Words of Life from the Gospel

Words of Life

from the Gospel

An extract from “The Essential Writings of Chiara Lubich”, founder of the Focolare Movement, who died on the 14th of March at Rocca di Papa, Rome, about how the Movement was founded and the key role of the Word of God in this

Chiara The Movement began in Trent. At the outset I had no plan in mind, no programme. The idea for this Movement was God’s; it was a project from heaven. That is how it was in the beginning; that is how it has been during the 54 years of its growth. In 1943 war raged in Trent; ruin, destruction, death. For a variety of reasons a group of young people about my age gathered around me. One day I found myself with my new companions in a dark, candle-lit cellar, a book of the gospels in hand. I opened it. There was Jesus’ prayer before he died: “Father… may they all be one” (Jn 17:11,21). It was not an easy text to start with, but one by one those words seemed to come to life, giving us the conviction that we were born for that page of the gospel.

Jesus, you know the way to achieve unity

On the feast of Christ the King we gathered around an altar. We said to Jesus, “You know the way to achieve unity. Here we are. If you so desire use us.” The Liturgy of the day amazed us: “Ask of me,” it said, “and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” (Ps2:8) We asked. God is all-powerful. The bombardment continued, destroying some of the people and things we cherished. One loved her home; it was ruined. Another was planning to be married: her fianc? did not return from the front. My ideal was to study, but the war kept me from attending the university. Every event touched us profoundly.

The lesson God was giving us in those circumstances was clear: all is vanity of vanities. Everything passes away. At the same time God put a question into my heart meant for all of us, and with it came an answer: is there an ideal that does not die, that no bomb can destroy, to which we can devote our lives? Yes there is. That ideal is God. We decided to make God the ideal of our lives. In the midst of the war, the fruit of hate, God was manifesting himself to us as Love.

Our parents sought refuge in the mountain valleys. We stayed in Trento. Some for work or study. I in order to be with the Movement that was coming to life. A flat with a few rooms became our shelter. We found the ideal to live for. It was God. God-Love.

But how could we put it into practice? The gospel gave us the answer: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Mt 7:21). It is not a matter of piety or sentimentality, then. Doing the will of God: that is what matters. But who would tell us the will of God?
Love your neighbour as yourself

Whenever the siren sounded we rushed into the shelters, unable to bring anything along other than a small book of the gospels. In it we could find what Jesus wanted of us – his will. So we opened it. It was wonderful. Those words which we had heard many times were illuminated as though lit from within. We seized upon them and a power, we think the Holy Spirit, led us to put them into practice. We read: “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt 19:19). My neighbour. Where is my neighbour? There beside us, in that old lady barely able to drag herself each time to the shelter. We must love her as ourselves; we must help her each time, and support her. We read: “whatever you did to one of the least of these you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). People around us were in terrible conditions – hungry, thirsty, injured, without clothing, without shelter. So we cooked big pots of soup and distributed it to them. Sometimes, poor people knocked at the door and we invited them to sit down with us. The gospel promised: “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Mt 7.7, Lk 11.9). We asked on behalf of the poor, and each time we were filled with God’s gifts: bread, powdered milk, marmalade, wood, clothing which we took to those who needed it.

Give and it will be given to you

Here is a typical episode. One day a poor person asked for a pair of shoes size 8 1/2. One of us went to church before the tabernacle with this request. “Lord, give me a pair of shoes size 8 1/2 for you in that poor person.” As she was going out of the church, a young lady, a friend of hers, handed her a package. She opened it. There was a pair of shoes size 8 ? . And this is only one of thousands and thousands and thousands of examples. “Give and it will be given to you” (Lke 6.38) we read in the gospel on another day. We gave. If we had only one egg in the house for all of us, we offered it to the poor. And what do you know? In the morning a bag of eggs arrived! It was that way with so many things. Jesus had made a promise and He was keeping it. So the Gospel was credible, it was true. This confirmation made us fly down the path we had taken. We shared with everyone what was happening each day, and they were amazed. Many were struck by the truth of the gospel; they wanted to experience the same thing and follow Jesus. These astonishing new experiences of the gospel circulated from mouth to mouth. They were a small echo of the words of the apostles. Christ is risen. Now it was: Christ is alive!

