
We should be as much as possible the one will of God, one love, on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus, both God and man, gives you the chance of becoming divine if you freely decide to be united with him: and so, moment by moment, be Jesus, be Mary, “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”, like God, be him, one with him.
THE NEW COMMANDMENT
Christ left many teachings, numerous words of eternal life, but he only gave one commandment: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I love you.”
If we have decided to love God as he wishes, we must love one another in the way he loved. Together with our friends, we must begin to live out this will of God. It is Christ’s testament, the pinnacle of his teaching.
We will be judged finally on brotherly love: “I was hungry and you gave me food…” In fact, “Owe no one anything except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law,”
Love for our brothers is the greatest proof of our love for God.
LOVE YOUR ENEMY
Without love every activity is useless. “If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but I am without love, it will do no more good whatever”.
With love, on the other hand, everything, even the most insignificant action, has value, because wherever we find love, God is to be found. “God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.” There is no sense in doing the slightest thing unless we are united for, “Above all, keep your love for one another at full strength,” and “If, when you are bringing your gift to the altar, you suddenly remember that your brother has a grievance against you, leave your gift where it is before the altar. First go and make your peace with your brother, and only then come back and offer your gift.”
God’s presence among men bound by mutual love and living the gospel literally, fills them with such light – “Anyone who loves his brother is living in the light” – such strength and drive that doing the will of God becomes easy and pleasant.
Even loving your enemies is no longer difficult. Alone, it is practically impossible not to react when someone offends us; once united with others, not only are we able to control ourselves, but to actually return good for evil. “If anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him.”
You do not even resent the insult or harm your “enemy” causes you. “If your enemy is hungry, you should give him food, and if he is thirsty, let him drink. Thus you heap red-hot coals on his head. Resist evil and conquer it with good.”
JESUS AMONG US
Experiencing the unity brought about by mutual love, you soon understand that, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them,” and you see the wonderful effects produced by this unity and particularly prayer in unity because, “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
Christ is present, therefore, among men united in his name. This presence of Christ in the fabric of society is so fruitful that we should be prepared to go to any lengths to safeguard it. Its effects are a new insight, a peace and a courageous certainty. Its absence is felt with equal force when you or someone else turns away from unity. It seems to be the end of everything. That understanding of the word of God as something beautiful, living and essential to real commitment seems to fade.
This is the moment when we must stand our ground no matter what it costs us and go ahead believing blindly in what we have seen in the times of light when we loved. In moments like this any attempt to improve things seems hopeless. Everything seems to be empty and meaningless. We are dissatisfied with everything until unity is reestablished, as a result of an even greater mutual love. Now we know from experience that, “We have passed out of death and into life… because we love our brothers. “Let Christ’s peace be arbiter in our hearts, to this peace you were called as members of a single body.”
UNITY
Without others we can do nothing. Unity is everything because it permits Christ’s presence: unity with God, therefore, being his will in action; unity with others by living out the new commandment, unity with Christ because his presence among men is in fact his presence in each one of them. “May they all be one, Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you.”
Those whom Christ unites and with whom he shares his light and strength – “I have given them the glory you gave to me” – discover that, “Life … is Christ”.
Whereas previously they ‘mixed’ with others, the presence of Jesus ‘fuses’ them into one, like a fire which out of two metals makes a third, an alloy with different features from either of the components.
JESUS IN OTHERS
Mutual love does not mean sentimental feelings. It means the constant sacrifice of everything of myself so that I can live the life of my neighbor. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This means loving my neighbor in order to love Jesus crucified living within him, just as Jesus, once he had become man, took upon himself all the sins and sufferings of mankind.
We have to love our neighbor, therefore, as Christ loved us, entering into him as Christ entered into us: into our humanity, into our sufferings and into our sins without having sinned himself.
Everything which is ours, both materially and spiritually, must be shared with our neighborhood, just as Jesus gave himself to us completely on the cross, and gives us his soul, his body and his divinity in the Eucharist. “All I have is yours.”
Our neighbor is Jesus to be consoled, fed, clothed, visited in prison. Jesus lives in us and we must see him in others. “Insofar as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me,” “because we are members of his body.”
THE DEMANDS OF UNITY
To find the spirit of Christ again, you only have to meet with those who share this way of life. You are all filled with the one spirit. “Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit.” “As long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us. We can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit.”
Going to others is going to Christ. To be one means to be Jesus, to all be Jesus. When unity is complete (which require a total renunciation of ourselves in everything) and we have to part due to work or any other reason, each takes with him no longer his own spirit, in other words his own way of thinking, loving or feeling, but that of Christ which was present in the communion of brothers.
