In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Good morning to all of you and welcome!

I warmly greet you, friends of the Focolare Movement, who have gathered for your spiritual meeting.  I am grateful for your visit today, which expresses your collegial affection, and I thank you for your continued prayers.  It gives me joy to see so many of you, from diverse countries, backgrounds and social situations, reunited in one spirit under the Work of Mary.  Those reassuring words of our Lord come to mind: “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst” (Mt 18:20).

Indeed, the theme chosen for your congress, “giving witness to unity”, is one of the essential elements of the movement founded by Chiara Lubich, and one that is close to my heart.   In an age sadly marked by increasing polarization, our Lord enabled her to give witness to both the sense and service of unity, thus becoming a sign for her own and for future generations (cf. Pope Francis, Address to the Bishops Who Are Friends of The Focolare Movement, 25 September 2021).

If that was Chiara’s task forty years ago, it is ours even more urgently today. I think of the difficult social situations, the circumstances, the divisions which some of you, my brothers, endure in your countries, situations such as prejudice, racism, religious intolerance, even violence.

I think also of the situation here in the West, now all too marked by the effects of individualism, where the once-stable networks of family, friendship and community are giving way to greater fragmentation, and where freedom is increasingly presented as absolute autonomy – the ability to pursue happiness without any moral, natural or even human limits (cf. Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas, 118).

And yet we observe a paradox.  For all the emphasis on individual freedom, people today frequently feel less free to be their genuine selves or follow their highest ideals, out of a hidden fear of being judged or of not fitting in.  Moreover, this loss of openness to others, which exacerbates a sense of disunity, ultimately deprives us of the happiness for which we were created, since we are made in the image of the Triune God, who is himself a communion of persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In revealing the heart of the Father, Christ shows us the deepest meaning of our existence, of our relationships, and the path to happiness. Through the gift of the Spirit, we have become children of God, sharers in the divine life, and from this communion with God flows our communion with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.  This is the Church, a mystery of communion (cf. Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Communionis Notio, 3), the sign and leaven of unity for our world.

As sharers in the spiritual legacy of Chiara Lubich, and as ministers of Christ’s Church in a fragmented world, you are called to give witness to this longed-for unity of the human family. The answer to the sad divisions that plague our world lies not in forming more committees or launching more projects, but in going back to the source of our unity in the Holy Trinity. Indeed, we must become contemplatives!

With these thoughts, I encourage you to take advantage of these days together to live that fraternity which recalls and confirms our kinship in Christ.  These are days of grace, being with one’s brothers in the episcopate. We know how it benefits us. I am glad, therefore, that you have found in the Work of Mary this spiritual support. May it also help you to live out communion and fraternity in your respective Bishops’ Conferences.

Above all, I hope you will take the opportunity to nourish your interior life: with generous and sustained prayer before our Lord in the Tabernacle, with a calm and attentive celebration of the Office and Holy Mass, and finally by frequent contemplation of the indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity in the depth of our being.  In this way, you will be witnesses to each other and to those you serve of that unity which builds lasting peace.

In closing, I commend you and the Work of Mary to the loving intercession of our Lady, Mother of the Church, and to all of you I gladly impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in Christ our Lord. Thank you.