WHY AND WHAT FOR WE IDENTIFY OURSELVES AS “WE ARE”?

Days ago, we went down familiar and unfamiliar routes. We always have with us an “answer” concept wherever we go. However, reality can change due to the attitude and wish of inhabitants of a particular place, even more when dealing with a people’s belief. It is true that answers may vary in every situation, but we are always the same in terms of human nature and sometimes in terms of the religion we profess. Therefore, we knit faces with what we find on our road or from whom we find joy, commitment, challenge, frustration, loss or a contrary attitude. In many moments our planning is cancelled due to unexpected situations, and especially, for anything that touches our hearts.

Among particular stories that we carry in our hearts and what we live allow us to act appropriately with others. It reminds us of Saint Paul, when he wrote to the Ephesians (2, 12) that before they met Christ, they were “without hope and without God.” I think, we are those who have a common seal, a seal of belonging and knowledge from someone who has known us since the beginning as baptized children.

Baptized, what for? Because we want to have a belonging. Faith, for as little as it might be, is what we have in our hearts, in Jesus son of God. Faith in Him that helps us for keeping on trusting in the knowledge of love and loving Him. There is -despite life’s storms and doubts- little faith that it is threaten during the road. In this we want to commit ourselves and sow hope in the entrails and history of the people, the loved people. We walk sharing life trusting in God. We do this not because we want to obey laws or promises, but because a personal commitment towards Him, who loves us and wants to save us. This is a love that is freely given from our origin. This is the hope that makes us to stand up every morning, a hope for sharing the joy of being loved, God’s dream. Hope is to irradiate light, compassion and to promote Jesus Blessedness (Mt 5, 2.12).

We -Christians- believe in communitarian salvation. We commit ourselves in a God who is community and unity in itself. We work and do everything in the best possible way so as to help everybody to be saved. Without noticing, we write this story every day between the fights and challenges we face for keeping peace’s spirit, a coexistence in communion with brothers and sisters in faith and those who are on their own road. For this to happen, we need to listen and respect those who think differently. In 1 Peter 2, 5.9 we recognize our identity as “Living stones…rejected by humans but chosen by God.” By keeping this faith, we make efforts to build communication bows and coexistence for building the Kingdom among us, as children of the same Father.

Our hope is shown in difficult times not in relaxing ones, we believe that defeating evil and work for what is good is hope in itself for everything that was created by a Father of love and mercy. This realization was personified by the second person of the Trinity, the Son who came among us. He is a mediator between God and men. He is humanity’s hope for the winning force of his Resurrection, a victory over death. Jesus is the goal, the road, the newness of what is happening in our lives towards the final encounter with Him. “Life of plenitude and cause of our joy,” the most expected and wished of the centuries. To all this we proclaim unceasingly “Christ lives!”

Therefore, we are those who have no certainty of what will happen in our road, but we have a proven trust in Jesus. We are those who are crestfallen by the reality we live, the unknown for being “outside the cycle.” We might be disregarded but not hopeless. We are the current that flows counter-current today.

Let’s continue, as he sent those 72, we also feel propelled by being on the road!

MVP Rebollods, OP