Chiara Lubich in Central Hall Westminster, London - June 2004

What future for a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural,
and multi-faith society?

Dear Friends,

It is indeed a very special joy for me to be here again in Great Britain, because as we begin our meeting today I cannot forget, for the glory of God and the joy of those who were present, what took place right here in London during my last visit in November 1996.

For decades our Movement had spread in Great Britain, and many Christians of various Churches had made its spirituality their own.

One day, in front of 1,200 people of the British and Irish communities of this new people born from the Gospel, which is the Focolare Movement here, I realised something new. In spite of the fact that there was not yet full communion among the Christian Churches, our shared spirituality had, in a sense, worked a miracle: we were already a living portion of Christianity, one heart and one soul. Our common baptism and mutual love had allowed Jesus to be spiritually present in our midst. Hadn’t he said: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Mt 18:20)?

This was such a strong impression that to two Anglicans seated on either side of me, I felt compelled to say with St. Paul: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rm 8:35). Nothing can separate us because Christ himself unites us.

In that moment we understood one of the specific contributions our movement can give to the cause of ecumenism: to bring about a new dialogue and to spread it everywhere, the “dialogue of the people”, a dialogue which is born from living together the “spirituality of unity” which, among other things, gives value to the important patrimony we have in common: Baptism, the Old and New Testaments, the Creed, the first Councils, the Fathers of the Church….

After that memorable meeting in London, this dialogue of the people moved forward and was also acknowledged, appreciated and referred to in the Second European Ecumenical Assembly at Graz, Austria, for example, as a necessary contribution to the re-establishment of full communion among the Christian Churches.

Let us move on now to today’s subject: “What future for a multicultural, multiethnic and multirelgious society?”

In recent years, our European societies are being changed by significant patterns of migration from east to west and from south to north. This phenomenon is having a profound impact on the appearance of our continent, bringing to our cities an ever greater diversity. Walking down the streets, we note the presence of mosques, for instance, but also of many temples in countries which, until a short while ago, were almost exclusively Christian.

At the same time, the communications media bring people and nations, although in reality very distant, close to one another; to the point that what takes place in Asia or in Africa can have a decisive impact on the personal choices of western youth. No one is “foreign” to us any longer because we “see” people, because we know about them.

Furthermore, economic and financial globalization has woven together all our interests. They are no longer separated from one another. Many problems are of interest to humanity as a whole, problems which no nation can face in isolation from all the others. In a word, we live in a world that has truly become, as people say, “a global village”: a new and complex village.

This situation opens up opportunities for knowledge and development previously unknown, even though fears, indifference and intolerance remain especially due to the ever imminent danger of terrorism.

A great saint and doctor of the Church, Augustine of Hippo, found himself in a situation which, in some way, was similar to ours. Faced with the fall of the Roman Empire under the pressure of peoples migrating from the north and the east, he had the grace and foresight to help Christians understand that the upheaval taking place in society, which he and his contemporaries were witness to, was not the end of their world, but the birth of a new world. (See Note 1)

His was a vision that came from the faith and conviction that God is not absent from history. God’s love is such that it directs everything towards good. St. Paul himself said this: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God” (Rm 8:28).

And now it seems to me that this same faith must sustain and guide us in our present-day situation. This is also the experience that has been lived for the past sixty years by something new in the Church, the Focolare Movement, which I have the joy and honour of serving: a multicultural, multiethnic, multireligious Movement present in 182 nations of the world. Allow me to tell you about this Movement because it may be of light and stimulus for many.

When it began no one had any projects or plans in mind. The idea for this Movement was in God, the design was in heaven. Even with our most optimistic predictions we could have never imagined that we would see the progressive coming together of this “people”, as John Paul II often describes our movement.

It brings together, like a real family, people of different languages, races, cultures, nations and also faiths, because besides being made up of Christians of numerous Churches, there are also followers of various religions and people who do not have a religious faith but who share with the others great human values such as justice, solidarity, peace, human rights.

I first understood this in 1977 when, here in the Guild hall of London, I received the Templeton Prize for progress in religion.

That ceremony was attended not only by Catholics and Christians of various Churches who adhered to the Movement, but also by people of other religions: Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and others. I had shared something of my Christian experience and when, after I had finished speaking, I noticed that the first people who came up to greet me with great joy were precisely the faithful of other religions. I understood then that I was called to love and serve these brothers and sisters as well.

