You may ask: “Why does the Church beatify, or canonise, people?” Such celebrations should not be – and never are – undertaken lightly, simply because both amount to proclamations, to the effect that, with certainty, a particular human being has found his / her way to heaven; consequently, all of us, still here on earth, can think of him, or her, as a saint, as blessed, and a model for us to follow in our own lives. For both, the process is a long and difficult one, and the Church does its best to check every detail of a person’s life, before publicly declaring the subject to be, certainly, ‘in heaven’.  What a wonderful accolade to be paid to a person’s life!  Only a few days ago, when Pope Benedict visited Twickenham at ‘The Great Assembly’, he said to the young people present: “I hope that some of you listening to me are some of the future saints of the twenty-first century. What God wants, most of all for you, is that you become holy”.

Pope Benedict with Young People – Twickenham – September 2010

The phrase, “Most of all that you become holy!” is a most interesting statement of intent, and one that comes straight from the Scriptures: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (I Thess 4:3) If we know God, we know that God is all goodness and love; he desires only the very best for each and every person. He has the good of each one of us, personally, at heart – much more than any goodness we, ourselves, can achieve, and so this must mean that the ‘events of life’ – the situation we are actually in right now – is, precisely, what God wants for each one of us. Every event is, either the direct result of his will, or it is permitted by God. Not all of us will find this easy to grasp; furthermore, unless we come to know God – really know him, “not in a ‘notional’ way, but in a ‘real’ way” (Blessed Cardinal Newman’s language), we will find it impossible to grasp, at all.

God does not want us to remain ‘unchanged’ by the circumstances of life we experience, circumstances that are constantly changing; rather, what he wants is a ‘transformation for good’ of our selves. With the grace of God, we may feel, perfectly at peace, in our circumstances, and our constant, daily, task is to glorify and thank God. Otherwise, we may not feel at peace – may feel unhappy, disturbed, threatened … .. ; my experience is that many feel depressed, sad, lonely or deeply upset. Life teaches us that things are never ‘plain sailing’ for long; always, there is an element of suffering, anyway, and one cannot see what is round the next ‘bend in the road’; personally, I find that even getting up in the morning, is not something easily achieved, each coming day. In the Gospels, the first proclamation that Jesus makes is: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the Good News”. Mark 1;14.  But, this is not something that we do on one occasion ­­– so to speak – and then leave it at that. The Words of the Gospel, analogous to all that Jesus said, and taught, are to be put into practice each day. The word ‘repent’ can be interpreted to mean ‘be transformed!’ As Christians, we cannot remain ‘stuck in a groove’; rather, life moves on, and we must move with it. God offers everyone ‘stuck’ in a ‘negative situation’ the chance of real redemption, but we must play our part; it is essential, in all of this, to believe, to trust in Him and to accept with love what He allows to happen to us; throughout we should remain united with Him.  If we can accept and follow this prescription, then we are fulfilling the words of the Pope, above:  “… … What God wants, most of all for you, is that you become holy”, and this brings me to the main thrust of my blog.

To return to my opening gambit, the reason the Church declares people to be ‘saints’ is so that we can have ‘living’ models to help and guide us on our journey – travelling that same road – once upon a time, taken by them.  On Saturday last, 25th September, a young girl by the name of Chiara Luce Badano, was declared a “Blessed” by the Church.  She was aged just 18 years, when she died in 1990.  Most certainly, she remains a person, on whom many young people would do well to model their lives.

Very often, in England, when something tragic happens, one will hear the expression: “That’s life.”  It may, for example, describe the death of a young person, and when used, it is expressive of a ‘realism’ that may be ‘hopeful’ or, indeed, ‘fatalistic’.  Truly, the comment, ‘That’s life’, has been used to me, so many times, and in so many different circumstances, but so often relating to the death of a young person; here, it rings true also, for the story of the short-lived, but very influential, Chiara Luce, whose life, and death, certainly, has had an impact on our world.  Her story, however, is not one of fatalistic resignation, but rather, one filled with that kind of ‘positive’ meaning, given by God alone.   Here in the UK, we are familiar with the idea of Beatification because, as recently as  two weeks ago, on Sunday, 19th September, 2010, Cardinal John Henry Newman was also beatified, in Birmingham – and what a joy that was, for all of us!  I join you in love and reverence for Blessed John Henry Newman, but now wish to turn my attention to Chiara Luce; I have known about her life and death for many a year, and, in sharing something of her, put forward the view that her ‘so-much-less-complicated’ life than that of Cardinal Newman, may the more easily be understood.

