Sickness
Summer 1988. Then something totally unforeseen happened.
While playing tennis one day, Chiara Luce experiences a very sharp pain in her shoulder. At first she does not take much notice and neither does her doctor. However, since the pain persists, the doctor carrys out further tests. The verdict: osteogenic sarcoma – one of the most serious and painful forms of cancer and it has already started spreading.
In February 1989, Chiara Luce undergoes her first surgery.
On hearing this news, Chiara Luce, after a moment’s silence, accepts the outcome courageously, without tears or rebellion. “I’m young. I’m sure I’ll make it,” she says.
Maria Teresa (Chiara Luce's mother): "I said to myself, now Chiara has said her 'yes' to Jesus, but how many times but how many times would she have to say this 'yes'; how many times will she fall; how many times would she have to repeat it during surgical operations and in moments of pain. However, Chiara Luce takes twenty five minutes to say her 'yes' to God and from that moment on, she never looks back."
Her father, Ruggero narrates: “We were sure that Jesus was in our midst in that moment as he gave us the strength to accept it.” This was when a dramatic change took place in Chiara Luce’s life and her rapid ascent towards holiness began.
In June 1989, Chiara Luce undergoes a secondo surgery. This time, hopes are slim.
She is admitted to hospital many times and her kindness and unselfishness really stand out. Setting aside her own need to rest, she spends time walking around the wards with a drug-dependent girl suffering from serious depression. This meant getting out of bed despite the pain caused by the huge growth on her spine. “I’ll have time to rest later,” she says.
While Chiara Luce was in hospital, youth and adult friends of the Focolare Movement take turns in hospital in order to support her and her family. The treatment is painful and she wants to be informed of every detail of her illness. For each new, painful surprise, her offering is firm: "For you, Jesus, if you want it, I want it too!"
One day Chiara Luce writes: “Jesus sent me this illness at the right moment.”
Ferdinando Garetto, then one of the youth who shares the same choice of life as Chiara Luce, narrates: “At first we thought we would visit Chiara Luce to keep her spirits up, however, we soon realized that in fact, we were the ones who needed her. Her life was like a magnet drawing us towards her.” The cancer was spreading mercilessly, but Chiara Luce tried her best to live a normal and happy life.
One of the medical staff, Dr. Antonio Delogu, said, “Through her smile, and through her eyes full of light, she showed us that death doesn’t exist; only life exists.” She had to undergo surgery twice. The subsequent chemotherapy treatment caused her to lose her hair, which she was very proud of. As each lock of hair fell, she would say simply, but sincerely, “For you, Jesus”. Her parents, ever at her side, used to remind her that hidden in all of her sufferings there was a mysterious plan of God.
The philosopher Cioran once said, “Has anyone ever seen a joyful saint?” Anyone who knew Chiara Luce could certainly say ‘yes’, as Jesus became more and more her “Spouse”.
In July 1989: the tumour spreads quickly. Chiara Luce is not yet 18 years of age and she loses the use of her legs. She tells her mother: "I really used to enjoy cycling around." And her mother replies, "If Jesus has taken away the use of your legs, he will give you wings."
When she lost the use of her legs, Chiara Luce said, “If I had to choose between walking or going to heaven, I would choose going to heaven.” With the last CAT scan, all hopes of remission disappeared.
Slowly slowly, Chiara Luce starts having the foreboding of death: "Mum, is it fair to die at 17 years of age?" and her mother replies, "I do not know. I only know that it is important to do God's will, if this is his plan for you." Whenever she heard this, Chiara Luce would redouble her efforts to love. So, for example, she gave all her savings to a friend leaving on a humanitarian mission to Africa, saying, “I have everything. I don’t need this anymore.”
At one point, Chiara Luce suffers a severe bleeding and she is in danger of dying. Her youth friends take turns in praying all night. The doctors are in doubt whether to carry out a blood transfusion and prolong her suffering or just let her pass away.... They decide to carry out the transfusion. Fomr that moment, Chiara Luce lives another year, a year which is very decisive for her.
For this last year, Chiara Luce is completely immobile in bed: through telephone calls she follows an emerging group of Youth for a United World (Y4UW) of Savona. She also participates in their congresses and activities through messages, postcards and posters, and she tries to spread the spirituality of unity among her friends and school companions. She actually invites many of them forGenfest '90 (an international Youth for a United World gathering, held in Rome in May of 1990). She has the joy of watching the Genfest '90 through a satellite dish antenna mounted for this purpose on the rood of her home.
She has always Chiara Lubich's support and the latter writes her the following, “God loves you immensely and wants to penetrate the depths of your soul in order to allow you experience heaven on earth.”
She refuses to take morphine, saying: “It reduces my lucidity,” and she adds, “and there’s only one thing I can do now: to offer my suffering to Jesus because I want to share as much as possible in his suffering on the cross.”
