Word of Life

May 2005

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21).

It was Easter Sunday evening. The risen Jesus had already appeared to Mary Magdalen; Peter and John had seen the empty tomb. And yet the disciples continued to remain shut in the house, full of fear, until the Risen Lord appeared in their midst. He entered even though the doors were locked, for no barrier could separate him from his friends any longer.

Jesus had left but, as he had promised, he now returned to stay with them forever: “He came and stood among them” (John 20:19). This was not just a momentary appearance, but a permanent presence! From that moment on, the disciples would no longer be alone and their fear would be replaced by a deep joy: “The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord”(John 20:20). The Risen Lord opened their hearts and the doors of the house on to the whole world, saying to them:

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

Jesus had been sent by the Father to reconcile everyone with God and to reunite the human race. Now it was up to his disciples to continue to build the Church. Just as Jesus had been able to fulfil the Father’s plan because he was one with him, so too the disciples would be able to continue his lofty mission because he, the Risen Lord, was in them. “I in them”(John 17:23), Jesus had prayed the Father.

From the Father to Jesus, from Jesus to the apostles, from the apostles to their successors, this mandate has never grown less.

All Christians need to hear these words of Jesus resounding in their hearts. In fact, “there is a diversity of ministries in the Church, but unity of mission.”

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

To carry out this mandate of the Lord, we have to act in such a way that he may live in us. How? By being living members of the Church, by being one with the word of God, and by evangelising ourselves first of all.

This is one of the duties called by John Paul II “a new evangelization.” In his words, we must “nourish ourselves with the word, in order to be ‘servants of the Word’ in the work of evangelization: this is surely a priority for the Church at the dawn of the new millennium” because “only a person who has been renewed” by the “law of love of Christ and the light of the Holy Spirit can bring about a true metánoia [conversion] in the minds and hearts of other people, in the fabric of a society, in a nation or in the world.”

Nowadays, words are not enough. Pope Paul VI once said that people today would “rather hear witnesses than teachers” and “if teachers are heard, it is because they are witnesses.” The proclamation of the Gospel will be effective if it is based on a witness of life, such as that given by the first Christians who could say: “We declare … what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes” (1 John 1:1). It will be effective if what was said of them can be said of us: “See how they love one another, and how they are ready to lay down their lives for each other.” It will be effective if we make our love concrete by giving and responding to people in need, feeding and clothing them, housing those who are homeless, offering friendship to those who are alone and desperate, and giving support to those in a time of trial.

Living in this way, we will show the world how fascinating Jesus is and, by becoming ‘other Christs’, we will contribute to the continuation of his work.

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

This was the experience lived by some of our doctors and nurses who in 1966 heard about the situation of the Bangwa people in Cameroon. That noble people was threatened by extinction because of diseases with an infant mortality rate of 90%.

A Focolare medical team went to live with those people and felt that their first duty was to love one another so as to bear witness to the Gospel. They loved one person at a time without making any distinctions. They offered their professional expertise and opened a clinic that soon grew into a hospital. Infant mortality was reduced to 2%. In the middle of the forest a power plant was built. Then came a school for primary and secondary students. Over time and with the help of the Bangwa people, twelve roads were built to link the villages.

Concrete love is contagious: many of the people began to live this new Gospel life. Villages that had been in conflict with each other were reconciled. Boundary disputes were resolved in harmony. Various clan leaders formulated a pact of mutual love and now live in brotherhood. In their exchange of gifts with each other, they offer a wonderful witness, an example that is both new and authentic.

Chiara Lubich