Dec 28, 2016 | Non categorizzato, Word of
A group of primary school children in Rome tried to put this Word of Life into practice: “Yesterday evening my mother and I went out for a meal with one of my Mum’s friends. I ordered a side dish with the meal, and then I wanted something for dessert. My mother said no. I was about to be angry, but I remembered that Jesus was in my mother so I just smiled instead.” “I went home after a tiring day. While I was watching television my brother took the remote control from me. I was very angry with him, but then I calmed down and let him watch TV.” “Today I answered back angrily when my father spoke to me. I saw that he was not happy about this, so I said sorry, and he forgave me.” Although there may not have been an exact link between the experiences these children told and the Word of Life they were living at the time, the push to love is itself the fruit of the Gospel put into practice. Any Word of Life we set out to live has the same effect. It changes our lives and puts the desire to be attentive to other people’s needs into our hearts, enabling us to be at the service of our brothers and sisters. It could not be otherwise: welcoming the Word and living it gives life to Jesus in us and helps us to act like him. This is what Paul is saying in this letter to the Corinthians. What urged St Paul to announce the Gospel and dedicate himself to the unity of his communities was the deep experience he had had with Jesus. He had felt loved and saved by Jesus, who had entered into his life to the point that nothing and no one could separate him from Jesus again. It was no longer he who lived, because Jesus lived in him. The thought that the Lord had loved him to the point of giving his life astounded Paul and stirred him into action. Its irresistible power urged him to do the same thing with the same love. Does the love of Christ urge us on with the same zeal? If we have truly experienced his love, we cannot fail to love in turn and courageously enter places where there is division, conflict and hatred so as to bring agreement, peace and unity. Love enables us to bring love beyond all obstacles, so as to create real connections with people, through understanding and sharing, and to find solutions together. It is not a question of choosing this or not. Unity must be pursued at all costs, without letting ourselves be hindered by false prudence, by difficulties or by potential clashes. Such an approach is urgently needed above all in ecumenism. This Word of Life has been chosen for this month in which we celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It can be lived together by Christians from different churches and communities so that we will all feel urged on by the love of Christ to seek each other out so as to re- establish unity. When Chiara Lubich spoke at the opening of the Second Ecumenical European Assembly at Graz, Austria on June 23, 1997, she affirmed, “An authentic Christian who wants reconciliation is someone who knows how to love others with God’s own charity, which makes us see Christ in each person, a charity that goes out towards all people (Jesus died for the whole human race). This charity always takes the initiative and enables us to love each person as ourselves, making us one with our brothers and sisters: in sufferings, joys, etc. The Churches too should love with this love.” May we too live the radicality of love with the simplicity and seriousness of those schoolchildren in Rome.
Fr. Fabio Ciardi, OMI
Each month the Focolare offers a Scripture passage as a guide and inspiration for daily living. Ever since the Focolare’s earliest years, founder Chiara Lubich (1920– 2008) wrote her own commentaries each month. Now Fr. Fabio Ciardi, OMI, theologian and close collaborator of Lubich, heads a group of scripture experts who have been entrusted with the task of writing the Word of Life commentaries, reflecting her thoughts and her spirituality of unity. This Word of Life is translated into 96 different languages and reaches several million people worldwide through the media. This monthly leaflet is also a supplement to Living City, the Focolare magazine (livingcitymagazine.com). For information and to subscribe to this leaflet or to the magazine, write to: Living City, 202 Comforter Blvd, Hyde Park, NY 12538; tel: 845-229-0496; e-mail: livingcity@livingcitymagazine.com. Visit dev.focolare.org (international) or focolare.us (U.S.). © 2017 by Living City of the Focolare Movement, Inc. Read more: Lubich, Chiara. The Art of Loving. New City Press: Hyde Park, New York, 2010. Lubich, Chiara. “False Prudence,” Meditations. New City Press: Hyde Park, New York, 2005, p.33.