First Focolarino Martyr - Alberto Fernandez
Eight years ago, on a day like today, his lifeless body was found in a field. Alberto, the first focolarino “martyr”, as Chiara Lubich called him.
Alberto was born in the small Uruguay town of Salto, the first of two sons of farmers. His father died when he was only 11 years old and he was forced by the circumstances to grow up quickly and help his mother in taking care of the family. This formed a strong character in him which made his relationships with others difficult. But he was helped by his generosity, by his love for life and his preference for the poor. Outgoing, passionate, eager to know, he delved into school first and then in the parish and, soon after, he came into contact with the Focolare. With the Focolare, he had his first experience away from home, at Mariapolis Lia, which is a Focolare town immersed in the endless pampas of Argentina. He took a degree in Medicine and left for Africa – after having become a focolarino – to work in the hospital at the Mariapolis in Fontem, Cameroon.
His sense of beauty led him to begin painting the things he loved: African people and landscapes – all in his own style. During a stay in San Paolo, Brazil, to take a course in tropical medicine, and especially AIDS, two young men offered him a lift in their car. His relatives and friends searched for him for 14 long days, with anguish and hope. On a day like today, 2 November 2002, the day when we remember the dead, his lifeless body was found in a sugar cane thicket. That year the Church included his name to the list of martyrs as the only lay-person.
Here is an excerpt from the book: “I belong to God” which narrates Alberto’s life:
Saturday 2 November, All Souls Day.
The search began again early this morning. Finally, one of the murderers confessed and led us to the site of the crime, in a rural area called Gurupá, between the cities of Promissão e Avanhandava. There was Alberto’s lifeless body, hands bound, slaughtered like a lamb.
His body was taken to the Legal Medical Institute of Lins for an autopsy.Two agonizing weeks had gone by since his disappearance. Since he was a foreigner, the DIG of Baurù informed the Uruguay Consolate.
"Just as we were with the police at the most difficult moment when we discovered the body – says Allan, one of Alberto’s friends – "Chiara Lubich telephoned to assure us of her closeness. Her words were so reassuring:Alberto died on his way to a mission. . . . He’s our first focolarino martyr."
As we put down the telephone, something she had written years earlier came to our minds:
". . . a bloody design stands out from our life. . . which nails our soul in a single resolve: To shed that blood in Your chalice and to tell you, and retell you, and repeat to you. . . our yes to the martyrdom of Your will that seems so unequivocal." (1)
Alberto was born in the small Uruguay town of Salto, the first of two sons of farmers. His father died when he was only 11 years old and he was forced by the circumstances to grow up quickly and help his mother in taking care of the family. This formed a strong character in him which made his relationships with others difficult. But he was helped by his generosity, by his love for life and his preference for the poor. Outgoing, passionate, eager to know, he delved into school first and then in the parish and, soon after, he came into contact with the Focolare. With the Focolare, he had his first experience away from home, at Mariapolis Lia, which is a Focolare town immersed in the endless pampas of Argentina. He took a degree in Medicine and left for Africa – after having become a focolarino – to work in the hospital at the Mariapolis in Fontem, Cameroon.
His sense of beauty led him to begin painting the things he loved: African people and landscapes – all in his own style. During a stay in San Paolo, Brazil, to take a course in tropical medicine, and especially AIDS, two young men offered him a lift in their car. His relatives and friends searched for him for 14 long days, with anguish and hope. On a day like today, 2 November 2002, the day when we remember the dead, his lifeless body was found in a sugar cane thicket. That year the Church included his name to the list of martyrs as the only lay-person.
Here is an excerpt from the book: “I belong to God” which narrates Alberto’s life:
Saturday 2 November, All Souls Day.
The search began again early this morning. Finally, one of the murderers confessed and led us to the site of the crime, in a rural area called Gurupá, between the cities of Promissão e Avanhandava. There was Alberto’s lifeless body, hands bound, slaughtered like a lamb.
His body was taken to the Legal Medical Institute of Lins for an autopsy.Two agonizing weeks had gone by since his disappearance. Since he was a foreigner, the DIG of Baurù informed the Uruguay Consolate.
"Just as we were with the police at the most difficult moment when we discovered the body – says Allan, one of Alberto’s friends – "Chiara Lubich telephoned to assure us of her closeness. Her words were so reassuring:Alberto died on his way to a mission. . . . He’s our first focolarino martyr."
As we put down the telephone, something she had written years earlier came to our minds:
". . . a bloody design stands out from our life. . . which nails our soul in a single resolve: To shed that blood in Your chalice and to tell you, and retell you, and repeat to you. . . our yes to the martyrdom of Your will that seems so unequivocal." (1)
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