Unlike the consumer economy, based on a culture of having, the Economy of Communion is based on the culture of giving. This might seem to be difficult, ambitious, heroic, but it is not so because human beings, made in the image of God who is Love, find their fulfillment in loving, in giving. This need is in the deepest recesses of their being whether they have faith or not. On this basis, supported by our experience, lies the hope of a universal spreading of the Economy of Communion.

Based on Love

The Economy of Communion is completely based on love, only on love, because the profits are divided into three parts: a part is for the business itself, because if the business doesn’t go ahead it won’t be able to love; a part is for the poor and this is clearly love; and a part is to form “new men and women” [to the culture of giving], and we can understand that this is love. Because it is love, the EOC will last not only here on earth. In fact, we are in a certain way co-creators with God in creating these new realities in the Church and in the world, and because of this it will also remain in the next life.

The Culture of Loving

The culture of giving is not only a matter of giving profits, of giving something: jewelry, land or houses. That’s not what it is. It is the giving we learned from the Gospel which means loving, loving everyone. It is the culture of loving, of loving the employees, the competitors, the clients or customers, of loving the suppliers, of loving everyone. The lifestyle of the business must change completely; it must be a Gospel-based lifestyle, otherwise we do not have the economy of communion.

Give and Gifts will Be Given to You

We need to spread a culture of giving. This is the culture of the Gospel: “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap” (Lk 6:38). This is our daily experience. If everyone lived the Gospel, the great problems of the world would be non-existent, because the Eternal Father would step in and the promises of Jesus would become true: “Give and you will receive.”

Excerpts from: Chiara Lubich, L’Economia di Comunione, Citta Nuova, 2001