Nov 28, 2016 | Non categorizzato, Word of
https://dev.focolare.org/gb/files/2016/11/2016-12.mp3
Word of Life for ages 4-8 | for ages 9-14 | for ages 15-17
The verb is in the present tense: “He comes …” We can be sure of his coming in this very moment. We do not have to wait till tomorrow, or the end of time, or the next life. God acts immediately, because love shuns both hesitation and delay. The prophet Isaiah is speaking to a people anxiously waiting for their exile to end so they can return to their homeland. For us too who are waiting for Christmas, we cannot but recall a similar promise given to Mary: “The Lord is with you” (Lk 1:28), as the angel announces to her the birth of the Lord. The Lord does not come for a casual visit. His is a decisive intervention, a matter of greatest importance. He comes to save us! From what? Are we in grave danger? Yes. At times we are aware of it, at other times not. He intervenes because he sees our selfishness, our indifference to those who suffer or who are in need, our hatred, our divisions. The heart of humanity is ailing. Moved by pity, he comes towards each one he has made, who he does not want to be lost. The Lord offers his outstretched hand as if to the drowning victim of a shipwreck. Sadly these days this image is always in front us, brought to mind day by day when we see those refugees who are trying to cross seas, those immigrants crossing borders. We witness how quickly they grasp an outstretched hand or a life jacket. We too, in every moment, can grasp God’s outstretched hand and follow him with trust. He does not only heal our hearts from self-absorption, which closes us off from others, but he makes us, in our turn, able to help those who are in need, who are sorrowful, who are going through trials. “Certainly it is not the historical Jesus or Jesus as head of the Mystical Body who sorts out our problems,” wrote Chiara Lubich. “It is done by Jesus-us, Jesus-me, Jesus-you… It is Jesus in human beings, in that specific human being (when grace is present in him or her) who builds a bridge, lays down a road … “It is as another Christ, as a member of his Mystical Body, that each human being brings his or her characteristic contribution in all fields: in the sciences, in the arts, in politics, in communications, and so on.” The person thus works together with Christ. “It is the incarnation that continues, a complete incarnation that involves all those who are Jesus in Christ’s Mystical Body.” (“Jesus Forsaken and the Collective and Cultural Night,” an address given by Chiara Lubich to a group of young women on January 7, 2007). This is exactly what happened to Roberto, an ex-convict who found someone who “saved” him and who then, in turn, became someone who “saved” others. He told his experience at a Focolare gathering in Villa Borghese in Rome last April. “When my long-term prison sentence came to an end, I thought I would start life again, but as usually happens, even if you have paid your debt to society, you still seem very suspect to people. “I found the doors shut in my search for work. I had to beg on the streets, and for seven months I lived as a tramp. But then I met Alfonso who, through an organization started by him, helps prisoners’ families. “He said to me, ‘If you want to start again, come with me.’ For a year now I have been helping him prepare food packages for these families in whom I see a reflection of myself. I see the dignity of these women who are alone with little children, living in desperate situations, waiting for someone to give them a bit of comfort, a bit of love. “Giving of myself, I have rediscovered my own dignity as a human being, and my life has meaning. I have more strength because I have God in my heart, and I feel I am loved …” Fr. Fabio Ciardi, OMI Each month the Focolare offers a Scripture passage as a guide and inspiration for daily living. Ever since the Focolare’s earliest years, founder Chiara Lubich (1920–2008) wrote her own commentaries each month. Now Fr. Fabio Ciardi, OMI, theologian and close collaborator of Lubich, heads a group of scripture experts who have been entrusted with the task of writing the Word of Life commentaries, reflecting her thoughts and her spirituality of unity. This Word of Life is translated into 96 different languages and reaches several million people worldwide through the media. This monthly leaflet is also a supplement to Living City, the Focolare magazine (livingcitymagazine.com). For information and to subscribe to this leaflet or to the magazine, write to: Living City, 202 Comforter Blvd, Hyde Park, NY 12538; tel: 845-229-0496; e-mail: livingcity@livingcitymagazine.com. Visit dev.focolare.org (international) or focolare.us (U.S.). © 2016 by Living City of the Focolare Movement, Inc. Read more: Lubich, Chiara. “How I met you,” Essential Writings, New City Press: Hyde Park, New York: 2007, p. 56. Lubich, Chiara. “The attraction of modern times,” Essential Writings, New City Press: Hyde Park, New York: 2007, pp.169–178.
