The Story of Chiara and the Focolare (1973–1974)

During 1973–1974, Focolare founder Chiara Lubich went through one of the most painful moments of her life when she was diagnosed with a double herniated disk. Together with the excruciating physical pain — understandable even to people who haven’t experienced it personally — there was also a deep and no less painful spiritual suffering. 

Yet those were years when the movement greatly developed and spread in the world, within the Catholic Church and beyond. After an extended period of sowing and waiting, it seemed that the rich season of harvest had arrived. 

Yet the illness that gripped her body was a real setback, and mixed with the physical pain came an internal struggle: “Why precisely now? Why?” 

Chiara was immobilized in bed and struggling with her physical health, but thanks to medical treatment and to God, things took a turn for the better. From early on, the remedy that she had learned from her “inner teacher” was the Gospel, the Word, which alone can answer the deepest questions of the heart and the spirit. 

Chiara was prudent in not spreading the news of her physical and psychological condition too widely, for fear of causing anxiety, worry, even bewilderment. But she shared everything with those closest to her, as she had always done, so that that “inner teacher” could be present among two or more united in his name (cf. Mt 18:20). This indescribable presence was the precious pearl for which she had risked everything, her whole life. 

A discourse on pain 

And her teacher replied. On December 6, 1973, she spoke to a group of people who were responsible for the focolare households — it was a talk that was short, dense, direct, practical and had a contemplative-mystical flavor to it. Chiara shared her experience of a new understanding of the Gospel, of an expression of God’s words unexplored until that moment.   

Even the title with which she presented this discovery produced amazement and interest: “The harsh side of the Gospel.” What does that mean? 

“Now I was realizing that the Gospel contained something different,” she explained. “And one by one, various words [of Jesus] came to my mind, such as: ‘Now my soul is sad’; I begin to feel fear and anguish; ‘My soul is sad even to death’; ‘Blessed are the afflicted because they will be consoled’; ‘Blessed are you who weep now because then you will laugh’; ‘When he was close to the sight of the city, he wept over it.’ 

“At the death of Lazarus, Jesus burst into tears … So, was there a severe aspect of the Gospel, a harsh side, that we too as Christians had to live? Therefore, it was not just households or communities or towns like Loppiano, where joy shone on every face that gave witness to the Gospel? 

“Could there be people who were upset, anguished, in tears, who were witnessing to the Good News? Maybe one day we would have had to ask continuously without ever obtaining? Yes, this was how it was.” 

Be a family 

About three weeks after sharing this, it was Christmas, and Chiara sent a greeting to everyone. She was moved to compose it by the experience of suffering and of light that she was living. As if it were her last will summarizing her entire life, she wrote: 

“If today, I were to leave this earth and I were asked for a final word, about what our Ideal is, I would say — certain that it would be understood in its deepest sense: ‘Be a family’ … I would let Jesus in me repeat to you, ‘Love one another so that all may be one.’” 

In fact, “family” is one of the words that was closest to Chiara Lubich’s heart. We could say that the social and spiritual reality conjured up by this expression has always accompanied her existence. 

It would be enough to think of the experience that she had in the basilica of Loreto in central Italy. She was a young girl making a visit when she felt wrapped by a sudden and unexpected contemplative attraction to the House of Nazareth (an ancient structure believed to be the original home of Mary, Jesus and Joseph transported there). 

Chiara (then still called by her baptismal name Silvia) felt called to follow God, according to the model, fully human while fully divine, that was lived in that little house. 

She understood this better subsequently, when the Spirit led her, through specific, historical circumstances, to give life to an original “family,” like the little community which she would call “focolare.” 

It was original because it brought together, in a common commitment and desire to be totally devoted to God, people who consecrated themselves to him and people who were married. 

Single and married focolarini 

But how was that possible? In fact, it wasn’t an easy journey, and we can only recount a few key moments. For many years, the married focolarini were considered by the Church only as “aggregates” that were not fully members of the Focolare households. 

In fact, Chiara wrote in the 1958 statutes, “the world cannot grasp anything of what passes in the intimate relationship between these married focolarini and God.” Yet, while “they cannot offer the priesthood and the external state of virginity; they offer love.” 

The statutes for the men focolarini had been approved ad experimentum in March 1962 and the one for women focolarine in November 1963. 

On December 8, 1962, in the presence of Chiara, Fr. Pasquale Foresi and 120 men and women married focolarini, Focolare co-founder Igino Giordani passionately reaffirmed the desire and the ability of married people to give themselves totally to God. This commitment would meet the ideals that emerged from Vatican II, whose first session had ended just the day before. 

Two years later, in 1964, in Valtournenche, Italy, it was Chiara herself who was able to announce to the focolarine: “I believed and trusted that the Lord would intervene … Here was the Catholic Church’s dilemma: how can a married person, who is bound to the family, be bound also to an order, and in such a strong way as to have vows?  To be consecrated? … 

“But since Mary invented this ‘something new’ which was the House of Nazareth, it was as if the Church had to close its eyes and approve us.” 

And in fact, the Catholic Church approved the statutes defining the Focolare as being composed of focolarini (with vows) and married focolarini (with private promises of poverty, chastity and obedience.) This is how the original shared life of consecrated and married people, contemplated in Loreto, came about. 

What made this possible was the rediscovery of an “evangelical lifestyle” that Chiara summarized in a memorable writing, known by its title: “The attraction of modern times.” It ends with the words: 

“Because the attraction of our time, as of all times, is the highest conceivable expression of the human and the divine, Jesus and Mary: the Word of God, a carpenter’s son; the Seat of Wisdom, a mother at home.”

First published in Città Nuova Italy