Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton last month met with members of the Focolare movement during their annual Mariopolis gathering.
The Word of God is the basis of the spirituality for the members of Focolare.
Chiara Lubich recognised that anyone could come to know Jesus and that the starting point is the Gospel.
The Gospels have been left to us so that the first disciples’ experiences of Jesus Christ would be heard by people throughout the centuries that followed.
The Mariapolis for this year gave time for the brothers and sisters of the Focolare movement to reflect on how we can be part of the project of God to build a new world.
This reflection has been assisted by the reading of the Gospel of Luke for this Sunday: the gospel of the Rich Man, Dives, and the Poor Man, Lazarus.
This is a story of reversal, and the turning on its head of reality, and how things are or should be.
Dives is a man who was turned so completely in on himself that he could not see Lazarus and his plight.
Being so focused on his own needs and wants, he was blind to the poverty and injustice suffered by Lazarus, and therefore did nothing to lift the burden of the wretched man who could only scrape a few crumbs from the rich man’s table. Dives was destined to the punishment of losing everything, whereas Lazarus came into the fullness of life of heaven.
This is the reversal. Riches to poverty. Poverty to riches.
We have heard this morning of the experience of their marriage and family life from a beautiful couple.
They are a living testament to the love that is possible and its power to transform a person. Also, that love is the gift of the Holy Spirit and its operation in our lives is a guarantee that the Spirit is present within us.
Building a new world begins by us allowing ourselves to be changed by the Holy Spirit. It becomes possible, then, for our relationships to be transformed.
Marriages can be as they are meant to be. Love as lived by Jesus, we call Agape Love, rounds out and completes the other forms of love we know, so that we can truly serve the other, understanding their needs and doing something about lifting the burdens they carry.
From our personal renewal, then through the renewal of our relationships, we are prepared for the bigger project of contributing to the renewal of the world. We need to remember that we are meant to be collaborators with the Father.
The building of a new world began with Jesus coming into our human history. His mission of freeing us from all that blinds and diminishes us continues, and he promises that we can do our part so that love and justice will transform our world: so that all may be one.
Let each day be grasped as an opportunity for us to be agents of unity among people and promoters of the universal family by our readiness to draw on the presence of the Holy Spirit in hearts and minds.
The Spirit will lead us to and assist us in prayer, drawing us into closer union with God. The Spirit will lead us to deeper knowledge and understanding of Christ.
The Spirit will be our source of strength and perseverance to live the words of our prayer, ‘Your kingdom come’.