Oct 28, 2016 | Non categorizzato, Word of
https://dev.focolare.org/gb/files/2016/10/2016-11.mp3
We can learn Paul’s secret. We can do all things when we discover the constant presence of Jesus in our lives and work in partnership with him. There are moments when we feel happy, full of strength and everything seems light and easy. At other times we are afflicted by difficulties that make our days bitter. These can be the result of tiny failures in loving the people around us or our inability to share our ideal of life with others. Or we can be hit by illness, money troubles, family problems, inner doubts or trials, loss of work, the effects of war, which crush us and seem to have no let-up. What is especially burdensome in these things is feeling ourselves forced to face the trials of life alone, without support from someone who can give us the crucial help we need. Few people like Paul have experienced such intense joys and pain, successes and lack of understanding. And yet confronting all risks he managed to carry on with his mission, without giving in to discouragement. Was he a superhero? No, he felt himself weak, fragile, inadequate, but he had a secret, one he shared with his friends in Philippi: ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ In his own life he had discovered the constant presence of Jesus. Even when everyone had forsaken him, Paul did not feel alone. Jesus stayed close by. He it was who gave Paul security and urged him to go on, to face every hardship. Paul’s secret could be ours too. I can do all things when I too recognize and welcome in my pain the mysterious closeness of Jesus who almost identifies himself with my suffering, taking it upon himself. I can do all things when I live in a communion of love with others, because He comes into our midst, just as he promised (see Mt 18:20), and I am supported by the strength of unity. I can do all things when I welcome and put into practice the words of the Gospel; they make me perceive the road I am called to follow day by day, teaching me how to live and giving me confidence. I will have the strength to face not only my personal trials, or those of my family, but also those of the world around me. So appalling are the problems of society and the nations, that this could seem naïve, something utopic, and yet it is true that ‘all things’ are possible for us with the presence of the Omnipotent – ‘all things’ and only things, that are the good which He, in his merciful love, has decided for me and for others through me. And if these things do not come about immediately, we can carry on believing and hoping in God’s plan of love that spans eternity and will be fulfilled anyway. All we have to do is work in ‘partnership’, as Chiara Lubich taught: ‘“This may be a case when I can do nothing for that person who is sick or in danger, or for that complicated situation… Well then, I will do what God wants of me in this moment: study well, sweep well, pray well, take care of my children well… And God will see to the untangling of that knot, comforting the one who is suffering, sorting out that unexpected event.” It is a work in a partnership of perfect communion, which demands from us great faith in God’s love for his children and which makes it possible, through our action, for God himself to have trust in us. This mutual confidence works miracles. We will see that what we could not do, Someone else has done, and has done it far better than us.’1
Fabio Ciardi
1 Chiara Lubich, Yes Yes No No (London: New City, 1977), pp. 113-14 (translation revised). for ages 4-8 | for ages 9-14 | for ages 15-17 | MP3 Audio
Sep 28, 2016 | Non categorizzato, Word of
Listen to the Word of Life
We can experience a new peace and a surprising joy when we forgive properly, realistically, sincerely. It is our ‘vendetta of love’. In a violent society such as the one we live in, forgiveness is a difficult issue to face. How can you forgive someone who has destroyed your family, committed unspeakable acts of criminality or, more simply, has deeply hurt you in personal matters, ruining your career or betraying your trust? The first instinctive reaction is to get your own back, rendering evil for evil, unleashing a spiral of hatred and aggression, and increasing barbarism in society. Or else it causes a breakdown in relations, nursing grudges and spite, an attitude that embitters life and poisons relationships. The Word of God erupts with force in the most varied situations of conflict and proposes, uncompromisingly, the most difficult and bravest solution: forgiveness. The invitation this time comes from a wise man from the ancient people of Israel, Ben Sirach, who shows how absurd it is to ask forgiveness of God if, in turn, you do not know how to forgive. And in an ancient text from Jewish tradition we read: ‘To whom does God pardon iniquity? To whoever pardons the wrongs done by others.’1 It is what Jesus himself taught in our prayer to the Father: ‘Father … forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’2 We too make mistakes, and every time we wish to be forgiven! We beg humbly and hope that we will be given again the chance for a new start, that we will be trusted once more. If it is like that for us, will it not be so also for others? Must we not love our neighbour as ourselves? Chiara Lubich, who continues to inspire our understanding of the Word, commented on the invitation to forgive in this way: ‘It is not the kind of forgetfulness that means not looking reality in the face. Forgiveness is not weakness, which is to say it is not failing out of fear of the strong to take account of the wrong they have done. Forgiveness is not about saying that something serious does not matter, or calling good what is evil. Forgiveness is not indifference. Forgiveness is an act of will and of clear thinking, and so of freedom. It is about accepting our brother or sister as they are, despite the wrong that has been committed, as God accepts us sinners, despite our defects. Forgiveness is about not responding to an affront with an affront, but it does as Paul says: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). ‘Forgiveness is about opening up for whoever does you wrong the possibility of a new relationship with you. So it gives the possibility for the two of you to begin life again, to have a future where evil does not have the last word.’ The Word of Life will help us resist the temptation of replying in kind, of immediately getting our own back. It will help us to see whoever is our ‘enemy’ with new eyes, recognizing them as a brother or sister. However bad they may be, they need someone to love them, to help them to change. It will be our ‘vendetta of love’. Chiara went on to explain: ‘You will say, “But it’s impossible.” That’s understandable. But here is the beauty of Christianity. It is not for nothing that you follow a God who, dying upon the cross, asked his Father to forgive those who killed him. Take courage. New life starts here. I can assure you, you will have a peace never tasted till now and a huge but surprising new joy.’3
Fr Fabio Ciardi, OMI
1 See Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 28a
2 See Mt 6:12 3 Costruire sulla roccia, Rome: Città Nuova, 1983, pp. 46-58
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Aug 28, 2016 | Non categorizzato, Word of
We can bring all things as a gift to God, if we learn how to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep, transforming each pain into love. The setting of these words is the Christian community in Corinth. It was extremely lively, full of initiative, animated by groups linked to different charismatic leaders. This also gave rise to tensions among individuals and groups, to divisions, personality cults, the desire to dominate. Paul intervened decisively and reminded everyone that, in the richness and variety of gifts and leaders belonging to the community, something much deeper bound them in unity: belonging to God. Once more the great Christian proclamation rings out: God is with us, and we are not lost, orphaned, abandoned to ourselves, but, as God’s children, we are God’s. As a true Father God cares for each one, without letting us lack anything we need for our good. Indeed, God is superabundant in love and in giving, as Paul affirms: ‘The world, life, death, the present, the future—all belong to you!’ God has even given us his Son, Jesus. What huge trust on God’s part in giving each thing into our hands! How often instead have we abused his gifts! We have believed ourselves to be the lords of creation to the point of plundering and despoiling it, lords of our brothers and sisters to the point of enslaving and slaughtering them, lords of our own lives to the point of wasting them in narcissism and self- destruction. God’s huge gift – ‘All belong to you’ – asks for gratitude. Often we complain about what we don’t have and we only turn to God to ask. Why don’t we look around and discover the beauty and the goodness surrounding us? Why don’t we say thank you to God for what he gives us each day? This ‘All belong to you’ is also a responsibility. It demands our attention, our tenderness, our care for all that has been entrusted to us: the whole world and every human being, the same care that Jesus has for us (‘you belong to Christ’), the same care that the Father has for Jesus (‘Christ belongs to God’). We ought to know how to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep, ready to gather up every groan, division, pain, violence, as something that belongs to us, so as to share it, to the point of transforming it into love. Everything has been given to us so that we bring it to Christ, that is, to the fullness of life, and to God, that is, to its final goal, giving back the dignity and the deepest meaning that belong to each thing and to each person. One day in the summer of 1949, Chiara Lubich sensed such a unity with Christ that she felt bound to him as a bride to her Spouse. This led her to think of the dowry she would bring, and she understood that it should be the whole of creation! On his side, he would bring her as his inheritance the whole of Paradise. She remembered then the words of the psalm: ‘Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’ (Ps 2:8) And she commented: ‘And we believed and we asked and He gave us all things that we may bring them to Him and He will give us Heaven: we the created, He the Uncreated.’ Towards the end of her life, speaking of the Movement to which she had given life and in which she saw herself reflected, Chiara Lubich wrote: ‘What, just now, would be my last wish? I wish that the Work of Mary [that is, the Focolare Movement], at the end of the ages, when it will be waiting, united, to appear before Jesus forsaken and risen, may be able to repeat to him, making its own the words of the Belgian theologian Jacques Leclercq, words I always find moving: “On your day, my God, I shall come to you…. I shall come to you, my God … with my wildest dream: to bring you the world in my arms.” ’1 Fabio Ciardi 1 Essential Writings, (London and New York: New City and New City Press, 2007), p. 369.
