God loves you immensely

The first point of the spirituality of unity is the understanding that God is Love. In this new series of articles we will examine this theme using letters, meditations and writings by Chiara Lubich from the earliest days of the Focolare and illustrate the points made with personal experiences

By Sally McAlister

By the time I was about 17 years old I more or less decided that God could not exist because of the suffering I had seen in Belfast and also in my own family. Faith had been part of my life from my earliest childhood, so rejecting belief in God and any sort of overarching reality that made sense of life did not really answer the questions I had. It only created a great gaping hole, filled with yearning for meaning. Why suffering? Why injustice? What is life really all about?

Around this time, I met some young people from the Focolare Movement at a big music festival. During the week we spent together, I fluctuated between being completely uninterested in their beliefs to being downright antagonistic. But, in the end, it was not so much what they said but the way they were that made their beliefs credible. You can argue against what someone says, but not against the witness of their lives.

Only God is eternal
When they told me the story of how the Focolare began during World War II, it was something I could identify with. I, too, had seen everything collapse around me. Faced with the crystal-clear evidence of the vanity and transitory nature of everything, I also realized that nothing I loved or put my heart in would last, that only God is eternal.

The change was not something dramatic; I think belief crept back up on me unawares. The light that comes from the presence of Jesus where two or more are united in his name (see Mt 18:20) entered and enlightened my soul, replacing my lack of faith with something that would become the motivating factor in my life.

Although God’s entry into our lives can be strong and utterly transforming, God does not do violence to us. Chiara Lubich once described this process saying, “His subtle light entered and illuminated and enveloped our soul. It didn’t suppress our previous thought, but slowly replaced it.”

I attribute my faith in God to having “seen” the witness given by those who are united in his name. But what was the particular insight that led Chiara to be able to say with such conviction, ‘God loves you immensely’?

Like a flash of lightning
Speaking of the origins of the Focolare Movement, Chiara includes a well-known episode in which she describes her first encounter with God who is Love. The story is set in 1943 when, as a very young teacher, she was approached by a priest who, according to the customs of the times, asked her if she would offer up an hour of her daily work for his intentions. “Why not the whole day?” replied Chiara. Touched by her great generosity, the priest blessed her, saying, “Remember that God loves you immensely.”

Who knows how many times Chiara had heard the phrase, “God loves you,” and yet this time it struck her like a flash of lightning. Something that she undoubtedly knew on a rational level entered her heart and soul with such power that it made her want to cry out to all she met: “God loves me immensely. God loves you immensely. God loves us immensely.” This was undoubtedly the action of God’s grace, but the words also entered a heart that had been prepared by love for God and love for neighbor.

God, who is indescribable, ineffable, infinite, eternal, showed himself to Chiara. He made her discover his immense love: that he is a Father, and that his love and providence envelopes everyone and everything. This very revealing of himself, so to speak, was a manifestation of his love, that he is Love, that he is self-giving. Experiencing this special action of grace gave Chiara a completely new understanding of God. Now she “knew” who God is: God is Love.

Traveling together
Once Chiara discovered what she would describe as “an absolute novelty for us,” the action of God that is all love, in her own life and in the history of humanity, this novelty determined a radical change, a conversion in that first small group in their way of seeing the world and history and, as a consequence, in their behavior.

Because of a particular grace, Chiara immediately felt that God’s love was not only for her but that it reaches out to everyone. This is what characterizes the spirituality of unity, illustrating the communitarian dimension of it. This way of going to God is not limited to reaching perfection alone, but traveling together and striving to help our fellow travelers to become holy as well. It is indicative that as soon as she received the manifestation of God’s personal love for her, she was convinced of it and shared with others that God loves each one, everyone, immensely. What conclusion can we draw from this, other than that it is a sign that God chose her to be his instrument in the fulfilling of his plan, the universal dimension of which could already be glimpsed? He imbued her with his light so that she could transmit it, communicate it. He gave her his being-love, as well as a strong impulse and ability to reveal it as such and bear witness to it to all people.

—from New City, London

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