A number of missionaries got to know the spirituality of the Focolare Movement right from the beginning of the 1950s. Fr Maurilio, a Franciscan, is one of those. He has been forty years in the zone of Hokkaido, where he looks after two parishes with just a few Christian families in each. His is a fascinating and heroic story which brings together Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity and that of St Francis.

I listened to the story of Fr Maurilio over the course of an evening with a group of leaders of the Focolare in Japan. Other profound and touching experiences came to life that night, like that of Yuki Endo. Born into a family without religious faith, about twenty years ago he visited Loppiano, the international little town of the Focolare in Italy, and was very struck by the experience he made. Later he spent some time in Manila, working as a volunteer in a shantytown. It was the simplicity and joy of the children whom he met amidst the piles of rubbish, which moved him to go to the local church in the slum, where in front of the crucifix he decided to follow Jesus. He asked for baptism and now tries to live and contribute to resolving social problems and, above all, to establishing a relationship with those without any religious reference or faith.

Instead, Bob De Silva, an American professor in a university near Tokyo, married to a Japanese Christian whose mother is Buddhist, was going through an identity crisis when he met a focolarino. He found the answers he was looking for in the spirituality of communion. Today he animates a number of social projects, together with Kato Hiromi, who practices acupuncture, and who attended the first Mariapolis in Japan in 1973.

And it is this commitment to generate the presence of the Risen Lord in the Christian community, Maria Voce told the Focolare community leaders of Japan during her trip last January, “that could be the task that God asks of our movement in this immense country: to bring the Risen One to the Japanese people.”

Remembering Chiara Lubich and Nikkyo Niwano.

Some days later on January 15, 2010, Maria Voce was invited to talk before the members of Rissho Kosei-kai, a lay Buddhist movement, who represented various communities of Tokyo and the surrounding areas. “It is with great emotion that I find myself here,” she said, “as if I am enveloped by the spirit of our two founders, who strongly desired a fraternal bond between our two organizations.” Almost thirty years after the first encounter between Chiara Lubich and the founder of Rissho Kosei-Kai, Nikkyo Niwano, its current President, Nichiko Niwano, had invited the Focolare’s current president to speak before a large delegation of the members of the movement.

Maria Voce retraced the years of profound friendship and reciprocal discoveries that led members of the two movements to recognize one another as true brothers and sisters. Quoting Chiara Lubich, she affirmed, “We are of different religions, different nationalities, different cultures, yet there are common ties. They are not the effect of an effort or of a human project, but are the supernatural work of God, for a purpose that God conceived, which to us, is not completely known. We have assisted, in these decades, in the unfolding of this plan, and the meeting today shows the desire and the decision to continue in order to contribute to the realization of universal fraternity.”

And she continued: “In taking up the legacy of Chiara, I myself also felt profoundly this desire and commitment.” This was fully shared also by Nichiko Niwano, who, on the first death anniversary of Chiara, had written, “I believe that, if the spirituality of love and of unity of Chiara, and that of compassion and the one vehicle of Nikkyo Niwano, are linked, it is really to give life to a power able to face the world. I want, therefore, that the bonds created between the Movement of the Focolare and the Rissho Kosei-kai be reinforced, and that they may be able to guide us together on the path of truth. I solemnly commit myself before all of you.” “I fully share these words,” Maria Voce echoed. “The salvation of the world of tomorrow depends on people who bring to it a current of love, not limited but universal. It is a journey that we are already making together, encouraging one another; and that it will bring us to a continual conversion of hearts, rendering us ever more aware that – as Chiara always told us – the more we love the human person, the more we find God.”

Meeting of Focolare members.

On January 16, the members of the Focolare Movement in Japan came together in Tokyo to meet the President and Co-president of the Focolare Movement. It was a family celebration. They came from all over Japan: from Hokkaido to Okinawa. The most numerous groups were from Nagasaki and Tokyo, where the movement has been present the longest.

