I was born into a Christian family and I
received, both in the family and in the parish, a good formation. I felt that I
was a good Christian!
My
sister was very busy following “certain” people even during the sirens and bombings,
but I felt that she was exaggerating. I was against her way of acting. I didn’t
know anything about her activities, but I knew that she had some friends whom I
felt were fanatical and overly-devout. After all, wasn’t it enough to go to
Mass on Sundays and to say a few personal prayers?
Once
the war ended I personally met Chiara in a meeting that a priest invited me to
attend. My sister’s friends were there too. I had never seen Chiara before, nor
did I know anything about her, but when I heard her speaking, all my prejudices
fell to one side; I was deeply touched by what she was offering. It was the
first time that God was being presented to me as Love.
Since
I was employed as an electrician, the priest asked me if I could help those
“young ladies” who lived in Piazza Cappuccini, right in the area where I lived,
by repairing the electricity in their very old apartment.
In
that “little house,” which is what the first women’s focolare was called at
that time, I began to breathe in an atmosphere never experienced before. Their conversations
were always based on the Gospel. This fascinated me. And because their
apartment needed a lot of electrical work, thank God, I was always in contact
with them.
“Whatever
you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Never before
was I so aware of these words of Jesus, never had I understood certain fundamental
sentences of the Gospel; consequently, I realized that my Christianity was
quite poor.
One
evening, Chiara spoke to me about their life, about their choices. She spoke to
me about Jesus, about the commitment that we Christians, if we want to be such,
have: to be another Jesus. To live 24 hours a day as Jesus, just as he was
always himself in
It
was immediately after the war and the environment I worked in was pervaded by the
revolutionary ideas of Marxism. Class struggle, but above all, struggle against
the Church. I had always tried to oppose this situation and, at times, there
were heated discussions. Now, with this new spirit, how could I deal with such
an environment? I confess that I experienced a certain fear. But I entrusted
myself to Jesus asking him for the grace to put into practice what I had
learned from Chiara in Piazza Cappuccini.
Fortunately,
almost every evening I had to pass by the “little house” for the usual repairs
that were always needed. There I found the strength to face all the battles of
the day.
I
learned to live the words of Jesus that promise his presence where two or more
are united in his name. Always in a profound relationship of unity with Chiara
and her first companions I felt secure and strong thanks to this presence of
Jesus in our midst.
Little
by little, the atmosphere changed in my workplace as well.
The
effort to love my colleagues at work, without refuting their criticisms but trying
to serve everyone, had improved the environment. I saw that the Gospel really
works and, if lived wholeheartedly, it transforms every environment, every
situation.
Meanwhile,
my own vocation was beginning to mature within me: to leave my family and give
myself completely to God by following the same way that Chiara had opened up. I
had expressed some of my doubts, moments of darkness and uncertainties about my
future, and in a letter Chiara answered all my uncertainties. She repeated to
me the words that Jesus addressed to the young rich man: “If you want to be
perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, then come and follow
me.” I said my “yes” at once without any hesitation.
To
achieve this dream of mine I had to wait for the arrival of other young men who
felt the same calling. A couple of years later, the first men’s focolare was
born. Thus the same life that the women focolarine had begun towards the end of
the war was now beginning among the men.
A
fantastic experience. There were three of us young men, with different
characters, but determined to die to ourselves so that Jesus in our midst would
triumph. We didn’t aim at becoming saints individually, but at becoming saints
together, at making Jesus in our midst triumph through mutual love. We began to
live the spirituality of communion that the Holy Father John Paul II later
launched to all the Church through the Apostolic Letter “Novo millennio ineunte”.
Also
our Archbishop, Carlo De Ferrari blessed this beginning of ours declaring that
he too was a focolarino.
Meanwhile,
a small community was growing up around us imbued with this new lifestyle that
was gradually evangelizing us and others. We felt that it was very important
for us to be living Gospels in order to be that witness which alone can
fascinate people. In fact, Jesus said so: “By this they will know that you are
my disciples, if you love one another.”
After
Trent and various towns in the area of