One more week … how many still keep us at home? Those that are necessary to overcome this pandemic, this universal pain that keeps us interconnected as we never imagined.
Every day we are learning new things; a new era it is necessary to be creative to continue living within, cultivate personal interiority and improve our domestic coexistence as much as we can.
For days the co-responsibility of staying inside and with essential outings grows but with the necessary care because the lives of many people are at stake. In Madrid the reality of daily victims overwhelms us, one feels helpless, so much help is needed and here we are, locked up. But we remind ourselves daily that the best way to help is to stay without going out.
And as every day we are “perfecting” in the connections due to the obligation of work, we also find ourselves, with the screen ahead, in many spaces, interpersonal and group, work and social gatherings, to accompany anxieties and also to laugh together .
And, above all, to accompany us in the duels before death, so intense because there are no farewells, so inhuman but humanizing; creativity, yes, all that serves to help us and contain us in bearing so much pain, near and far.
And the news that the virus continues to spread narrows our distances; we feel very close with our hearts to our brothers from other countries and continents. And I am reminded of some of the messages heard in the Synod of the Amazon and that our brothers and sisters from that region proclaimed with so much force and that we accompanied with our songs: “everything is interconnected, as if we were one ; everything is interconnected in our common home ”. It seems to me that it is now true to the letter.
And it also helps me to remember his teachings: “the good living” understood as a connection with oneself, with others, with creation, with God. This is the opportunity – let us not forget – of a deep interiority, of a serene synthesis between head and heart, of a reflection of our value system, of our sense of existence; of learning to choose between the essential and the relative; propitious moment to discern -which begins by listening to personal and social reality-, what God of our humanity wants today and here. What is your dream for human beings and how can we collaborate to make it come true.
On a personal level, it helps me to maintain a global meeting every week with “my family” from Entreculturas, in that virtual space where a hundred people gather to see us, to hear how our projects continue, the international volunteering – our colleagues have decided to stay in the countries is it so-; the immense problem for migrants and refugees, for so many children and adolescents who are deprived of school and bread, both essential foods to grow and mature in life … however, it is comforting and greatly alleviates suffering, knowing that the teams are working hard, with an immensely generous delivery, giving the best of their people and professional skills.
Spaces that nourish us, that sustain us, that give meaning to living this historic opportunity with all its cruel realism but at the same time with the solidarity and fraternal help that awakens us as humans, far and wide in the world, incarnated in a way very palpable in the world of healthcare and in so many public servants, sometimes very anonymous, who sustain this planetary emergency.
And there are also so many spaces for spiritual help: Eucharist, retreats, prayers … we are offering the best we know and can because these elements strengthen and comfort each other. And we gather hundreds and thousands, crossing borders and hemispheres to pray and sing together.
But this week that is ending leaves us rich teachings, such as the prayer of our Pope Francis on the 27th. That hug to the world, that universal blessing in a St Peter’s Square that is unheard of, his message commenting on the evangelical passage of the boat sinking, we will not easily forget.
But this week that is ending leaves us rich teachings, such as the prayer of our Pope Francis on the 27th. That hug to the world, that universal blessing in a St Peter’s Square that is unheard of, his message commenting on the evangelical passage of the boat sinking, we will not easily forget.
“Dense darkness has covered our squares, streets and cities; they took over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a desolate emptiness that paralyzes everything in its path: it palpitates in the air, it feels in gestures, looks say it. We find ourselves scared and lost. Like the Gospel disciples, we were struck by an unexpected and raging storm”,
And the Pope continued:
“We realized that we were in the same boat, all fragile and disoriented; but, at the same time, important and necessary, all called to row together, all needed to comfort each other. We are all in this boat ”.
And with astonished eyes before the staging that the cameras showed us, on a rainy Roman evening, with Pope Francis alone, we continued to listen in the Gospel of Mark: “Why are you afraid? Don’t you have faith? ”
And we received that blessing as a comforting hug that asks for “health to the bodies and comfort to the hearts”.
And we continue to maintain the confidence that we are united by that fragility that we experience but also by the strength of solidarity aid that crosses the world.
María Luisa Berzosa fi
Entrevías – Madrid
