Run towards the Light... Chiara Luce Badano

This morning, during the Mass we remembered in a very special way Chiara Luce Badano, a young girl of Sasselo, Italy who left this earthly life more than 10 years ago, now proclaimed Servant of God and the process of beatification is on going.

She has become an inspiration to thousands of young people from all over the world and precisely these days many are heading to her place for a pilgrimage and celebrate with her the triumph of her exclusive love for Jesus Forsaken.

I am posting part of her profile here to share with all of you the joy of having known her.


... when at 17 years old, she suddenly feels an excruciating pain in her left shoulder, which through painful examinations and useless operations will later reveal an osteosarcoma, initiating a Calvary that will last about two years.
Chiara doesn’t cry, she doesn’t fight back: she immediately becomes silent, but her yes to God’s will, in her love for her “Forsaken Jesus”, comes only 25 minutes later. She will never lose her luminous smile and with her parents by her side she faces extremely painful treatments and drags everyone around her into that same Love.

After refusing morphine because it takes away her lucidity, she gives everything to the Church, the Diocese, the youth, those distant, the Movement, the missions… staying serene and strong, convinced that “embraced pain makes one free”. She repeats: “I have nothing left, but I still have my heart, and with that I can always love”. Her room, both in the Turin hospital (Regina Margherita) and at home, is a place for meeting, Christian growth, and unity: it is her church. Even the doctors, sometimes non-believers, are overwhelmed by the peace that surrounds her, and some of them get closer to God. Still today they remember her, speak of her, and praise her.

She would say to her friends: “…You can’t even imagine what my relationship with Jesus is like now… I feel that God is asking me for something more, something greater. I could be confined to this bed for years, I don’t know. I’m only interested in God’s will, doing that well in the present moment: playing God’s game”. And again: I was too taken by ambition, projects, and who knows what else. Now they seem meaningless, futile and temporary… now I feel a part of a wonderful plan that is slowly revealing itself to me. If I were now asked if I want to walk (the operation paralyzed her with extremely painful and constant leg contractions), I would say no, because this way I am closer to Jesus”.

To her worrisome mother she keeps repeating: “Trust God, then you will have done everything”. And “When I’m gone, follow God and you will find the strength to go on”.