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Jul 28, 2016 | Non categorizzato, Word of
The words of the Gospel shape our lives and give us God’s own life, if we live them. If we share what we experience with others, it does not only nourish them, it gives us life too. By now we have been living the Word of Life for seventy years. The text comes to us and we read the commentary. But what we hope will remain is the sentence that is offered, a word of Scripture, often from Jesus. The ‘Word of Life’ is not simply a meditation, but Jesus speaks in it. He invites us to live, always bringing us to love, to make a gift of our lives. It was an ‘invention’ of Chiara Lubich, who speaks of its origins like this: ‘I was hungry for truth, and I studied philosophy. Indeed, more than that: like many other young people I sought truth and I believed I would find it in study. But then came one of those great ideas from the early times of the Movement, which I immediately communicated to my companions, “What point is there in looking for truth when it lives incarnate in Jesus, the God-man? If the truth attracts us, let’s leave everything, let’s look for Him, and let’s follow Him.” And that is what we did.’ They took the Gospel into their hands and began reading it word by word. They found it completely new. ‘Each word of Jesus was a burst of brightly shining light, all divine! … His words were unique, eternal … fascinating, fashioned with a divine form … they were words of life, to be translated into life, universal words in the midst of space and time.’ They discovered them not to be stuck in the past, not a mere memory, but words that He continuously speaks to us, as He does to each person in every time and place.[1] Yet is Jesus truly our Teacher? We are surrounded by many proposals for our lives, by many teachers of thought, some of them twisted that even lead to violence, while others are straight and enlightening. And yet the words of Jesus have a depth and an ability to attract and move us that other words, whether they be of philosophers, politicians, or poets, do not have. They are ‘words of life’; they can be lived, and they give us the fullness of life; they communicate God’s own life. Each month we focus on one, so that, bit by bit the Gospel penetrates our spirit, transforms us, makes us acquire Jesus’s very own thought, so that we are able to respond to the most widely different situations. Jesus shows himself to be our Teacher. At times we can read the Gospel together. We would like Jesus himself, the Risen Lord, living in the midst of those who are gathered in his name, to explain it, to make it current for us, to suggest how we can put it into practice. The really new thing about the ‘Word of Life’, however, is that we can share our experiences, the graces given when we live it, just as Chiara explained when speaking of what happened in the early times which are still with us now: ‘We felt we had a duty to communicate to others what we had experienced, also because we were aware that by giving it an experience remained and built up our inner life, while, if we did not give it, bit by bit our soul was impoverished. The word was therefore lived intensely all day long and the results were communicated not only among us, but with those who joined the first group…. When it was lived, it was no longer I or we who lived, but the word lived in me, the word lived in the group. And this was the Christian revolution with all of its consequences.’[2] It can be like this today for us too. Fabio Ciardi ______________________ [1] Scritti spirituali, vol. 3 (Rome: Città Nuova, 1979), p. 124. [2] Ibid. pp. 128, 130.