The program included artistic performances of upmost and quality that showcased the mystical and melancholic dimension of the Japanese soul. The two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan sixty-five years ago are two hidden wounds still present, whose effects can be felt even today.

Machida confirmed this. He comes from Nagasaki and shares how difficult it is to blot out that tragedy. For this reason the schools of his city, over the past few years, have collected signatures against the proliferation of nuclear arms and then presented them to the United Nations. One project, in which he and his wife are personally involved, has developed with a successful slogan: “Send a pencil instead of a missile’. The pencils that are collected are then given to children in Manila. Besides economic assistance and a program for adoptions-at-a-distance, which allow the Filipino children to continue their studies, a friendship has developed between Filipino and Japanese youths with group exchanges – a contribution to peace among peoples and hope for future generations.

Miyako, after relating her family’s story, returns to the wound of Nagasaki. With her beautiful voice, she intones “The bells of Nagasaki,” a song which recalls the bombing of August ’45, but which also opens up to the hope of a world without war. Together with her husband, Masaharu, they have had a difficult life with its tragic moments. After their early years of marriage the birth of a disabled baby required special attention and, often, the weight fell on her husband, who some years later, while living away from the family for work, one day decided he would not return home. At about that time Miyako met the Focolare. After hearing people speak about forgiveness, she decided to write a letter to her husband whom she hadn’t seen for some time. And he, coming to realize what he had left behind, decided to come back. Little by little, he attempted to re-establish a relationship with everyone at home, and above all with his eldest son who had turned against him. It was during a Mass celebrated on the occasion of Chiara Lubich’s death that the Sakai family members were once and for all reconciled, taking to heart what the priest had told them on the day of their wedding: “Make sure that Jesus is always in your midst.”

Among these different experiences from the members of the Movement, the witness of a young midwife is also striking. Her name, Nozomi, means hope. An expectant mother, a particularly difficult patient, had given Nozomi a chance to break the bonds of anonymity and get involved in this woman’s situation. The woman was not only worried about the birth, but also about what would happen “afterwards” – she couldn’t stand babies and didn’t know how she would cope. Nozomi took every opportunity to be with her, listening to her and encouraging her. When the time for delivery came, the woman wanted Nozomi to be with her in the delivery room. Then when she was leaving the hospital, she said goodbye with these words: “I’m not sure how things would have gone without you.”

The stories of Machida, of the Sakais, of Nozomi, reflect the challenges that the Focolare community finds itself facing in Japanese society. Family problems as well as those of a society characterized by extreme consumerism and relativism, also emerged clearly in the dialogue with Maria Voce and co-president Giancarlo Faletti. Posing the questions were a dozen people among the audience of youths and adults. Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti responded with simple and profound advice, above all emphasizing the importance of not worrying because the number of people living the spirituality of unity is still small. “What is important,” they said, “is to know that you have received a gift from God – that of the spirituality of communion – that is given to each one of us, but also for others. The leaven is always small with respect to the flour, but must make the flour rise in order to become dough.”

And, furthermore, if it is true that we live in a world where often people, above all the young, are in the grip of desperation, we must remind ourselves that “happiness is the certainty that God loves us.” The one who has discovered this can make its presence known to those who are near him, with a testimony that speaks of evangelical love. Maria Voce also emphasized that, as with all values present in their culture, if these are truly human, they are already, in some way, a patrimony of Christianity. “Recognizing them as ours, we have the possibility of coming to acknowledge the whole Japanese culture as ours. Values must not lose their meaning, but, rather, they must be discovered and praised. In this way, we can make an important, personal contribution to the culture of our own country.

Go forward with small steps!

In concluding, Maria Voce used the image of a very delicate, local dance that had been performed shortly before, in order to encourage everyone to move forward with small steps, as in the traditional dance of Japan. “Once these steps are taken, even if small, you will not go backwards, thanks to the fidelity that you have. And so, move forward with small steps!”

Roberto Catalano