On the occasion of the 52nd World Day of Peace, and in support of the Pope’s message “Good politics is at the service of peace”, we publish an extract of Chiara Lubich’s talk during a meeting of Teens for Unity, the young people of the Focolare Movement, gathered at the Colosseum in Rome in 2002. What is the key to promoting peace? Living the golden rule for building universal brotherhood. https://vimeo.com/148206157 Peace. Is peace of such great interest today? Yes it is, of course, and perhaps more than ever before. Not only because dozens of wars are ongoing in the world today, but also because peace is threatened in a different, more insidious way. … The situation is serious. If this is how things are, it is not enough to oppose such great danger with merely human strength. We need to engage the forces of good with a capital G. You all know what this Good is: it is God and all that is rooted in him. It is the world of the spirit, of great values, of authentic love and prayer. … However, peace is so precious that all of us, adults and young people, leaders and ordinary citizens, must be actively involved in safeguarding it. … Naturally, in order to know what to do, we need to be familiar with the deepest causes of this dramatic situation today. You all know that justice does not prevail in the world, that there are rich countries and poor countries, where there is hunger. Instead, God’s plan for humanity is that all people should be brothers and sisters, in one big family with one Father. … Well then, how can we create greater equality, how can we bring about some sort of communion of goods? It is obvious thatgoods cannot move unless hearts are moved. Therefore, we need to spread love, the reciprocal love that generates brother and sisterhood among all. We need to invade the world with love! Beginning with ourselves, and with you, boys and girls. Someone here might ask, “Is love, loving one another, compatible with the lifestyle our cultures have handed down to us? Yes, it is. Look in your sacred Books and in almost all of them, you will find the so-called “Golden Rule”. The Christian text says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31). Judaism says, “Do to no one what you yourself dislike” (Tobit 4:15). In Islam “None of you is a true believer if you do not desire for your brother what you desire for yourself” (Hadith 13, Al Bukhari). In Hinduism, “Do not do to others what would make you suffer if it were done to you” (Mahabharata 5: 1517). All these phrases mean, respect and love your neighbour. If you, a Muslim boy or girl, love, and you, a Christian, love, and you, a Jew, love, and you, a Hindu, love, you will certainly reach the point of loving one another. The same for everyone. This would already create a chunk/portion of universal fraternity. … Therefore, loving is one of the great secrets of our time. Loving with a special kind of love. It is certainly not a love directed only towards our relatives and friends. This love is directed towards everyone, those who are more or less nice, rich or poor, children or adults, from your own country or foreigners, friends or enemies… Towards everyone. We should be the first to love, by taking the initiative, without waiting to be loved. We should love not only with words, but also concretely, with facts; and we should love one another. … if you do this, if we all do this, universal brotherhood will spread, solidarity will grow, goods will be better distributed, and the rainbow of peace will shine over the world, a world which will be in your hands in a few years’ time. Chiara Lubich (Collegamento CH – 5th. december 2015)