“What is the Ideal?” Chiara Lubich, in a 1991 speech, said that if someone were to ask her what the way of life of the Focolare Movement is, she would confidently answer: “Look at a Gen… she is the personification of the Ideal.” That is what the Gen Movement has tried to be for sixty years now, not an idea about the Gospel lived out, but the Gospel itself, lived out, in the face of a young person.
A ‘Baptism’ Without a Name
Exactly sixty years ago today, Pope Paul VI received the young people of the Focolare Movement, whom Chiara Lubich presented to him with much enthusiasm. Unfortunately, there is no archived text of what the Holy Father or Chiara said that day but Chiara herself described it afterwards in the pages of Città Nuova: “It seems to me that the Holy Father, receiving you and naming you, has, so to speak, ‘baptized’ the birth of these two sections [the children and the youth]”. Though nameless at that time, they possessed the clarity of committing themselves to this way of life.
The name came a year later. Chiara launched a magazine to keep these young people connected through their stories, their struggles, their small and large acts of love. She called the magazine simply “Gen”. In her first editorial, she personified the magazine, letting it introduce itself, and explained that “Gen” stood for Generazione Nuova (New Generation). From that magazine, the young people took their own name. They became Gen.
The Name Becomes The Mission
The name was only the beginning. These young people turned it into concrete responses. There was Operation Africa, a global initiative that carried the Gen’s solidarity across continents. Here in the Philippines, the Gen started Bukas Palad as a vehicle for the communion of goods in the 1980s as a response to the worsening economic situation in the country at that time and it continues to exist today as a non-government organization (NGO). There was Genfest, the global gathering which would go on to bring hundreds of thousands of young people together in the decades that followed. Maybe the Gen now or the Gen before would also recall many of these experiences.
I remember how determined we were to look for the gray areas of the city where there was no love or a lack of it so we could “color the city with love” (coloriamo la citta). One initiative I can recall was when I was a teenager, we used to visit a government-run care facility for victims of abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking. In those monthly visits, we did activities for them and with them such as preparing meals, workshops, and, most importantly, sharing the Gospel and how these words can be lived out. When typhoons struck, we would look at our cabinets, look for clothes in good condition that we do not use as often, ask others to do the same, and send it to the nearest relief center. We would volunteer to the nearest center where relief goods are accepted so we can help repack, such as when Super Typhoon Yolanda hit, or call for donations from where we are so the Gen where the typhoon hit could organize together, such as when Super Typhoon Odette hit, focusing on giving concrete help in areas that are least accessible or those who received little to no help. I can still remember the sleepless nights, the many phone calls to monitor the situation in different places, to receive updates on the ground, to talk to various members who offered help one way or another. But these initiatives were not only borne out of a concern for one’s neighbor, in a much deeper level, we, Gen, did it because we wanted to put the Gospel into action – to be the first to love, to make ourselves one with the other, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked – holding on to what Chiara always told us: “Nothing is small if done out of love”.
I realize that those relief operations, visits, and ordinary acts of service were never simply volunteer work. They quietly shaped the way I look at people, at suffering, and even at life. They taught me that Christian love begins with seeing every person as someone Jesus asks me to love first, allowing my heart to beat a little more like His for humanity. Years later, I may remember fewer details of the exact coordination and planning for these, but I have never forgotten the joy of discovering that choosing God always meant choosing to love.
I also realize that I was not only called to give love; I was also a recipient of it. As a student, I lived the farthest from where our Gen meetings were held. Without my asking, the Gen of my Unit would contribute for my transportation so that I could continue coming. At first, I was embarrassed to accept their generosity. But little by little, I understood that this, too, was part of living the Gospel. Communion of goods was not simply a project we organized for others; it was a way of life we lived among ourselves. What united us was deeper than friendship or even brotherhood. It was communion.
But we are not only Gen when the times call for it; we are called to be Gen every day, in every moment that passes. I could not forget that when a Gen Congress airing live for the first time, the Gen asked Chiara, taking advantage of the many possible viewers, who or what characterizes the Gen. She answered that the Gen are those young people who give God the first place in their lives. And so, for us, seeking His will and following it were very important even if it meant abandoning what we would have wanted to do like using the money one would originally want to use to spend for a food or something he or she really wanted to buy did not proceed so the money could be used to share with someone else who was more in need. As I grew older, I realized that being Gen was tested less during extraordinary moments than in ordinary ones: loving those who are difficult to love, forgiving quickly after misunderstandings, choosing honesty when shortcuts seemed easier, making time to listen to someone who needed to be heard or was hurt. These rarely make headlines, but perhaps this is where the Ideal takes its deepest roots.
Our life as Gen also brought us beyond what was near and familiar. We organized youth camps and we travelled to neighboring towns and provinces to zealously share this way of life with other young people. We packed lightly, slept wherever the community welcomed us, and often experienced God’s providence in surprising ways. We were living, in a very concrete way, the invitation Pope John Paul II expressed so beautifully at a Genfest when he encouraged the Gen: “My wish is that you too will be able to respond, like the prophets and apostles: ‘Here I am, Lord, send me.’ Then you will experience that it is possible to give meaning and concreteness, credibility and implementation to the great values that fascinate man today and forever: peace, freedom, justice, solidarity, development, promotion of every man and every woman. The way of the united world, you know it, passes through Christ… I wish to encourage your work… the clarity of the Christian ideal that you intend to achieve in your consciences… Plan your future as apostles of a new world that needs you and your contribution. Tell everyone your optimism, despite the evils and injustices, which you experience every day.” True enough, we were simply young people who were convinced that the Gospel was too beautiful to keep to ourselves.