The ‘Blessed’ Cardinal Newman and Chiara Luce

Chiara Luce was born on 29th October 1971. Her parents are very devout people, and part of the small Village and Parish of Sassello, a community of just over 1000 inhabitants in the area of North Italy, by Genoa. In that part of Italy – just as here in Leyland – it often happens that life-long partnerships are formed, from an early age, between children in nursery schools, growing up together. So it was that ‘romance’ blossomed for ‘dad’, Ruggero Badano, and ‘mum’, Maria Teresa. They married in 1960, and so this year, 2010, marks their Golden Wedding anniversary. Both parents came from deeply religious families – poor materially – but rich in love and faith. Ruggero is a quiet man, a retired lorry driver, and his view of life, after ten years of childless marriage, was to feel that he was ‘missing out’ because all his friends had been blessed with children; he and his wife had none. Maria Teresa knew how much Ruggero loved her; her view was that the absence of children was part of this ‘Love’ they shared. It was after Ruggero visited a shrine to Our Lady, to pray for a child, that Maria Teresa fell pregnant, much to the joy of both, and eventually Chiara was born, in 1971.

Chiara with her parents Ruggero and Maria Teresa

As a growing child she was a carefree, serene little girl, surrounded by love, but not spoilt. Also, from her earliest years, she was taught about Jesus and how to pray to Him.  At the age of eight, Chiara had the good fortune to learn about ‘unity’, the gift that can transform people completely.  Certainly, it was to change her; it offered a new way of living; she responded to it, and it remained with her; it satisfied her ‘thirst’ for God.

Chiara Luce, at 9 years,  dressed ‘to kill’ for the Shrove Tuesday Carnival, 1985, and as a beautiful young lady, full of life, before falling ill in 1988 

Many people, who have embraced the ideal, or ‘Charism of Unity’ of the Focolare Movement, have had the same experience. I include myself among them.  This gift of ‘unity’, as Ruggero explained, when he, too, was captivated, said; “It was a kind of love that was different from the love I had for Maria Teresa and Chiara, a love that was strong, and natural, and supernatural. Gradually it dawned on me that there was a Jesus right next to me, to whom I could speak personally, to whom I could tell everything.”

But, to return to Chiara Luce, she loved ‘pop’ music and dancing. She also liked singing, and, in fact, she had a lovely voice. An exceedingly popular young lady, everyone liked her, and she was always surrounded by friends – both girls and boys. One of her friends said of her: “She liked to dress well, she kept her hair well-groomed; and sometimes she wore make-up, but she never overdid it”. Chiara, with hopes of becoming an air-hostess when she grew up, loved sport, and took every opportunity to take part in many kinds of physical activity. Besides going for long walks in the mountains with her father, collecting mushrooms, Chiara loved tennis and swimming. Her mother remembers her plunging into the huge waves at the seaside, time after time.

One afternoon, in the summer of 1988, she was playing tennis.  As she carried out a stroke, she felt such pain in her shoulders that she dropped the racket, and had to crouch down, in agony. At first, she thought nothing of it; but the pain was to persist, and medical investigations became a necessity.  These revealed something very serious – osteo-sarcoma with metastasis, which in ordinary language means a very aggressive, spreading bone cancer. When she realised the full truth of her situation, she took the news without flinching. However, there were many further steps to be taken.

A massive change occurred after her first operation. Her mother, Maria Teresa, described it like this:

“For some time she had realised things were going badly and she really did have cancer. Nevertheless she was full of hope that she would be cured. A few days after the operation she asked the doctor what the real prognosis was. So she discovered the truth about her illness and she was told that she would lose her hair through the chemotherapy. In fact, it was probably this that made her realise the gravity of the illness: she was quite proud of her hair. We were in Turin staying with friends because the operation had been done in the hospital there. I can still see her there in the garden in her green coat. She had a fixed, almost absent look on her face as she came into the house. I asked how it had gone and she replied: Not now, don’t let’s talk about it now.’ She threw herself down on the bed, her eyes closed and stayed there for twenty-five minutes. I was dying inside, but the only thing to do was to stay beside her, in silence, suffering with her. It was a battle. Eventually she turned towards me, smiling: ‘Now we can talk,’ she said. It was done. She had said her ‘yes’ once again, and she never turned back from that. Only once did she ask the reason for her suffering. After the first operation she had exclaimed: ‘Why, Jesus?’ But a few moments later she said: ‘If you want it Jesus, then so do I.’”

