“Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.” (Lk 12:33)
This is the Scripture text chosen by the Focolare for the Word of Life for July 2009. The reflection on it was first written by Chiara Lubich for the Word of Life in March 1979. Our group meets each month to read through the reflection on the text, and to share our experiences of it.
The first interesting thing about our discussion last evening was that, only very indirectly, did we refer to the religious life. We read the text, and its reflection, as being addressed to lay people, and to lay people at different stages in their lives. This made it a very challenging Word of Life - it was addressed to us.
The other interesting thing was that, in sharing examples of life experiences relating to this word of life, we listened to stories of lay people known to us who had actually "sold everything" and now lived lives dedicated to serving the Lord (stories from amazingly different backgrounds, by the way).
This made the Word of Life even more challenging - not only is it addressed to lay people like ourselves, but the examples we shared made it clear that it is possible for it to be lived out by lay people in its literal and decisive sense.
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