The choice of God made by many members of the Gen has given rise to a visible radiance of holiness in their lives, so evident that it has been recognized by the Church. Blessed Chiara Luce Badano died at nineteen with a Christian joy that made people ask where it came from in spite of suffering. The Servant of God Maria Orsola Bussone died at sixteen after dedicating her life at the service of their parish in various ministries, transforming her life into a gift, and not a selfish possession. Alongside them are other Gen, now deceased, whose lives are currently being studied by the Catholic Church. As a Gen, these were never distant names. We spoke about them as older brothers and sisters who had already walked the road we were trying to walk. Their holiness never seemed unreachable because it unfolded in classrooms, cafes, families, parishes, friendships, and illnesses, the very same places where we are learning to live the Gospel ourselves.
A New Generation to Renew the World
Some people wonder whether one ever stops being Gen. In one sense, the answer is yes: youth eventually gives way to adulthood. But in another, deeper sense, the answer is no. The meetings and activities may become less frequent, responsibilities within or outside the Movement multiply, careers begin, families are formed, vocations mature, yet the choice that shaped us remains. I personally hold on to the conviction that many who once gathered as Gen continue to strive to place God first in their lives whether as parents, professionals, lay leaders, priests, religious, teachers, entrepreneurs or public servants. Times and realities may change, but the Ideal continues to ask the same thing: to love as Jesus loved “so that all may be one” (Jn 17:21).
In the same speech quoted at the beginning of this article, Chiara said, “The point is, my dear Gen, that you are destined to renew the world… To renew the world means to renew it one piece at a time. We can’t renew everything all at once… there will be Gen who are especially inclined, for example, to renew the life of the family… And then there are those who want to renew the world through its structures; to be immersed in politics, art, science, culture, in every field, to be involved in every area of society in order to renew it.”
Sixty years later, that is still the map. Every Gen finds their own piece of the world to renew. It could be a family, a classroom, a hospital ward, a parish or an office, guided by a verse from the Word of God put into action one at a time.
Looking back, I also recognize how deeply the Gen formed the way I serve the Church today. Long before I became involved in the Church’s youth ministry and other forms of service, I had already learned the essentials of Christian life through the Gen: to live the Word of Life, to place Jesus in our midst, to seek unity, and to recognize every ordinary moment as an opportunity to love. Whatever good I am able to offer the Church and humanity today has its roots in those years.
I was born into a family where my mother had already encountered the Focolare Movement before I was even born, so in a certain sense I grew up close to this life. But being Gen was never automatic, nor simply a matter of familiarity or inheritance. It was during my early teenage years, when I began living this life more intentionally within a Gen Unit, that I personally made the decision to embrace it as my own way of life. It was not something I simply went along with, but a free and conscious “yes” to this Gospel way of living, chosen in freedom and conviction. In that same period, I also discovered a Word of Life that continues to accompany my journey: “I have come to set the earth on fire” (Lk 12:49). This gradually became for me not just a verse to reflect upon, but a call to live concretely in daily life. It has continued to inspire my service in the Church and in different forms of involvement, especially in accompanying and sharing this way of life with other young people, as well as in the ordinary opportunities to serve wherever I am placed.
The Turning Point Today
Sixty years after its birth, I realize that the story of the Gen Movement is not only something I have heard or inherited. It is a history I have been allowed to enter. Like countless others before me, I received a gift that I did not create and am now responsible for handing on. The story continues because every generation must decide again whether it will become “new.” And whenever the Gospel moves from an idea to a concrete act of love, a turning point takes place.
Some may perceive that the Gen seem fewer today than in previous years. Perhaps that is true in some places but the Gospel has never measured fruitfulness by numbers alone. Every generation carries its own challenges and its own way of responding to God’s call. If anything, this is not a reason for discouragement, but, rather, an invitation, a new turning point, to live it with creative fidelity, that is, being faithful to the charism received, yet always capable of expressing it anew in history. As Chiara urged us, this life is not meant to remain hidden but to be “shouted from the rooftops,” so that its light may reach everyone with renewed conviction and life.
Looking at the Milky Way
On the 20th of August 1962, just a few years before the historic audience with Pope Paul VI on the 6th of July 1966, Chiara recalled, “I was walking down a road with my companions; the sky was all starry. I still remember the place very well. I looked up at the sky and saw the Milky Way. There, observing that infinity of tiny stars which, while remaining distinct stars, merge together and look “milky”, I said, “New generations will be born: the first, the second, the third, the fourth…”
Tonight, beneath the same Milky Way that inspired Chiara’s intuition more than sixty years ago, I find myself grateful, not only because the Gen Movement still exists, but because it has shaped my own life. Somewhere beneath that same sky are countless Gen, past and present, living the Gospel quietly in homes, schools, offices, hospitals, parishes, and streets around the world. Maybe we only know of or can remember a few. But together, like the countless stars of the Milky Way, each small light contributes to something much greater. Perhaps that has always been the secret of the Gen Movement: not one brilliant star, but a constellation of ordinary young people who dared to believe that love could renew the world.
By: Giancarlo “Gio” Francisco
