Sierre, 24 March 1994
Holy Week is the climax of the liturgical year. This text invites us to celebrate and penetrate the central mysteries of our faith, also with our lives.
Dearest all,
Easter will soon be here; the greatest feast of the year, and with it Holy Week which is abounding with the most precious mysteries of Jesus’ life.
We are reminded of these especially on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and on Resurrection Sunday. For us, too, they represent central aspects of our spirituality: the mandate to live the new commandment, the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist, the prayer for unity, the death of Jesus forsaken on the cross, Mary Desolate, the risen Lord.
We will celebrate these mysteries with the Church through the holy liturgy, but because ours is a “way of life” we prepare ourselves in order to honour them also with our life.
But how can we relive, at least a little, these mysteries which are so very numerous and profound? We know that one of these would be enough to open our souls to meditation and to urge us on to contemplation. One would be enough to sanctify us.
Furthermore, in our spirituality’s patrimony, various themes have been developed on these aspects; we wrote several books for our edification, which enrich the already very precious literature that exists on each subject: “When Our Love is Charity” , which explores in depth the new commandment, “Servants of All” , which reveals to us what the priesthood is for Jesus and for the Church, “The Eucharist” , “Unity and Jesus Forsaken” and there are various other studies on Mary in her desolation, on the risen Jesus….
What shall we live then as we draw near to Holy Week, during those blessed days?
I think the best way to live all of them is to live Easter, to allow the risen Lord to live in us.
So that the risen Lord may shine forth in us, we must love Jesus forsaken and always be, as we say, “beyond His wound” where charity is queen. Charity then urges us to actively be the new commandment; charity impels us to draw near to the Eucharist which feeds this divine charity in our heart and truly makes us become that with which we are nourished, that is, the risen Jesus; charity leads us to live in unity with God and with our neighbours. In a certain way, it is through charity that we can be another Mary.
Yes, the best way to live the various aspects of Jesus’ life recalled during Holy Week is by proposing to allow the risen Lord to live in us in each present moment.
Dearest all, this is what we would like to propose to you and this is what we are trying to live.
By doing so, all of us together will truly be that Easter People which someone seemed to recognize in our Movement.
As a consequence, we will better understand the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus which are represented in the liturgy.
This renewal of our whole being as members of the Work of Mary makes us less unworthy to bring our Ideal into the world.
(translation from Italian text in Chiara Lubich, Santità di popolo, Città Nuova, Roma, 2001)
audio in Italian
