First Sunday of Lent, February 26, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Focolare
Satan approached Jesus in the desert and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’”
Sylvia Lubich lived in Trento, host city of the Council of Trent, in northern Italy. On September 2, 1943 her city was bombed by the Allies, her house was destroyed, she decided to stay in the city and help those around her, she took a vow of chastity, joined the Third Order of the Franciscans, and changed her name to Chiara (Clare). She watched others and learned the art of loving. In time she began a movement she called focolare, which is Italian for “family fireside.”
Communities throughout the world prosper by sharing, and by looking for those around them who need help.
However many neighbors you meet throughout your day, from morning to night, in all of them see Jesus. If your eye is simple, the one who looks through it is God.
How many people, in error, look at creatures and things in order to possess them! It may be a look of selfishness or of envy, but whatever the case, it is one of sin. Or people may look within their own selves, and be possessive of their own souls, their faces lifeless because they are bored or worried. The soul, because it is an image of God, is love, and love that turns in on itself is like a flame that, because it is not fed, dies out.
Out of love for Jesus, let your neighbors possess you. Like another Eucharist, let yourself “be eaten” by your neighbors. Put your entire self at their service.
Most of us fail to do this, but if we lived in communities whose purpose is to reach out, things would change. When we get home at night, we would sit by the fire and share our stories, whether we were rejected or appreciated. In the Moonies I spent about a year on an MFT (Mobile Fundraising Team). My friend Doug drove the van, and dropped the other seven of us off on street corners of a city, or in different small towns. We spent seasons in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” And the devil continued, “For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” But Jesus answered him. “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”
We jumped out of the van with flowers, or cookies, or even mounted butterflies in plastic cubes. Before we separated we prayed together. When we came back together we counted our money, had dinner together, prayed some more, and fell asleep, boys in one motel room, girls in another. We covered the floor with sleeping bags.
In the morning Doug woke us up, we got breakfast somewhere and did it all again. If there was a factory in town, we walked in through the freight doors or railway doors, and sold our flowers and cookies there. On Friday and Saturday nights we fundraised in bars. Occasionally on a weekend we saw a movie together. Our solidarity grew and grew. We shared everything. We were a family, a community. Every night we sat down beside the hearth, and warmed our bodies and our souls. Wherever two or three are gathered …
And the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence. “All these I will give to you if you prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written, ‘The Lord, your God shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
(Genesis 2, Psalm 51, Romans 5, Matthew 4)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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