TO LIVE CONSECRATED LIFE THAT RESISTS IN PLACES OF CONFLICT
“You have been told what is good and what the Lord requires of you: only practice justice, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
Throughout history, Consecrated Life has been considered light and leaven during the realities that humanity lives. For many peoples, to count on its presence is to feel accompanied in their joys, struggles, and hopes.
Today, consecrated life continues to be present in places where life continues to cry out for justice, dignity and respect, so that the words of the prophet Micah”…. only practice justice, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God” resonate in a particular way in the heart of each consecrated man and woman who, from their option of following Jesus, choose to continue to be present in places where there are wars, conflicts, dictatorships and extreme situations, a way, from their presence, to be spokesperson of the lived realities, and to fight together with the people for their own liberation.
This year 2023 that ended, for the families of the countries that live in dictatorial regimes, it has been difficult to contemplate with joy the arrival of the light that Jesus brings us, because we have been in darkness for more than five years, begging to live in peace, begging for justice and freedom, dreaming and fighting for this reality of persecution and oppression to end. Because it hurts us to see how our physical and mental strength is wearing out.
As human beings, resistance is low, frustration, suffering and the constant siege by the dictatorship at all levels makes us desperate, exhausting and sometimes even fills us with despair. It is human to feel it and to name it. Moreover, recognizing our fragility does not mean that we give up, we continue to hope in the God of Jesus who continues to plant his tent in the conscience and hearts of many men and women of good will and communities who are not indifferent to our reality and call us to resist.
Resist, because we continue to believe that it is not possible to cede our power as a people to dehumanized rulers, with a god and savior complex, who continue to massacre us.
We resist, because we deserve to live with dignity and, we wish to manifest our faith without reprisals or persecution.
We resist, because it is not possible to build a new society if we allow ourselves to be robbed of the hope, joy and values that we have forged throughout history through effort, dedication, education and endless actions. We resist because we feel that the place where we were born, our identity and our culture belong to us.
We resist, because we are convinced that we are not alone and that the strength of the God of life in which we continue to put our strength continues to act.
We resist, because every brother and sister who is unjustly imprisoned, every exile, every person who has had to leave their homeland to protect their lives, and those of us who are still in these lands deserve to live in freedom.
We resist, because united we are a volcano that does not go out, although sometimes we feel that the fire of hope is wrapped in the cold ashes of unfulfilled dreams. We continue to dream of living in peace, democracy, and freedom.
We resist, because we find in the Holy Scriptures: prayed and meditated from the community, the nourishment that refreshes, renews the journey and the confidence in the God of Jesus who does not abandon.
We resist, because we find in being community, the strength that unites us as a people to claim our rights, and the deep desire to build a new society, where the ruthless power of a few does not reign.
We resist because we feel sent to share life unconditionality, from prophecy generated many times in silence, discretion, prudence, personalized accompaniment, and the practice of the pastoral ministry of empathetic listening.
We resist, because the same reality pushes us to develop the mission, leaving the ego out, and the individual protagonism so that the true protagonist who is the Jesus of the Gospel, may shine. Knowing that we are there, not in a personal capacity, but, that it is Jesus himself who summons us and sends us to these presences.
We resist, because every day we must find meaning in the small things we do in favor of each person that life allows us to accompany, often in hostile conditions and constant siege.
We continue to be invited to know how to resist with sanity, but with strong convictions in the mission entrusted to us, of accompanying and being the essence of living the Consecrated Life with the people.
Credits to: A people and a Consecrated Life that resist.