The secret of this ability to gather in unity people who are so different lies in the timely and modern Gospel spirit that animates our Movement: a spirituality which is both personal and collective. It is a “spirituality of communion” which generates a new lifestyle. This spirituality is not the monopoly of our movement. It is the fruit of a charism, a gift of God, and by its nature a charism is destined to all those who want to receive it.

What does this spirituality teach with regard to relationships among people of different races, cultures and religions? What is the truly inspired attitude it suggests in order to build fraternity among all?

First of all, this spirituality is based on an understanding, for those who have faith, that God is a God of Love, a Father. How could we consider unity and fraternity in society and in the world without a vision of humanity as one family? And how can we understand this, unless there is one Father of all?

Therefore, this spirituality calls us to open our hearts to God, who is a Father, who certainly does not abandon his children to their own destiny but who desires to accompany them, to protect them and help them. God alone, who created them, is able to embrace and unite everyone.

To believe in his love is the first inspiration of this new spirituality: to believe that we are personally and immensely loved by God. He knows each one intimately and cares for each one personally. The Gospel says that he counts even the hairs of our head (cf Lk 12:7), and the Qur’an says: “We are closer to him than our jugular vein” (50:16). Therefore, he will not leave the renewal of society to our efforts alone, but will take an active role.

Obviously, however, it is not enough to believe in the love of God, not enough to have chosen him as one’s Ideal. The Father's presence and loving care calls each person to be a true daughter or son, loving the Father in return and living, day by day, according to God’s loving plan for each one. And we know that a father’s first desire is for his children to treat each other as brothers and sisters, to care for and love one another.

Consequently, our spirituality urges us to love, to live in conformity with the love present in the depths of every human heart. For the followers of Christ it is the agape which is a participation in the very love that is in God; for those of other religious faiths, it is a love that proceeds from the “golden rule” which is so precious to many religions and which says: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31) or “Do to no one what you yourself dislike” (Tobit 4:15).

For people with no formal faith, love can mean philanthropy, solidarity, non-violence.

With regard to the way to love our neighbour, ever since the beginning of our movement, the Holy Spirit pointed out some qualities which distinguish a simply human love from the love present in the Gospel.

This way of loving requires us to love everyone: people who are pleasant or unpleasant; beautiful or ugly; fellow-citizen or foreigner; those belonging to my culture or to another, to my religion or to another, friend or enemy. In fact, the Gospel asks us to be perfect, in the image of the heavenly Father who “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt 5: 45). This love towards everyone is very fruitful. It is the experience of many that it would be enough to live this one quality of gospel based love in order to bring about a total change in the society around us.

This way of loving also requires us to be first in loving, without expecting the other person to love us. It is a love like that of Jesus who when we were still sinners, and therefore not loving, gave his life for us.

It is a love that makes us consider the other person as ourselves, that makes us see our very own selves in the other person. In the words of Gandhi: "You and I are one and the same thing. I cannot hurt you without harming myself." (See Note 2)

It is a love that is not made up only of words or feelings; it is a practical love. It requires that we “make ourselves one" with others, that “we live the others” in a certain way, that we share their sufferings, their joys, in order to understand them, to serve and help them in an effective, practical way.

It is a matter of weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice. Making ourselves one: it is the attitude that guided the apostle Paul, who wrote that he made himself a Jew with the Jews, Greek with the Greeks, all things to all (cf 1 Cor 9: 19-22). It is very important that we follow his example so that we can establish a sincere, friendly dialogue with everyone.

Yes, dialogue. It is a very relevant word today. Dialogue means that people meet together and even though they have different ideas, they speak with serenity and sincere love towards the other person in an effort to find some kind of agreement that can clarify misunderstandings, calm disputes, resolve conflicts, and even eliminate hatred at times. This dialogue, especially among the faithful of different religions, is more than ever indispensable today if we want to avoid the great evils threatening our societies.

It has been written: "To know the other's religion implies putting yourself in the shoes of the other, seeing the world as he or she sees it, grasping what it means for the other to be Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu…"(See Note 3) This is not something simple. It demands that we empty ourselves completely, that we put aside our own ideas, our own affections, to put aside everything we would want to do, in order to identify with the other person.

It is a matter of momentarily putting aside what we have and what is most precious to us: our own faith, our own convictions, in order to be “nothing” in front of the other person, a “nothingness of love”. By doing so we put ourselves in a position of learning and there is always something to learn.

