Speaking to a group of focolarini on September 19, 2020, Focolare President Maria Voce shared what is closest to her heart at this time. It can be summed up in one word: “relationships.” This renewed invitation seems to complete a trajectory launched 12 years ago, shortly after her election as president, when she encouraged everyone to cultivate a “culture of trust,” building relationships that generate peaceful social co-existence and respect diversity. As her second term draws to a close, with the Movement’s General Assembly just a month away, the world is deeply affected by this protracted pandemic and economic crisis. In this context, Maria Voce returns to one of the key themes of her presidency: the centrality of relationships, as seen from the perspective of Chiara Lubich’s charism. It is an invitation to act once more as part of a network and in communion with individuals, communities, and organizations who are also aiming for the same goal – universal fraternity.
“I was deeply struck by the thought that Chiara Lubich, in 1943, found herself facing a devastated world, where everything around her was collapsing. And God spoke to her heart, ‘It’s not true that everything is collapsing. There’s something that does not collapse. It’s God and God alone!’ And what did Chiara do? She went out with the message: God is here, God loves us, this God exists beyond the war. This is what was needed at that time.
Jesus came on earth, and He certainly didn’t come alone, because where Jesus – the Son of God – is, the whole Trinity is present. So, God, the Trinity, came on earth to show us the way, to teach us how to live according to the Trinity. To do what? To transform the world.
But what does it mean? It means relationships, it means connections, it means equality, it means listening to one another, it means being for one another, or in a certain sense, knowing how to ‘lose’ oneself in another.
This morning, I was thinking about this, and I asked myself, Jesus came on earth, and what did He do? He walked along the roads of Galilee, and what did He find? An official, most probably involved in corrupt tax-collecting practices; a young man fascinated by the words He spoke; a small businessman, Peter, who owned a boat. And He called them. He had the courage to transform them into His apostles, which means people sent out to continue carrying His message to the farthest corners of the earth.
What else did He find? He found all kinds of people. He found sinners, those who had just died, those who were hungry. And what did He do? He multiplied the loaves of bread, He raised the dead … He got involved in meeting the needs of others, living among them. He even managed to draw a crowd to follow Him. What does it mean? He created community. He formed a community who knew how to listen to one another, he recognized that someone spoke a different language, and to listen to them in their own language. What does it mean? It means they really knew how to accept one another, understand each other even when someone speaks differently, they really knew how to accept each other.
He transformed these people into His brothers, His community. And He got them to live solidarity among them. You see, when many were hungry, he said, ‘Give them something to eat’; when he cured the woman with a fever, she then got up and started to serve them; He gave the child whom He raised to life back to her family so that they could look after her. You see, He did not destroy anything that was already there, but rather He transformed it!
So what should we do? We must transform the world by ‘being’ this Jesus. We must bring about these Trinitarian relationships. And there’s no other way to do this except by choosing Jesus Forsaken, which means knowing how to lose oneself in the other, knowing how to let the others stand out. Then, God the Father will continue to create new things, and the Holy Spirit will continue to illuminate us.”
Maria Voce
