SHARING…. MOMENTS OF LIFE

To write a testimony or make a commentary on the Centenary of our Father Founder, in a time of pandemic, seemed to me a little less than daring, a “speaking for not keeping silent”.

Thinking about it more, I have chosen to share what, in a second reading of his life, has impacted me or inspired me to go deeper, in later reflections.

INITIAL IMPACT

He died at the age of fifty-seven!

And in this time, which chronologically, seems to us so brief, short, limited, he LIVED for more than a decade, devoted to an enthusiastic Evangelization that made him discover and experience the sweetness and joys of “first love”, of the first pastoral work, but that brought with it many difficulties, efforts, persecution, torture, prison… and that had as a response a conscious and youthful FIDELITY, “bomb proof”…..

The same FIDELITY that made him stay, led him to CHANGE.

While still a young man, he CHANGED DIRECTION. From the Philippines in the East, to Peru in South America.

He closed one chapter of his life and opened another.

A different continent, new people, different languages, other manifestations and expressions of Nature.

The same or similar needs of those unknown natives, the same struggle for life and the immense desire of that great Dominican to reach God by knowing the Jesus who loves him, who called and guides him and who saves us all every day.

In this second stage of his life, I got tired, almost exhausted with his travels, comings and goings, downfalls in the rivers, in the hills and in the mountains. Trips back and forth between the two continents.

And what attracted me the most, captivated me and filled me with pride was the authentic prophetic vision about women.

To speak in these times, of the power of women, even without falling into the defense and demagogy of rancid feminism…, is easy and is not a novelty and not even remotely has the prophetic tone that contained the deep conviction of Ramón Zubieta, with regard to the woman.

                “What you do…(without wishing to enter into comparisons)

        “simply because you educate the woman. pillar of the family and society….”

The confidence in the power of the missionaries came from the fact that they were women and educators of women. It was clear to him. Hence, the “Work” was not carried out alone.

“I need you and you need me.”.

A profound vision that brings us closer to the Trinity than to the struggle or empowerment of genders.

It is difficult for me to choose between such a great life…, I will limit myself to two moments that, a few days before his death, express his deep desires:

-The delirious enthusiasm of Our Father:

“To see two hundred trained and fervent missionary religious, filled with the Spirit of Our Father St. Dominic… (this connects us to the roots of our missionary and Dominican vocation)..

-The craziness of Our Father:

He believes that “the salvation of the religious faith in Peru…and in the whole world is entrusted to the women missionaries, to a certain extent, more than to the male missionaries, (he opens a window and then closes it), although theycould do nothing without them” (a new and integrating perspective…?).

He was not easy to speak, but with his coherent-normal-real life, he said it all.

And at this point, I would like to end with a Prayer of Thanksgiving.

THANK YOU, Father God, for the life of Msgr. Ramón Zubieta.

THANK YOU, Father Founder, for having lived in this way.

With your life, you taught us the essential.

There is “Work”, there is Kingdom, there is Mission and there is the need to articulate your DELIRIUM and your CRAZINESS,

We believe it and we need to be those women and men,

those men and women, with “temperate spirit and lovers of sacrifice.”

“For he who does not have this, rather than help, is a hindrance to the “Work.”

Let us make it in the centenary of your departure, a time of salvation and in spite of the pandemic, for although we experience the vulnerability and weakness and fragility of the moment, may we remain firm and faithful, to your Work, Kingdom, to the Mission.

 WE ASK YOU, FATHER, HELP US!   

Sister Marivi Serrano, Spain