You continue to love everyone you meet without expecting to be loved in return. “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” and preserve that inner peace. Then you will go home to your friends still capable of loving and establishing unity again.
But unity costs us dearly. We have to be small, totally poor, nothing, for God’s love to spread by means of us. The greatness of Mary is that she is the most humble of all.
To be one with our brother means forgetting yourself completely. It means losing everything, even your own soul, in order to live the other person’s joys and sorrows to prove your love for Christ: weep with the person who weeps and rejoice with whoever is happy.
BECOMING SIN WITH SINNERS
Charity is all that matters. When we succeed in making ourselves one with people who have problems – whether these be moral, emotional, intellectual or simply problems of communication – they find life again and love in return. They see the light once more because they feel loved; this light enables them to recover hope and over-despair.
If you act like this you relive the life of Christ: you continue it. He made himself one with us to lead us back to the Father. He made himself darkness with us who were blind to give us light again. “For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.” He made himself death with us mortals to raise us up in his risen life.
We have to love every man in this way. “If anyone is weak, do I not share his weakness? If anyone is made stumble, does my heart not blaze with indignation?” Like Jesus, we must become the other person, so that we may become us and receive the fullness of joy that unity gives us.
A member of the body of Christ united with him continues the redemption in that he passes on fullness of life to others and by suffering other person’s sorrow he continues the passion: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.”
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
When there is charity among us, Christ repeats his words, “Be brave: I have conquered the world.” Alive in us, he continued his work.
You feel you too can say the words of Christ, “I am the light of the world.” Through this small cell, something passes which those who search with a sincere and open heart recognize as coming from God.
This light enlightens men and shows them that the thousands of things they are attached that are nothing compared with Christ, who unconsciously they have been seeking. This light brings a total revolution and breaks through to many souls as a call to leave everything and follow Christ. This detachment is helped by the presence of Christ among those united in his name. They witness the upheavals the coming of Christ provokes. “I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” He did not come to bring the quiet life of the world which breeds such boredom: he came to destroy this false peace, to break up the selfishness of families and to rebuild one family of children of God, a family formed by his brothers, whose father is in heaven.
JESUS FORSAKEN
You must know Jesus Crucified and nothing else. To be crucified with him and especially to be crucified with him in our brothers is the most conclusive proof of our love for the Father, “So that the world may believe it was you who sent me.” This is the example of the saints. They nourished themselves with God by loving the cross: the short-cut to him.
But of all the sufferings of Jesus on the cross, the most terrible was when after hours of the most terrible agony he cried: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The God-man was crying in giving himself entirely for his brothers. He had given everything. Thirty years of his life with his mother, a life of hardship, obedience and devotion. Three years of preaching and every kind of good work. Three hours agony on the cross in which he forgave his executioners, gave heaven to the thief and his mother to men. He gave us his body and blood which he has already given in the mystery of the Eucharist.
All that was left to him was his union with the Father which had made him so powerful on earth and so majestic on the cross. This feeling of God had to penetrate the depths of his soul, the soul of the Son of God, until it was no longer left. Love was extinguished in him. All light was put out. Wisdom was silent. He was cut off – at least in his feelings – from him with whom he had declared himself to be one: “The Father and I are one”.
He had compromised himself too much with mankind. He had made himself one with sinners.
WHEN SOMEONE FALLS AWAY
In time amongst those who have chosen God as their ideal some may fall away. This always comes as a tremendous blow. Just as in unity you find life, in the same way the absence of unity is death. Jesus forsaken is the antidote to death.
When someone forsakes us, we are in a position similar to Christ’s and we rejoice in this sorrow because we have chosen Jesus Forsaken as the only thing that matters in our lives. And if you realize that your brother who is out of unity is also forsaken and must be consoled and loved, unity will often be re-established.
I COME TO BRING FIRE
Those who lived this way are like logs crossed together to be lit and burnt by Jesus among them. What matters is that they are ready to give up everything except unity. If they are, a great number of people who come into contact with them will go away on fire, with the certainty that they have met God, and around them the community will take shape.
Unity will spread everywhere: unity of souls with God: unity within families; unity in the places where people work.
People will start to share. Each man’s needs will become everyone’s concern. The only right will be to serve and the only ambition to be the servant of all. “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all. In the community, the last in other words those who imitate Christ most closely, are soon the first.
VALUES REVERSED
They lived and remained in the world, but they must take care not to be affected by evil. The normal values are reversed. Joy is being poor, pure, patient, persecuted for the sake of justice, gentle; or being separated if necessary when their relations – “a man’s enemies will be those of his own household” – do not understand and try to hinder friendship in Christ. What the world hates becomes pleasant to them because it is a way of being with Jesus.
