Episode Transcript  

One

The Beginnings

Today we celebrate a modern saint, an ordinary person just like us. Blessed Chiara Badano. She was just 18 years old when she died in 1990. Born on October 29th, 1971, in a small town in northern Italy, to Ruggero and Maria Teresa Badano, who had longed to have a child for many, many years. A close friend of mine got to know her mother, and the story I’m about to tell you comes directly from her mother.

Chiara was a loving and exuberant child, and, despite her headstrong and sometimes defiant temperament, had a close relationship with them both. When she was nine, Chiara attended her first meeting of the Focolare Movement, a worldwide movement of lay people who strive to lead people to Jesus primarily through genuine friendship and prayer. She was captivated by an image of Jesus crucified and forsaken because it was a powerful reminder of how Jesus entered into our suffering, transforming it, giving it meaning and purpose. 

Chiara was a supremely ordinary teenager: she loved sports, such as tennis and swimming. She loved hiking, and she loved listening to pop music and dancing with friends. She began to develop a deep life of prayer so much that her high school friends began to tease her in good jest and call her “Sister.” When she was 16, Chiara went to Rome on a summer trip with the Focolare community. On that trip, she met the founder of Focolare, Chiara Lubich, and they began writing to each other. Chiara was full of fire for her faith, and her love for Christ burned radiantly in her heart. Chiara Lubich gave Chiara a new nickname, “Chiara Luce,” meaning “bright light.”

Two

Cancer

Later that summer, Chiara felt a pain in her shoulder when she was playing tennis. At first, she thought it was simply fatigue or tendinitis. But the pain continued. So, she went for testing accompanied by her father. The doctors concluded she had a rare form of bone cancer that was incurable. She did not have long to live.

When they came home, Chiara was in shock, stunned because she was only 17 and she was just told she would die soon. Her mother, who wasn’t with them, met them at the front door and accompanied her to her bedroom. When Chiara sat down on the bed, her mother could see there was a struggle within her.

Remember, Chiara had been formed by the Focolare Movement for seven years, and they have a strong spirituality of accepting and uniting their suffering to Christ for the love of Him and to help him save souls. So, you could see the battle: “Do I accept this? Do I not accept this?” There were no words, but you could see it on her face. 

Chiara laid back on the bed…a few minutes went by…those were the longest minutes as her mother watched her daughter go through this battle to accept or not. Then Chiara sat up in bed and smiled at her mother. Her mother knew that Chiara and Jesus had won the battle!

From that moment on, remember, Chiara was just 17, there was no looking back. Chiara continued her battle to overcome cancer and live, but it was no longer a battle of accepting or not. She had accepted this suffering, whatever it would entail.

Three

Always Joy filled

Her father told my friend that Chiara was always filled with joy. But he wondered if she was faking it, putting on a good face to console her family and friends. So he thought, I will look in the keyhole when she is alone (they had an old house with the old-fashioned keys). When he looked through that keyhole, he saw that, even when she was by herself, she was always smiling.

As the illness worsened, she gradually lost use of her legs and became confined to bed. Throughout her suffering, she offered it with a spirit of trust and surrender to God. One of her repeated phrases was, “If this is what You want, Jesus, so do I.”

Four

Trust in Divine Providence

What strikes me most about Chiara is that her acceptance did not come without a struggle. When she lay down on that bed, a real battle took place within her. But she won that battle with Jesus because she trusted completely in Divine Providence. She trusted that Jesus would accompany her through everything that lay ahead. She did not know what would happen, but she knew that Jesus would be there, and that He could bring the greatest good even from this suffering.

That is trust: not believing that nothing painful will happen, but believing that whatever happens, Jesus will be with us and will bring good from it. Because Chiara trusted Him, she was free. She was at peace.

Five

Live in the Present Moment

So, what do we do when we struggle to trust God, especially in very difficult and painful situations? I think Chiara would say, “Don’t live in the future. When we do, we pile all its anticipated pain and loss onto the present moment, and the weight can crush us. Just live in the present moment and say yes to God in this moment; live only this moment and say to Jesus, ‘If this is what You want, Jesus, so do I.’”

Just keep saying “yes” in the present moment, not thinking about the past, not thinking about the future, but the present moment only. “In this moment, Lord, I say yes, Lord, yes, I love you. Yes, I trust you. Yes, we can do this together, yes.” Just keep saying “yes” in this moment, not the moment after, but this moment

That's the only way to live; just say “yes” in the present moment! Just live that moment. But living in the present moment is a virtue that can only be gained by practice. And we shouldn’t wait until the storm of pain or loss or temptation is raging to begin to practice. We must begin to practice living in the present moment and saying “Yes” to Jesus when all is calm and boring. Make it a habit before it’s game time. So when it’s overtime, and the game is on the line, you can say yes to Jesus when it’s tense, really tense.

So, as a resolution, let's begin today to practice living not in the past and not in the future but only in the present moment, saying yes to what Jesus is asking of us at this moment.

Bl. Chiara, pray for us.

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