Unity, a divine word

Reflections from the Focolare founder

Unity: a divine word. If at any moment the Almighty were to pronounce this word, and people everywhere were to apply it in all possible ways, we would suddenly see the world stop in its tracks, and like a film running backwards, retake its course in the opposite direction. Countless people would reverse their steps along the wide road to perdition and would convert to God, choosing the narrow road …

Families separated by rifts, their hearts hardened by misunderstandings and hatred, and deadened by divorce, would be recomposed. Children would be born into an atmosphere of human and divine love, and new people would be shaped, giving promise to a more Christian future.

Factories, often a conglomeration of people who are “slaves” to their work in a bored, if not vulgar, atmosphere, would become places of peace, where all do their share for the good of all.

Schools would break through the limits of their short-term knowledge, making every discipline a footstool for the contemplation of things eternal, learned in the classroom in a daily revelation of mysteries, intuited from basic formulae, simple laws, or even numbers …

And elected bodies would be transformed into meeting places for people who battle not so much for particular interests, but for the good of all, without deceiving other colleagues or countries. We would see a world becoming kinder, heaven descend upon earth as if in a dream, and the harmonies of creation become the setting for the unity of hearts …

But it is a dream! It seems like a dream! Yet you asked for nothing less when you prayed, “Your will be done, on earth as in heaven” (Mt 6:10).

From Chiara Lubich, “Essential Writings” (New City Press)