Inner strength, love and balance are three essential recommendations, three pieces of advice from yesterday and today intended for every person who wants to live for brotherhood both alone and with other friends.
However, we must remember that it is not talents nor abilities nor personal limitations that guarantee or slow down the carrying forward of the ideals of fraternity, but those values of fortress, Of charity e you temperance which ensure the strength of the testimony.
We too, fearing criticism and not knowing how to deal with certain difficulties, can experience the temptation to become discouraged and stop living and bearing witness according to what our conscience tells us.
Chiara Lubich helps us understand where we can draw strength in these moments, when she says that we must be convinced of the ideals that are within us. The attitude we must have will therefore not be that of blocking ourselves and remaining in passive resignation, but instead of throwing ourselves out, aligning ourselves with what the inner voice asks of us, strengthening ourselves to the duties to which we are called by our ideals of brotherhood.
Fortitude, charity and temperance: three universal virtues that are obtained by taking care of our interiority and putting them into practice on a daily basis.
This is the testimony of Justin Nari, from the Central African Republic, when he was threatened with death together with his community brothers and thousands of Muslims who were trying to free themselves from the reprisals of the war by taking refuge in church. The leaders of the militia besieging them had on several occasions told them to surrender; however, he had continued to constantly communicate with them, in order to avoid a massacre. One day they showed up with 40 liters of petrol and threatened to burn them alive if they didn't hand over the Muslims to them. «With my community brothers I remembered the words of Chiara Lubich – says Justin –. What would she have done in my place? She would have stayed and given her life. And that's what we decided to do." Surprisingly, the phone rang: the African Union army was passing through the region, in a city nearby. Justin ran to meet them and together they returned to where everyone was. There were thirteen minutes left until the ultimatum expired; thirteen minutes that saved everyone's lives without bloodshed.