Amidst difficulties of every kind they are filled with the joy which stems from the choice of God and of other people for his sake.
They acquire the spirit and language of Jesus. His words help them to determine, justify and decide on a course of action. Nothing remains unchanged. The most thorny problems find a solution in mutual love. Everything – science, art, religion, economics, the family, politics, - is penetrated by the spirit of Christ.
He is the beginning of everything and everything must return to him. “For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
LIVING WITH THE FATHER
When men live together as brothers with Jesus, the Father is also drawn to them and lives with them. And he keeps the promises of the gospel to the letter.
“Give and it will be given to you.” Everything you give returns to you multiplied. Trust in God is strengthen and love grows.
“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well,” When each person looks only for God’s kingdom and he reigns among those who love him, everything else revolves around them. He discovers our most fleeting thoughts and desires and fulfills them. He is a Father and shows himself as such. We are no longer orphans when we live with the Father. Eternal life has already begun.
“So do not worry; do not say, ‘What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?’ It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. He uses the most unexpected ways to obtain our needs for us. Those who love most are, accordingly, those who receive most: “For to everyone who has will be given more.” “Take what food and drink they have to offer, for, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Love is the true penance.
“Unload all your worries on to him,” so that he may solve all impossible difficulties: unfailingly he will put everything right.
Monday, March 17, 2008
WHO HAS BEEN CHIARA FOR ME?
Before 1995, Chiara Lubich was just a name, to me, among other names. The Focolare Movement was just a monthly reflection of a bible verse. When I met the Focolare Family in Davao City that year, Chiara has turned into a charismatic leader, a loving mother, a model of charity, a superstar, an inspirer, a child of God, an image of Mary. She has changed the direction of my life from Eden Celestino of confusion and disunity to Eden of Unity or "Denni".
Chiara has introduced me to a way of living a balanced rainbow life. She lets me love Jesus Forsaken in a special way and in every present moment. Her doctrine on Jesus in the Midst has extraordinarily captured my theological reflections that I named my three sons "JIM' to remind me of Jesus in our midst when we truly love the Jesus in one another. My wife, Edna, is able to ride the last trip of Volunteer Formation before Chiara died.
Chiara's death is a great joy. She is now with Jesus. And everytime Jesus and Mary come in our midst, there Chiara would be. Thank you, Mama Chiara.
The various dialogues that Chiara has left us to continue is a great challenge to me. She is my inspiration to continue the mission of living in unity with all as brothers and sisters, from whatever religious background, since we are children of One Father.
Chiara has introduced me to a way of living a balanced rainbow life. She lets me love Jesus Forsaken in a special way and in every present moment. Her doctrine on Jesus in the Midst has extraordinarily captured my theological reflections that I named my three sons "JIM' to remind me of Jesus in our midst when we truly love the Jesus in one another. My wife, Edna, is able to ride the last trip of Volunteer Formation before Chiara died.
Chiara's death is a great joy. She is now with Jesus. And everytime Jesus and Mary come in our midst, there Chiara would be. Thank you, Mama Chiara.
The various dialogues that Chiara has left us to continue is a great challenge to me. She is my inspiration to continue the mission of living in unity with all as brothers and sisters, from whatever religious background, since we are children of One Father.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Bye for now, my mother dear!
Bye for now, Chiara.
The Father is awaiting you with legion of angels.
Jesus has surely prepared a big room for you.
A heavenly Mariapolite is now going on.
With Foco and the rest who went ahead of you
Hail to Mariapolis they'll sing with you.
Here on Earth, we are sad because you are gone
Your brilliant eyes we don't behold no more
But, as we look at the sun,
we know you watch us from heaven with God.
Thank you, our mother dear.
Thank you for giving us Jesus in the Midst.
Thank you for being another Mary to us.
As we celebrate Jesus Forsaken,
Help us to understand God's immense love for us
WE hope, like you, we shall meet Jesus the Risen One.
Ciao.
SANTA SUBITO!!!
The Father is awaiting you with legion of angels.
Jesus has surely prepared a big room for you.
A heavenly Mariapolite is now going on.
With Foco and the rest who went ahead of you
Hail to Mariapolis they'll sing with you.
Here on Earth, we are sad because you are gone
Your brilliant eyes we don't behold no more
But, as we look at the sun,
we know you watch us from heaven with God.
Thank you, our mother dear.
Thank you for giving us Jesus in the Midst.
Thank you for being another Mary to us.
As we celebrate Jesus Forsaken,
Help us to understand God's immense love for us
WE hope, like you, we shall meet Jesus the Risen One.
Ciao.
SANTA SUBITO!!!
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