Who is the greatest, the most powerful, the one who wins in society, in politics and in the market? This question is inserted into every relationship, guides choices, determines strategies. It is the dominant logic, which we resort to even inadvertently, perhaps in the desire to offer positive and efficient results to those around us.
Faced with a competitive and self-sufficient mentality, we must confront the weakest element of society, the one that has no role to defend or boast about; he who is completely dependent spontaneously trusts in the help of others. However, it is not a question of accepting a passive role, of giving up being proactive and responsible, but of carrying out an act of will and freedom. Be like children. We must become small, which requires the will and commitment to bring about a change in direction.
This is the way in which Chiara Lubich explored the characteristics of becoming a child. The child abandons himself with trust in his parents, believes in their love. The authentic person, like the child, believes in love, gives himself to others, gives them unlimited trust. It teaches us that the "child" places everything in compassion, forgetting the past, begins a new life every day, with a creative spirit.
In Colombia, Vicente and his family were experiencing the difficulty of the pandemic in a very strict lockdown regime. So he writes to us: “When you startò the state of siege, everyday life suddenly changed. My wife and our two older children had to prepare for university exams; the youngest couldn't adapt to virtual studying. At home no one had time to look after others. As this chaos was about to erupt, I understood that it was an opportunity to practice the art of loving. (.) I began to think about cooking, about preparing lunch, although I am not an expert cook. I'm not even very thorough in cleaning the house, but I understood that in this way I would reduce the daily agitation of the family. What began as a one-day act of love multiplied over several months. When they finished their tasks, the other members of the family also thought about the house and clothing. Together we noticed that creative love suggests how to put everything in order."