Dec 31, 2012 | Non categorizzato, Word of
Love is the agenda of life for all Christians, the basic law of their actions, the yardstick of their behaviour. Love must always come before other laws. Indeed, love for others has to become the firm foundation on which a Christian validly puts into practice every other principle.
‘… I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’
Jesus wants love, and mercy is one of its expressions. He wants Christians to live like this, above all else because God is like this. In Jesus’ eyes, God is, in first place, the Merciful One, the Father who loves everyone and who makes the sun rise and rain fall on the good and the bad. Because Jesus loves everyone, he is not afraid of associating with sinners, and in this way he reveals to us who God is.
If God, then, is like this, if Jesus is like this, you too must have the same feelings.
‘… I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’
‘… and not sacrifice.’ If you do not love your neighbour, your worship will not be pleasing to Jesus. He does not welcome your prayers, your Church-going, your offerings, if they do not flower from a heart at peace with everyone, rich with love towards all.
Do you remember the extremely powerful words of the Sermon on the Mount? ‘So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift’ (Mt 5:23-24).
These words tell you that the worship most pleasing to God is love of neighbour which should be the basis even of worshipping God.
If you wanted to give a present to your father while you were angry with your brother or your sister (or your brother or your sister were angry with you) what would your father say? ‘Make peace between you and then come and give me anything you want.’
But there is more. Love is not only the basis of Christian living. It is also the most direct way of being in communion with God. We are told so by the saints, the witnesses of the Gospel who have gone before us, and it is experienced by Christians who live their faith. If they help their brothers and sisters, above all the needy, their devotion grows, their union with God is strengthened, they feel that a bond exists between them and the Lord, and this is what gives most joy to their lives.
‘… I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’
How can you live this new Word of Life? Do not discriminate between the people you are in touch with, do not treat anyone as less important, but offer everyone as much as you can give, imitating God the Father. Patch up minor or major disagreements which are displeasing to heaven and bring bitterness to your life. As Scripture says, do not let the sun set on your anger with anyone (see Eph. 4:26).
If you behave like this, all you do will be pleasing to God and will remain in eternity. Whether you are working or resting, whether you are playing or studying, whether you are with your children or going for a walk with your wife or husband, whether you are praying or making sacrifices, or fulfilling the religious practices of your Christian vocation, everything, everything, everything is raw material for the kingdom of heaven.
Paradise is a house we build here and dwell in there. And we build it with love.
Chiara Lubich
Nov 30, 2012 | Non categorizzato, Word of
Oct 31, 2012 | Non categorizzato, Word of
With this answer, Jesus states clearly how he will continue to be present in the midst of his own after his death, and he explains how it will be possible to have contact with him.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
He can be present in Christians and in the midst of the community right now. There is no need to wait for the future. The temple that welcomes him is not so much one of bricks and mortar, but the very heart of the Christian, which becomes the new tabernacle, the living dwelling place of the Trinity.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
But how can a Christian achieve this? How can we bear God within ourselves? What is the way of entering this deep communion with him? It is love for Jesus. A love that is not mere sentimentality but translated into concrete life and, specifically, into keeping his words. It is to this love of a Christian, verified by deeds, that God responds with his love: the Trinity comes to dwell within.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
‘… keep my word’. What are the words that the Christian is called to keep? In John’s Gospel, ‘my words’ often mean the same as ‘my commandments’. So the Christian is called to keep Jesus’ commandments. But these should not be viewed as a list of laws. Rather they should be understood as summed up in what Jesus illustrated through washing his disciples’ feet: the commandment of mutual love. God commands each Christian to love the other to the point of complete self-giving, as Jesus taught and did.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
So how can we live this Word of Life well? How can we reach the point in which the Father himself will love us and the Trinity will come to dwell within us? By putting into practice with all our hearts, radically and with perseverance, precisely this kind of love for one another.
It is here, mainly, that the Christian finds the way of that profound Christian asceticism demanded by Christ crucified. Indeed, it is in love for one another that the various virtues flourish in our hearts and that we can respond to the call to our personal holiness.
Chiara Lubich
This commentary on a sentence from Scripture suggests ways of putting the Gospel into practice in our daily life. It was first published in full as the Word of Life for February 1983
Read More:
Chiara Lubich, “The spirituality of unity and Trinitarian Life” in New Humanity Review, n.9.
Chiara Lubich, “The Law of Heaven,” A New Way, New City Press, 2006, pp. 48–51.
Marisa Cerini, “God who is Love”, New City Press, 1992.
Sep 30, 2012 | Non categorizzato, Word of
‘If you say so, I will let down the nets.’
After an unsuccessful night, Peter, who was an expert at fishing, could have just smiled and refused Jesus’ invitation to let down the nets during the day, which was the worst time to do it. Instead he went beyond his own reasoning and trusted Jesus.
This is a typical situation that every believer is called to go through today, too, precisely because of being a believer. Faith is put to the test in a thousand ways.
Following Christ means decision, commitment and perseverance, whereas everything in the world we live in seems to invite us to take things easy, to mediocrity, to just letting things be. The task seems too big, impossible to achieve, a failure before it’s started.
