A Light that comes from life

How the charism of unity enlightens many fields of human endeavour today, five years after Chiara Lubich’s departure

“From the beginning, Chiara Lubich had an extraordinary understanding of culture. She enjoyed, for example, the discoveries of scientists, and there was even a time when she felt closer to them than to those of us around her,” recalls Anna Maria Zanzucchi, one of Chiara’s early collaborators in the New Families Movement.

The Focolare founder had a deep concern for all cultures, all disciplines, “even if she could not study them because God was calling her to other responsibilities.” Perhaps this is why she was able to distinguish the universality of true culture, finding a touch of wisdom in everything, “because, for her, culture was part of the experience of God.” As a young woman, Chiara Lubich was a passionate student who enjoyed studying the thoughts of the great philosophers. World War II, however, interrupted her studies.

She eventually continued them once again, but the growth of the newly born Focolare community in Trent made her realize that she had to abandon her studies once and for all and dedicate herself to the emerging movement. She always remembered that day when she actually put away her beloved books in the attic. But God led her, and those who are part of the Focolare, to learn something of his infinite wisdom not only in matters concerning theology, but also in other realms.

She wrote in a letter of 1946: “You see, I am a soul passing through this world. I have seen many beautiful and good things and I have always been attracted only by them. One day … I saw a light. It appeared to me as more beautiful than the other beautiful things, and I followed it. I realized it was the Truth.”

The charism of unity given to her was based on putting the Gospel into practice in any circumstance of life, and Chiara immediately understood the renewing potential of this lifestyle: “We understood at once that if [the words of the Gospel] were translated into life, they would give rise to a revolution. We read and we lived them and the world within us and around us changed.” Indeed the small city of Trent changed with the spreading of the new spirituality. More and more people were involved and started to care for their neighbours in need.

These actions generated a significant improvement in the living conditions in poor neighbourhoods. This experience – that living out the Gospel changes one’s surroundings – was later repeated in various parts of the world, in different fields of work and disciplines of knowledge.

A charism always brings a new spirit to the church and the world, a new paradigm — such as St. Francis’ discovery of Jesus in the poor which led to a different attitude toward poverty in the Middle Ages, or Saint Ignatius’ religious exercises generating a spiritual way that attracts people even today. In the same way, it seems that there is no field of human activity that cannot be enlightened by the charism of unity.

Chiara Lubich never planned a strategy nor elaborated a theory; her ideas always sprang from life. Once upon receiving an honorary doctorate in economics at Sacred Heart University of Piacenza, Italy, she explained the birth of the EoC (Economy of Communion in Freedom). In one of her trips to Brazil in 1991, she had been struck by the contrast between the wealthy, stylish quarters of Sao Paulo and the crowded, overflowing poor favelas or slums surrounding the city like a crown of thorns.

“What we needed,” she said, “was to create industries managed by competent people who could make them function efficiently and profitably from them. These profits would then be used for the following purposes: to see that the business grows; to help those in need, giving them something to live on until they could find work; and finally, to develop structures for forming new people animated by Christian love, without whom very little can be accomplished…”

A new economic system came to life and many businesses embracing the EoC guidelines have emerged not only in Brazil, but also in Europe, the Americas and other places in the world. Several theses and studies have evolved a theory of the EoC.

Another example shows the scientific potential of the spirituality of unity put into practice. As a new honorary doctor in psychology at the University of Malta, Chiara Lubich explained, “The discovery and acquired certainty that God loves a person and wants him/her to exist can be the basis for psychological security, which gives meaning and purpose to life.”

The liberating experience of being able to have a relationship with a transcendent being leads also to a new quality of relationships in one’s family, school and society. For Chiara Lubich, it was the consequence of love of neighbour, of “giving up defending oneself, thereby reducing the barriers that the ego would set up,” which opens up a new possibility to relate to the others and experience authentic, fulfilling relationships.

There seems to be no field of human activity that cannot be enlightened by the charism of unity: how is communication affected if the persons who try to communicate really want to understand each other? How does education change if teachers and students do not focus primarily on transmitting knowledge, but on creating relationships that build a community? How will political relationships change if you “try to love the party of the other as much as your own,” or “the other’s nation like your own,” as she proposed at the founding of the Movement for Unity in Naples, Italy, in 1996?

“From the beginning of her experience, Chiara intuited how the charism could influence and heal all human realities in their various expressions and disciplines,” says Nedo Pozzi, who for years has worked at the Focolare’s international headquarters, and particularly in this area of the Movement’s activities. In 1970, she invited the members of the Focolare to be “global citizens.” In 1990, she spoke of “a new thought that makes a new culture possible.” In 1995 she defined her movement as “a new people that has its own culture, a new culture that is emerging,” and that could have a positive influence on the mentality of today’s world.

“This thought, this elaboration has become concrete and in turn receives its vitality from international groups of professionals and scholars who have worked in the fields of politics, commerce and economics, media, art, sociology, education, psychology, medicine, architecture, environmental science, law, sports and more,” says Pozzi.

The guidelines emerging from this new charism enrich scientific research: “One thing is a dialogue among disciplines, but it is much more difficult to create a dialogue among scholars,” says Luigino Bruni, Associate professor of economics at the University of Milan-Bicocca and at the Sophia University Institute in Loppiano, Italy. “It takes a charism, a way to develop it, and Chiara has shown us how: first the community, then the university. This is the experience of the newly born Sophia University Institute, a community of students and professors who together study and generate culture.” Bruni emphasizes the main principle of the scientific approach of the spirituality of unity: “For Chiara, life has always had primacy over theory or what was understood to be intellectual reflection,” he says.

“One day, while studying the Economy of Communion and preparing to present it at international conferences, she said, ‘Luigino, theory is fine, but don’t forget that the EoC was born for the poor.’ In other words: do all the thinking you want, but always have this perspective in front of you. Chiara was certainly not naive; she understood the value of culture, but knew that life is more important. In fact, she always required scholars to be well-rounded in every dimension of life, and not just intellectually.”