Extract from Chiara Lubich’s spiritual thought during a conference call on 12 April, 1990.
“Today is Holy Thursday, a special day in which, often in past years, we felt enveloped, intimately imbued, by a special, most sweet atmosphere: certainly a particular presence of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be otherwise, for today we remember, we re-live, condensed, many mysteries of our faith and our Ideal. In fact, this is the day of love, because everything that this day commemorates is love.
Love is the ministerial priesthood, instituted during that far-away Holy Thursday, of which the Holy Father, in his latest letter to the priests for this Holy Thursday, said that it is not an institution existing “beside” nor “above” the laity; but “for” the laity. Just for this reason, it possesses a “ministerial” character, that is, “of service” and therefore, of concrete love.
Love is the Eucharist in which Jesus gave us all of Himself.
Love is unity, effect of the love which, like today, He invoked from the Father.
Love is the “New Commandment” which He left us.
And it is on the “New Commandment” of Jesus that I would like to dwell on. We proposed it to the Genfest as the great chance to arrive to a united world, and everyone, more or less, will strive to put it in action.
Today is the start of the Easter Triduum. They are three solemn days. Well, in one of these, we must find a solemn moment in which we will repeat among ourselves, in our centres, in our focolares, in our nuclei, in our units, in our clusters, with whom it is possible, everywhere, that pact which the first focolarine made when they said, “I am ready to die for you, I for you, I for you…”.
We know it. Even this small, great thing is not always very easy: human respect may have infiltrated even in the fundamental structures of the Movement. Perhaps for some it is easier to make these decisions directly with God. But ours is a collective spirituality, and we cannot betray it.
Since that time, the Pact has been the milestone of the Movement. There, Jesus put Himself in our midst. Therefore, let us find the way to renew it and then let us strive to live accordingly. The supernatural tone will rise in the whole Movement, and we will become better -as we should be- the foremost workers of a united world. The Risen One will be more resplendent among us with His Spirit, as required by the feast of Easter, which we will soon celebrate.
Let us not forget that tomorrow, Good Friday, reminds us of Jesus Forsaken, the divine key which renders truly possible our being ready to die for one another.
To each and every one I wish the Happiest Easter. May the Risen One be with us.”
Chiara Lubich
