When the soul doesn’t sing, then something is occupying it and this something should immediately be given to God. The suffering could be brought on by external things (and these are more easily overcome by souls who want to love Love); the sufferings could be within us (scruples, doubts, melancholy, temptations, emptiness, homesickness). They all need to be given to God. The quicker the giving, the sooner love descends into our hearts. But be careful: a giver cannot go on... keeping for her a gift that’s been given away.
If you feel something, whatever it may be, which doesn’t allow your soul to be at peace then you need to give it over to him with an effort that is equal to the size of the gift. If you keep something for yourself, even just the thought of the gift, then you appropriate a treasure for yourself (a tiny treasure) that no longer belongs to you.
Only into the extreme poverty of a soul which loses itself for love does the Lord God enter triumphant with the fullness of joy. That is why the Pascha was a “passing over” for all of us to a life of never-ending joy as we live the Ideal in its fullness.
Now, do you want the Eternal Model? Jesus, Crucified and Forsaken. His soul, which is the soul of the God-Man, filled with the greatest suffering ever known in heaven and on earth, the suffering of a God abandoned by God, never doubted for a moment about offering it to his Father: “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum (Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit).” Let it always be the same for us.
And do you know what Jesus will say in answer to your offer? Omnia mea tua sunt (All that is mine is yours). Everything he’ll give you, the entire fullness of his joy. May he give you everything.
If you feel something, whatever it may be, which doesn’t allow your soul to be at peace then you need to give it over to him with an effort that is equal to the size of the gift. If you keep something for yourself, even just the thought of the gift, then you appropriate a treasure for yourself (a tiny treasure) that no longer belongs to you.
Only into the extreme poverty of a soul which loses itself for love does the Lord God enter triumphant with the fullness of joy. That is why the Pascha was a “passing over” for all of us to a life of never-ending joy as we live the Ideal in its fullness.
Now, do you want the Eternal Model? Jesus, Crucified and Forsaken. His soul, which is the soul of the God-Man, filled with the greatest suffering ever known in heaven and on earth, the suffering of a God abandoned by God, never doubted for a moment about offering it to his Father: “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum (Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit).” Let it always be the same for us.
And do you know what Jesus will say in answer to your offer? Omnia mea tua sunt (All that is mine is yours). Everything he’ll give you, the entire fullness of his joy. May he give you everything.
—Chiara Lubich (entered into heaven March 14, 2008)
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