In dialogue with Chiara Lubich (Rome, November 25, 1975)
Is it possible to develop our own personality whilst giving ourselves to others? In doing this, wouldn’t we be giving up being ourselves?
It is precisely in giving ourselves to others that we can develop our personality! Through loving we extinguish our own “ego”, our “old self” as St Paul would say, in order to allow our “new self” to live in us. It is our “new self” which is our real, true personality.
Let’s take for example St Francis of Assisi who was very altruistic. He was by no means similar to St Therese of the Child Jesus. He was completely different, with a personality of his own. He would sing to the birds, to nature, to the sun, the moon (…). His message was poverty. He brought about a renewal in the Church of those times, attracting a multitude of persons. He left a distinctive mark on the century in which he lived.
St Therese the Child Jesus (popularly known as “The Little Flower” ) was not like that. She entered the convent as a very young girl and apparently had no followers. Yet she had a spirituality which was distinctively hers, called “The Little Way”.
St Francis and St Therese both burned their own “ego” in the flame of Divine Love and two very original personalities emerged from this heroic act.
It is the same for other saints who are so different from one another. They are different because, through an intelligent act of the will, they allowed God to live within them. And God developed and enlightened their faculties immeasurably; He fully empowered their intellectual, artistic and concrete talents.
Therefore, we can say that our human personality can never be crushed by the divine. On the contrary, it becomes stronger because everything in us has been created by God through his grace acting within us as well as in our humanity.
In conclusion, to give oneself to God, plunging oneself entirely in the Gospel’s revolution of love, is a sure way of strengthening one’s real personality.
Source: Archives of the Chiara Lubich Centre (Rome)
Published in: Living City Magazine, USA (January-February 1976), Vol. 15, No.1 p.4.
See also extract from the autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux: “In the heart of the Church I will be love.”
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