If we are motivated by this kind of love, the other person will be able to express him or herself because they feel accepted. Each person can give themselves because they find someone who listens. So then we become acquainted with their faith, their culture, their terminology. We enter their world, we become inculturated in some way in them and we are enriched. This attitude enables us to contribute to making our multicultural societies become intercultural, that is, made up of cultures that are open to one another and in a profound dialogue of love with one another.

Our complete openness and acceptance then predisposes the other person to listen to us. We have noticed, in fact, that when people see someone dying to him or herself in order to “make themselves one” with others, they are struck by this and often ask for an explanation.

Then we can pass on to what the Pope calls the “proclaiming with respect”. “Respect” is the key word in every dialogue. Being true to God, to ourselves, and being sincere with our neighbour, we share what our faith affirms on the subject we are discussing, without imposing anything, without any trace of proselytism, but only out of love.

However, through the Holy Spirit who is always present when we love, our brothers or sisters are struck by something we say, something alive and spiritual which echoes within them: these are the “seeds of the Word” which the love of God has placed in every religion.

Or while we are speaking, our brothers or sisters identify some aspect of those purely human values which the Lord, in creating us, deposited in every person and in every culture.

And it is on the basis of these “seeds” or values that we can offer – always serving, however, always with gentle and boundless discretion – we can offer those aspects of truth we possess which can give greater fullness and completeness to what our neighbour already believes. First he or she gave to us; now we do the same. And in an atmosphere of communion created by this exchange of gifts, the truth is gradually revealed and we feel that it has brought us closer to one another.

We have had many experiences of this fruitful dialogue with people of the most varied cultures and also with large groups of believers of other religions. Precisely because of this practice of “making ourselves one”, and the friendship born from it, we consider them as Movements which are supportive of our own, and they know that our Movement is supportive of theirs. We have built up substantial bonds of fraternity with them, like the Buddhists of the Rissho Kosei-kai which includes six million members, or the Muslims of the American Muslim Society, which numbers two million, and others.

Real, true, fraternity is, in fact, the fruit of a love that is capable of making itself dialogue, relationship, that is, a love which, far from arrogantly closing itself within its own boundaries, opens itself towards others and collaborates with all people of good will in order to build together unity and peace in the world.

Yes, peace.

But can religions, also as a whole, be partners in the journey to peace?
We all know how extremely important and relevant this question is today.

Many interpret the spreading of terrorism, the wars waged in various parts of the world in response to this, the ongoing tensions in the Middle East as symptoms of a “clash of civilizations”. They say that it is marked and even intensified by the different religious allegiance.

However, upon a closer examination of the facts, this viewpoint triggered by various forms of extremism and fanaticism which distort religions, proves to be very partial.

Never so much as in our present day have believers and leaders of all religions felt the duty to work together for the common good of humanity. Organizations such as the World Conference of Religions and Peace or initiatives such as the day of prayer for peace in Assisi promoted by John Paul II in January of 2002, are a confirmation of this.

On that occasion the Pope stressed, on behalf of all those who were present, that “whoever uses religion to foment violence contradicts its most authentic and profound aspiration” and that “no religious goal can justify the practice of violence on the part of one person against another” because “the offence against the human person is ultimately an offence against God.”(See Note 4)

On September 11, 2001 humanity discovered, in shock and horror, the nature of the great, enormous danger of terrorism. It is not a war like others – we still have about 120 wars on our planet today – which are usually the result of hatred, of discontent, of rivalries, of personal or collective interests. Terrorism, instead, as affirmed by the Pope, is the fruit also of the forces of Evil with a capital “E”, the forces of Darkness.

Now, forces of this kind cannot be opposed only by human, diplomatic, political and military means. The forces of Good with a capital “G” are needed. And Good with a capital “G”, we know, is God and all that is rooted in him. Therefore, we can combat terrorism with spiritual forces, with prayer, for example, with fasting, as the representatives of the world religions did in Assisi, the city of St. Francis.

However, we feel that we must say that prayer is not enough.

We know that the causes of terrorism are many, but one of them, the deepest, is the unbearable suffering of a world divided between rich and poor. This has produced and continues to produce resentment in people’s hearts, violence and revenge.

More equality is needed, more solidarity, especially a more equal sharing of goods.