Laying down one’s life for one’s friends

The shelters where we gathered were not safe. We were constantly in danger of death. Another question came to us: is there a will of God especially pleasing to him? If we were to die, we would have to put it into practice, at least in our final moments. The gospel gave us the answer: it spoke of a commandment which Jesus called “mine” and “new”. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15:12-13).

We looked each other in the face and declared: “I am ready to give my life for you; I for you, I for you; all for each one.” From that promise came the way for us to respond to the thousand daily demands on fraternal love. We are not always asked to die for one another but we can share everything, our worries, our sorrows, our meagre possessions, our spiritual riches… We saw our lives take a qualitative leap forward. Someone came into our group, silently, an invisible Friend, giving us security, a more experiential joy, a new peace, a fullness of life, an inextinguishable light. Jesus was fulfilling his promise to us.: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Mt 18:20). He had said: “May they also be one in us, so that the world may believe….” (John 17.21). When Christ is there in the unity of brothers and sisters, the world believes. That happened with us. Radical transformations in people occurred around us. There were many kinds of conversions, vocations in jeopardy were saved and new ones were born. The words of the gospel are unique, fascinating, carefully scripted, and can be translated into life. They are light for everyone who comes into this world.; they are universal. When we live them, everything changes: our relationship with God, with our neighbours, with our enemies.

Edited extract from Essential Writings: Chiara Lubich published by New City price £12.95 available from Good News Books Tel: 01582 571011

“BE A FAMILY”

Charles Whitehead, a past President of ICCRS, remembers Chiara Lubich.

For many years I had known of Chiara Lubich and had appreciated her spiritual writings, but our first meeting was only 10 years ago, when Pope John Paul II invited all the ecclesial movements and new communities to join him in St. Peter’s Square on the eve of Pentecost 1998. We gathered to express our unity, to pray with him for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the whole Church.

It was an historic occasion, a new kind of ecclesial event, and for Chiara more than any of us, it confirmed the importance of building communion among the movements - something she had always held in her heart. She made a promise that day to Pope John Paul II in these words:

“We know that the Church desires full communion among the movements, a unity that has already begun. But we want to assure you, your Holiness, that since our specific charism is unity, we will commit ourselves with all our strength in contributing to bringing this about fully”. She then set about doing this with considerable enthusiasm and commitment, and the “Together for Europe” meetings among others bear eloquent testimony to her charism for unity.

This, my first meeting with Chiara, was followed by a number of others on various public occasions in Rome and in London. But the one I remember best was a private meeting in Rome some months later, when we talked at length about the growing friendship between members of the Focolare and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in a number of countries. Chiara wanted a better understanding of the nature of the worldwide CCR, as she realised that it differed in a number of ways from the other movements - not least because there was no human founder. She listened actively to my explanations, occasionally asking a question, and thoroughly enjoying the testimonies and stories I recounted.

There was something special about Chiara Lubich - her warmth, her openness, her love. From the moment she said “yes” to God as a young woman in Trent, north-eastern Italy in 1943, her life was devoted to loving people as Jesus loves them, and to promoting unity - particularly among Christians but also, in her later years, with leaders from the other great world religions. I could always sense the presence of the Holy Spirit in her, and although we met only occasionally I felt part of her family. This is what she wanted, what she lived for, and on 25th December 1973 she explained it in these words at the beginning of a message to her Focolare members which became known as My Legacy: “Were I to leave this earth today and were you to ask me for a final word about what our Ideal is, I would have to say, certain of being understood in its deepest sense: Be a family.”

For Chiara, words like ‘family’, ‘love’, and ‘unity’, which can trip off the tongue so easily, were words of life-changing importance, encapsulating the nature and teaching of Jesus. Her life was devoted to living and spreading His Gospel of love, and the fruits of her ‘yes’ to God’s call are now evident all over the world. We have much to thank God for in the life and work of Chiara Lubich - the modest mother to a remarkable international family.© Charles Whitehead

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