Her illness lasted two years, and she lived it in the company of her parents, and her friends – some young, some old – with whom she was ‘united’ in sharing love for God and each other. Young people visited her in home and in hospital; they visited to support and console her, and came away, themselves, consoled and strengthened. But, it was not all ‘one way traffic’, as she, too, was supported in making her daily ‘YES’ to God and his will – often amid severe pain – with the help of her young visitors and others. Out of all this came an amazing correspondence with the founder of the Focolare, Chiara Lubich. Three months before she died in July 1990, she wrote to Chiara Lubich:

“First of all I want to update you about the state of my health. They have stopped giving me the chemotherapy because it was no use. So, medicine has laid down its arms! Now only God can do anything. Stopping the therapy has meant an increase in the back pain, and I am hardly able to turn on to my side.

“This evening my heart is full of joy. Do you know why? Carlo’s mum came from Genoa to see me (Carlo was a young boy involved in the life of unity of the Focolare movement who had died some time before). It was a very strong moment of Jesus among us. I was so moved that I found it almost impossible to speak. She brought me some photos of Carlo so that I could choose one for myself. In fact I have it right in front of me now. While I was with his mother, Carlo was also with us. In fact, his presence was so strong that I found myself looking at the chair in my room to see if he really was there. Yes, he was there!

“Oh, my little mum, (her way of speaking to her friend Chiara Lubich), will I manage to be faithful to Jesus forsaken and live to meet him, like Carlo did? I feel so small and the road ahead is so hard. Often I feel overwhelmed by suffering. But it’s my spouse who is coming to visit me, right? Yes I will repeat with you, ‘If you want it Jesus, I want it too.’ Another thing I wanted to say: here everyone is praying for a miracle (and you know how much I would like that….), but I am not able to ask for one. Perhaps I find it difficult to ask for a miracle because I feel that it is not in his will. Could that be so? What do you think?

“I would be happy if you could choose a new name for me (if you think it the right moment).”  

Chiara Luce acting in a mime, as a young girl, proclaiming God’s Love for us from the Cross, “Gesu’ Abbandonato” or, in English, “Jesus Forsaken” 

A week later the reply arrived:

“Thanks for your letter in which you tell me about your health and the visit from Carlo’s mum. Jesus in the midst that you established with her was so great that you also felt the presence of Carlo. I am happy about that. Thanks too for your photo. Your luminous face shows your love for Jesus. Chiara, don’t be afraid to say your ‘yes’ to him moment by moment. He will give you strength, be sure of it! I too am praying for this am always there with you. God loves you immensely. He wants to penetrate the most intimate part of your soul to give you a little taste of heaven.  

“The name I have thought for you is Chiara Luce. Do you like it? It is the light of the ideal which conquers the world. I send it with all my love. On St. Clare’s feast day (11th August) you too will be with me spiritually.” 

There is much more to be said about Chiara Luce but not in this blog. She died just before her 19th birthday, on the 7th October 1990, in her own bedroom, surrounded by her family: with a great effort she had greeted many of her young friends, the evening before her death. It is interesting that people who were at her Beatification Ceremony, and at the celebration that took place in the evening, when 25,000 people were present, also said: “We felt the presence of Chiara Luce with us”.  

The Beatification Celebration – Chiara Luce Badano – September 2010

People in St. Peter’s Square watching the celebration after the Beatification 25th September 2010

There is an Internet ‘Face-book’ testimonial, that each day, carries various messages from people, young and old, all over the world. I have chosen two to complete this short story:

“I didn’t’ know anything about you until last Sunday. I have found that you answer a lot of my questions about life – now I can count on you”. (A young man called Renzo Colzami)

“What a beautiful (beatification) ceremony and experience. Chiara Luce help us always to live in the light of love. (A young girl called Susan Greene)

I wonder whether Pope Benedict, who first declared Chiara Luce “Venerable”, in 2008, and confirmed the miracle cure of a young boy, to support her cause, was thinking of her, when he said to the young people, in Britain’s ‘Big Assembly’:

“I hope that some of you listening to me are some of the future saints of the twenty-first century. What God wants most of all for you is that you become holy”.