Word of Life

1. Word of Life May 2007

2. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).

3. Jesus is having dinner with his friends. It is his last supperbefore leaving this world, the most solemn momentin which he communicates his last will, almost a testament:

4. “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”.

5. Down through the centuries, this will be the distinguishing mark of Christ’s disciples: by this everyone will recognize them!

6. It was like this from the very beginning. The first communityof believers, in Jerusalem, was well-liked and respectedby all the people because of its unity, to the point that every new day others came to join their ranks.

7. Even a few years later Tertullian, one of the first Christian writers, reported what was said of the Christians: “Look at how they love each other, and howthey are ready to givetheir life for one another”. It was the fulfillmentof Christ’s words:

8. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.

9. Mutual love is therefore the “habit that ordinary Christians, old and young, men and women, married or not, adults and children, sick or healthy, can wear in order to shout outor proclaim always and everywhere with their own livesthe One they believe in, the One they want to love”

10. In the unity that springs from mutual love among Christ’s disciples, one can see a reflection of the God whom Jesus revealed as Love. The Church, in fact, is an icon of the Trinity.

11. Today, this is the best way to announce the Gospel message.A society often dazed by too many messages seeks witnesses rather than teachers. It wants examples rather than preachers.

12. It is more easily convinced if it sees a Gospel that is practiced, where new relationships characterized by brotherhood and love exist.

13. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.

14. How then should we live this Word of Life?

15. By keeping mutual love alive among us and forming “living cells” of Christ’s Body everywhere.

16. Chiara Lubich wrote,“If various spots in a city were set alight … by the fire that Jesus brought on earth, and this fire, through the good will of the inhabitants, managed to resist the ice of the world, we would soon have the city aflame with the love of God.”

17. “The fire that Jesus brought on earth is himself. It is charity: the love which not only binds the soul to God, but also binds souls to one another.”

18. “Two or more people united in the name of Christ,who are not afraid or ashamed to make an explicit declaration to one another of their desire to love God,but who actually make of this unity in Christ their Ideal, are a truly divine force in the world.”

19. “And in every city these souls could turn upin families:a father anda mother, a son and a father,a daughter-in-law anda mother-in-law. They could meet in parishes, in associations, in social bodies, or in schools, in offices, and everywhere.”

20. “It is not necessary that they already be saints,or Jesus would have said so. It is enough thatthey be united in the name of Christ andthat this unity never diminishes.”

21. “Naturally, they will not remain two or three persons for very long, for charity spreads by itself and grows enormously.”

22. “Every small cell,set alight by Godin any point of the earth, will necessarily spread, and Providencewill distribute these flames, these soulson fire, wherever it thinks fit, so thatthe world in many places may again experience the warmth of the loveof God, and acquirenew hope.”

23. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”. Text by F. Ciardi and Gabriella Fallacara Taken from the “Word of Life,” a monthly publication of the Focolare Movement Graphic by Anna Lollo with Fr. Placido D’Omina (Sicily, Italy)