Members of Comparte share resources and techniques to implement alternative and supportive socio-economic models in their respective countries.*
“I will bless those who bless you.”
Genesis 12:3, First Reading
Abraham is our father in faith. When I was a child, one thing that struck me in my sacred history book was the text about Abraham. His blind faith in God. His immense desire to do God’s will. His total trust. His letting himself be led into unknown paths.
Abraham had an experience of God, of the ever greater God, of a God greater than our way of thinking, greater than the image – often distorted – that we have made of Him. Abraham understood that God speaks, God communicates, God has plans, and He counts on us.
Today, we need Abraham’s faith. God keeps telling us: “Go forth from your land…to the land that I will show you. From you I will make a great nation and I will bless you.”
Leave your closed mentality, leave your insular world, leave your bubble, open yourself to the world. The planet is your land, build your community, forge a future of greater humanity. Our nation is the whole world; we are “citizens of the world”, called to build a multicultural, fraternal world, where we all have a place.
From CPAL we welcome this call and we walk in a community with migrants, Indigenous and Afro people; with women and young people who seek to be protagonists of the new world that is emerging. We walk to build an economy for the people based on solidarity, for quality education for all, for integral ecology, for the promotion and defense of human rights — we walk building God’s dream for humanity.
Pause and reflect on what you have just read. Pick one word that stands out for you, either in the Scripture or the reflection.
What message does that word convey to you, if any?
* Comparte, which Canadian Jesuits International supports, is a network of the Conference of Jesuit Provincials of Latin America and the Caribbean (CPAL). It includes 16 social justice organizations in 11 countries: Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Spain. Photo: Comparte
“Bendeciré a los que os bendigan.” (Génesis 12, versículo 3, Primera lectura)
Abraham es nuestro padre en la fe. Cuando era niña, si algo me impactó en mi libro de Historia Sagrada fue el texto sobre Abraham. Su fe ciega en Dios. Su deseo inmenso de hacer su voluntad. Su confianza total. Su dejarse llevar por caminos desconocidos.
Abraham tenía experiencia de Dios. Del Dios siempre mayor. Mayor que nuestra manera de pensar, mayor que la imagen -muchas veces distorsionada- que nos hemos hecho de Él. Dios y su voluntad: el centro de su vida, el sentido de su vida, el horizonte por donde caminar. Entendió que Dios habla, Dios se comunica, Dios tiene planes… y que cuenta con nosotros.
Hoy necesitamos la fe de Abraham. Dios nos sigue diciendo: “Sal de tu tierra… a la tierra que yo te mostraré. De ti haré una nación grande y te bendeciré…” Deja tu mentalidad cerrada, deja tu mundo encapsulado, deja tu burbuja, ábrete al mundo; el planeta es tu tierra, construye el presente de fraternidad, forja el futuro de mayor humanidad. Nos dice que nuestra nación es el mundo entero; somos “ciudadanos del mundo”, llamados a construir un mundo multicultural, fraterno, en donde todos quepamos.
Desde CPAL acogemos ese llamado y caminamos en-red-dándonos con personas migrantes, indígenas y afro; con mujeres y jóvenes que buscan ser parte protagónica del mundo nuevo que va surgiendo. Desde la economía popular y solidaria, desde la educación de calidad para todos, desde la ecología integral, desde la promoción y defensa de los derechos humanos, caminamos construyendo el sueño de Dios para la humanidad.
— Carmen de los Ríos es Coordinadora de Apostolado Social de la Conferencia de Provinciales Jesuitas de América Latina y el Caribe (CPAL).
Thank you, Carmen, for this challenge to “go forth” from my place of comfort. No matter how we are serving our Lord, there is the call to “go forth”.