“Life begins at 40!” So goes one saying. And we can probably also apply this to the Focolare in the Philippines. Four decades after the arrival of the first focolarinos in our country, the spirituality of unity’s impact on society has just begun.
   So, what have we done all this time? As always with a work of God, the people called to follow him didn’t know where he would have led them. They just tried to be faithful to his will day by day, to be attentive to his signs through the different circumstances, to love the countless people he placed along their path. Then, when they look back, they now see how his amazing plans have unfolded.
   The Focolare’s main objective is to contribute to build a united world, that is, a civilization of love where all human beings recognize each other as brothers and sisters. This is no easy task. To realize this immensely challenging dream, nothing less than what Jesus asked the Father before dying—“That all may be one”—a model is needed, something people can look at and say: “Ah! This is what they are talking about!”
   We could say that in these forty years of life, the Focolare has grown in numbers, activities, centers, etc. But if there is one thing that probably God wanted more than anything else, it was for us to be, as Chiara Lubich, the Foundress, recently said: “To always be a family.” For this is the essence of Christianity, this is what Jesus came down on earth for: to bring us the lifestyle of heaven, where the only law is love.
   And this is what all Focolare members have tried to do—with countless mistakes, of course, but starting over and over again —in the last 40 years. Today as in 1966, people who get to know the movement comment: “I felt at home…” “Now I know what it means to love…” “I didn’t meet a movement, but a family…”
   After coming in contact recently with the charism of unity in a the Focolare community, and hearing about its many projects and activities, a famous journalist remarked: “In the end, it all boils down to reciprocal love.”
   If we look back today to our 40 years of life, it’s not to remember the past with nostalgia, or to be proud of our achievements, but to celebrate the power of God’s love, and the family God has patiently formed over these years.
   We don’t know what the future holds. We are still a little family as compared to the rest of humanity. But what we do know is that the world will recognize if we are Christ’s disciples or not if we continue to love one another. A fire has been enkindled these past 40 years, and has kept on burning. Sooner or later, in God’s own time, it cannot but set everything ablaze.