April 10, 1970

Città Nuova

This holds true for us and those close to us.

And if our vision ventures out to other lands and nations, we will see even greater and more acute problems: hunger, sickness… the very basic needs of life are unmet. And if one has a bit of a generous heart, one would want to do something also for them. 

Then we may run across words out of the norm – we feel – that do not have an earthly origin, that do not come from the crowd around us, and that we know well. They state:  «That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear; … It is the gentiles who set their hearts on all these things; … Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God’s saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well.» (Mt 6:25,32,33)

It is a sweet protest from Heaven to earth, that God addresses to humans; he opens their eyes so that they may know that they have a Father who looks after them. 

Does one then need to keep running, doing, working, being busy, worrying? … Yes, but for other reasons: not to seek bread, clothes or money, but the Kingdom of God in us, which means to make an effort to not do our own will, but His will.
The Gospel well states: the rest will be given to you as well. It really arrives like this: unexpectedly. You arrive home and you exclaim: «It’s providence!». And this is the sweet experience of all Christians who live coherently.

So then you understand from life that if the small problems have found a solution, the best solution for the big ones that torment humanity is to find the most effective way for the world to get to know and to live the Gospel.  
And it was told to us so that we would proclaim it to everyone: «Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing!… Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin;  yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these.» (Mt 6:25,28-29)

In these times, especially in countries most in need, oftentimes there is great emphasis put on the social problems, to which all efforts are directed even as a religious expression of life.

It is according to the Gospel to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but such actions, on their own, may not show the message of Christ in all of its beauty; in fact, in some ways they may falsify it because such acts may leave a complex in the “beneficiaries,” while the Gospel raises people up, all people, to the greatest heights: that of being children of God. 

The Gospel is all one and cannot be lived and truly understood in its parts, if it is not known and lived in its entirety.

The main remedy to the problems, even earthly ones, of poor nations remains the proclamation of the Gospel. What is needed is that all people get to know Christ, to seek his Kingdom and his Justice: then the rest, all the rest, will also be given to them in abundance.

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