Word of Life

By Chiara Lubich

November 2007

If we love, we live out the heart of the divine law written in the heart of each human being, and we will not sin. Indeed, we will find ourselves helping bring to fulfilment God’s plan for humanity.

What other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law…? (Deut 4:8)

For the people of Israel the forty-year journey in the desert was a period of trial and grace. God purified their hearts and showed them his immense love.

Now that they were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses recalled the experience they had been through. He remembered in particular the greatest gift they had received together, the law of God summed up in the Ten Commandments, and he invited everyone to put it into practice.

As he explained God’s teachings, Moses was struck by how God had drawn close to his people, taking care of them, teaching them codes of life that were full of wisdom, and he exclaimed:

What other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law…?

God has inscribed his law in the heart of every person and has spoken to all peoples in various ways and times. All human beings can rejoice in the love God has shown to each of them. But it is not always easy to grasp God’s plan for humanity. This is why God chose a small people, the people of Israel, to reveal his plan more clearly. Finally, he sent Jesus, his Son, who fully revealed the face of God by showing him as Love and summing up his law in the one commandment of love for God and love for neighbour.

The greatness of a people and of every person is expressed in the way they adhere to God’s law through their personal ‘yes’.

This adherence is not an artificial superstructure or, even less, a form of alienation. It does not mean being resigned to a destiny that is more or less good, or submitting to fate, as if to say: so it was pre-ordained, so it must be, it’s inevitable.

No, it is the best thing one can imagine for the human person. It means working together with God so that the great plan he has for each person and for the whole human race may emerge: that is, to make humanity a single family, united in love, and living his own divine life.

So then we too can exclaim, as Moses did:

What other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law…?

How can we live the Word of Life this month?
By going to the heart of the divine law that Jesus summed up in the one precept of love.
If we review the Ten Commandments given to us by God in the Old Testament, we will see that if we truly love God and our neighbours, we observe them all perfectly.
Isn’t it true that whoever loves God cannot let any other gods enter their heart?
And that whoever loves God speaks his name with reverence and without taking it in vain?
And that whoever loves God is happy to dedicate at least one day a week to him whom they love most?
Isn’t it true that whoever loves each neighbour can’t not love their own parents? Isn’t it clear that whoever loves other people does not set out to rob them, or kill them, or exploit them for their own selfish pleasures, or witness falsely against them?
Isn’t it true that such a person’s heart is already full and satisfied, and certainly does not covet the goods or spouse of others?
This is how it is: whoever loves does not commit sin but observes all God’s commandments.
During my travels I have experienced this a number of times through contact with different peoples and ethnic groups. I can remember above all the powerful impression the Bangwa people of Fontem, Cameroon, made on me, when in 2000 they welcomed in a new way the invitation to love.
During the day, every once in a while, let’s ask ourselves if our actions are motivated by love. If they are, our life won’t be wasted, but will help contribute to the fulfilment of God’s plan for humanity.

 

Next Month: Love cannot wrong a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilment of the law. (Rm. 13: 10)