So we need the strength to keep going, to resist the world around us, social pressure, friends, the media.
It’s a hard trial to face day by day, or better still, hour by hour.
But if we face up to it and welcome it, it will serve to mature us as Christians, to bring us to experience that the extraordinary words of Jesus are true, that his promises are fulfilled, that life can be a divine adventure a thousand times more attractive than anything else we could imagine, where we can witness, for instance, that while life in the world is often tough, flat and fruitless, God fills those who follow him with every good thing: he gives the hundredfold in this life as well as eternal life. This is the miraculous catch of fish repeated.
‘If you say so, I will let down the nets.’
How can we put this Word of life into practice?
By making the same choice as Peter: ‘If you say so…’ By having faith in his Word; by not questioning what he asks. On the contrary: basing our behaviour, our way of acting, our life on his Word.
By doing this we will base our existence on something solid and secure, and to our amazement we’ll see that, precisely where all human resources are lacking, he intervenes, and that where humanly it is impossible, life is born.
Chiara Lubich
Read more on this topic:
– Chiara Lubich, God’s Word to Us: Short Reflections on Living the Word, New City Press, 2012.
– Tom and Mary Hartmann, Gifts from Heaven, New City Press, 2012.
– Leahy, Brendan, “Movements and Evangelization,”
Ecclesial Movements and Communities, New City Press, 2011, pp109–118.
Aug 31, 2012 | Non categorizzato, Word of
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus’ words are addressed to all of us who are thirsty in this world: to those who are conscious of their spiritual aridity and who still suffer thirst, and to those who are not even aware of the need to drink from the fountain of true life and of the great values of humanity.
Jesus is actually extending an invitation to all men and women today, revealing where we can find the answer to our questions and the fulfillment of all our desires. It is up to us, therefore, to draw from his words, to let ourselves be imbued with his message.
How? By re-evangelizing our life, measuring it against his words, trying to think with the mind of Jesus and to love with his heart.
Every moment in which we seek to live the Gospel is like drinking a drop of that living water. Every gesture of love for our neighbor is like a sip of that water.
Yes, because that water, which is so alive and precious, has something special about it. It wells up within us each time we open our hearts to others. It’s a wellspring of God that gives water to us in the measure in which it flows out from us to quench the thirst of others through small or big acts of love.
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
We’ve understood: to avoid suffering thirst, we must give to others the living water within ourselves that we draw from him.
Very little is needed — at times a word, a smile, a simple gesture of solidarity, to give us a renewed sense of fulfillment, of profound satisfaction, a surge of joy. And if we continue to give, this fountain of peace and life will pour out water evermore abundantly and will never dry up.
Jesus revealed to us yet another secret, a kind of bottomless well from which we can draw. When two or three are united in his name, by loving one another with his very own love, he is in their midst (see Mt 18:20). And it is then that we are free, that we are one, full of light, with rivers of living water flowing from within us (see Jn 7:38). It is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise, because it is from Jesus himself, present in our midst, that thirst-quenching water wells up for eternity.
Chiara Lubich
Originally published in 2002 (New City Magazine)
Jul 31, 2012 | Non categorizzato, Word of
He reminds us of the reward or the punishment that awaits us after this life because he loves us. He knows, as one Father of the Church put it, that at times fear of punishment is more effective than a beautiful promise.
His aim is that we may live forever with God. This is all that matters. It is the goal for which we have been called into existence. Only with him, in fact, will we reach our complete self-fulfilment, the full realization of all our aspirations.
If we disown him now, when we reach the next life we will find ourselves cut off from him forever. By referring to the final judgment, he emphasizes the tremendous importance and seriousness of the decision we make here. Our eternity is at stake
“Whoever acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever rejects me before others I will reject before my Father in heaven.”
How can we best take advantage of this warning and live Jesus’ word? Let us decide to declare ourselves for him before others with simplicity and openness, overcoming our need for mere human respect. Let’s get out of a state of mediocrity and compromise that empties our lives.
We have been called to bear witness to Christ: through us he wants to reach all people with his message of peace, justice and love.
We can bear witness to him wherever we are, whether in our family, at work, among friends, at school or in the many different circumstances of our lives. We can do it first of all through our behavior, through the integrity of our lives, through our purity, through our detachment from money, through our participation in the joys and sufferings of others.
We can express it through our mutual love, our unity, so that the peace and joy promised by Jesus to those united to him will fill our soul even now and overflow onto others.
Perhaps someone will ask us why we act the way we do, why we are so serene in a world that is so fraught with tension. We will then answer with humility and sincerity using those words that the Holy Spirit will suggest to us. In this way we will bear witness to Christ with our words, too, on the level of ideas. Then perhaps many of those who are searching for him will find him.
At other times we may be misunderstood, contradicted, made the object of derision, hatred and persecution. Jesus alerted us to this possibility: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:20).
We are still on the right path, however, so let’s go ahead to bear witness to him with courage even in the midst of trials, even at the cost of our lives. The reward that awaits us is well worth it; it is heaven, where Jesus whom we love will declare himself for us in front of his Father for all eternity.
Chiara Lubich
Originally published in July 1984