We know, though, that goods do not move by themselves, they cannot walk on their own. People’s hearts must be moved, hearts must be shared.

This is why we need to spread among as many people as possible, the idea and practice of fraternity, and - given the enormity of the problem - a universal fraternity. Brothers and sisters know how to look after one another, they know how to help one another, how to share what they have.

To meet this unprecedented challenge, the contribution of religions is decisive.

Where else, if not in the great religious traditions could a strategy of fraternity begin , a strategy capable of marking a turning point even in international relation?

The enormous spiritual and moral resources of religions, the contribution of ideals, of aspirations to justice, of commitment to the needy, along with the political leverage of millions of believers, all springing from religious sentiments and channeled into the field of human relations, could undoubtedly be translated into actions that could have a positive influence on the international order.

Much is being done in the field of international solidarity by non-governmental organizations. What’s missing is for states in their own right to make political and economic choices which can build a worldwide community of peoples committed to bringing about justice.

In the face of a strategy of death and hatred, the only valid response is to build peace in justice. But there is no peace without fraternity. Only fraternity among individuals and peoples can guarantee a future where there is peaceful coexistence.

Besides, universal fraternity and the peace which follows from it are not new ideas that have emerged today. They have often been present in the minds of deeply spiritual persons because God’s plan for humanity is fraternity, and brotherly love is written in the heart of every human being.

“The golden rule,” said Mahatma Gandhi, “is to be friends of the world and to consider the whole human family as ‘one’.”(See Note 5)

And Martin Luther King: “I have a dream that one day…” all people will realize that they were created to live together as brothers and sisters and that fraternity will become the order of the day for businesspersons and the password for statesmen and women.(See Note 6)

In spite of the destruction then, one great, age-old truth can emerge even from the rubble of terrorism: that all of us on earth are one great family.

And the one who showed this truth and brought it as an essential gift to humanity was Jesus who prayed for unity before he died: “Father, may they all be one” (Jn 17:21).

Ladies and gentlemen, sisters and brothers, dear friends, we know from experience that whoever wants to move the mountains of hate and violence in today's world faces an enormous task. But what is beyond the strength of millions of separated, isolated individuals, becomes possible for those who make mutual love, understanding and unity the driving force of their lives.

There is a reason, a secret key, and a name for all this. When we, of the most various religions, enter into dialogue among ourselves, that is, when we are open to the other in a dialogue of human kindness, mutual esteem, respect, mercy, we are also opening ourselves to God and, in the words of John Paul II, “we allow God to be present in our midst.”(See Note 7)

This is the great effect of our mutual love and the hidden strength which gives vitality and success to our efforts to bring unity and universal fraternity everywhere. It is what the Gospel announces to Christians when it says that if two or more are united in genuine love, Christ himself is present among them and therefore in each one of them.

And what greater guarantee can there be than the presence of God, what greater help can there be for those who want to be instruments of fraternity and peace?

What future therefore for a multicultural, multiethnic and multirelgious society?

A future where all people live as one family made up of brothers and sisters who love one another beneath the gaze of one Father. Or, for those who do not know God, a family united in the name of that voice of truth which speaks out in every human conscience.

There is no alternative if we want to avoid our planet being thrown once again into the depths of misery, fear, hatred and war.

Instead, if we live as we said before, if we love one another, we will necessarily stir up love around us, and many people of different races, cultures and religions will follow us. Then one day in the not-too-distant future, mutual love will be lived also among peoples.

Is it a utopia? No, it is God’s most heartfelt desire, it is Jesus’ prayer for unity and it will become a reality. If he, the Son of God, prayed to the Father for the unity of all, this request cannot but be granted.

Chiara Lubich

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Notes:
1 Cf. above all The City of God, but also the sermons in which St. Augustine speaks of the fall of Rome (n. 81, 105, 296, 397).
2 Quoted from WILHELM MÜHS, Parole del cuore, Milan, 1996, p. 82.
3 F. Whaling, Christian Theology and World Religions: A Global Approach, London 1986, pp. 130-131.
4 John Paul II, Discourse to the representatives of the various religions of the world, Assisi, January 24, 2002.
5 In buona compagnia, a cura di Claudio Mantovano, Roma, 2001, p. 11.
6 Cfr. Martin Luther King, delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.
7 John Paul II, in Madras, Il dialogo interreligioso nel magistero pontificio, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, p. 385.