“I invite all peoples and nations, to find the courage needed to walk through that Door, to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sound of arms and overcome divisions”
IN A BBC interview, Pope Francis notes that the Jubilee Year, which began on Christmas Eve, calls us to be pilgrims of hope, and he encourages everyone to choose love in a world beset with wars, social injustices, and various forms of violence.
He says: “We choose love, and love makes our hearts fervent and hopeful.”
Indeed, as I write in my memoir Ransomed by Love, I may have a broken body and a challenged mind. I have suffered and caused suffering. I have failed myself and others many times. But I have been forgiven, given new chances time and again.
Like Job, I want to die old and full of days. But I will accept God’s plan for me.
My life has been an experience of being trapped many times in captivity, largely of my own making, and the only way to escape is to be cut into fragments so I could slip out of that trap piece by piece.
But who would put back those fragments together?
It has been my wife Titay, my sons, family, and those who have loved me unconditionally who have done that.
It has been the Trinity of God who is the all-powerful Father, the Son who is all-loving, and the all-wise Holy Spirit that put me back together when I break into pieces.
My experience reminds me of Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by using gold silver, or platinum to rejoin the pieces together again. The object is made new and more beautiful while not hiding its imperfection and history.
Self-care and protective care for each other are critical for everyone to practice Kintsugi. Even in the most political of struggles, paying attention to one’s physical and mental health issues and to one’s relationships must take precedence.
This might be counter-intuitive for those of us who have been formed to suffer for the sake of the cause, but in the end, self-care and protective care makes all of us better at what we do.
The end is a beginning. My life is unfinished. My journey continues, as love beckons and solidarity calls. I have been given more time to convert.
The Catholic French writer, Charles Péguy, once wrote: “Faith, Hope and Charity are three sisters, two adults and a little girl. They go down the street holding hands: the two big ones, Faith and Charity, on the sides and the little girl Hope in the center.
“Everyone seeing them thinks that it is the two big ones that drag the little one in the center. They are wrong! It is she who drags everything. Because if hope fails, everything stops.”
According to Péguy: “Faith is a cathedral. Charity is a hospital. And hope is a person.”
And of course, hope is Jesus, our messiah and savior, truly “God is with us.”
Sometimes, I imagine myself as an ancient child of Moses crossing the Red Sea, running away from the Pharaoh who represents my sins.
The sea has parted because Moses has his arms outstretched, aided by the communities of faith – the Neocatechumenal community and many others, that continually pray for me, from when I was sick and nearly died and up to today.
In loving and being loved, I discovered that one can be surprised by joy even when there are reasons to be sad, that hope can be found in community and solidarity.
Through the ups and downs of my health, my personal life, my interactions with beautiful and diverse communities here and abroad, the successes and failures of all my endeavors – a quiet voice sits in the middle of it all. And when everything is overwhelming, I try to listen to this voice who has always known who I am.
Of course, today, sometimes, I still need and choose solitude and leave the room. But always, I find a myriad of reasons to come back.
And that’s because God opens the door for me and for all of us.
In his Urbi et Orbii (City of Rome and World) message, Pope Francis proclaims: “Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid! The Door is open, the door is wide open! There is no need to knock on the door. It is open.
“Come! Let us be reconciled with God, and then we will be reconciled with ourselves and able to be reconciled with one another, even our enemies. God’s mercy can do all things. It unties every knot; it tears down every wall of division; God’s mercy dispels hatred and the spirit of revenge.
“Come! Jesus is the Door of Peace.”
Often we halt at the threshold of that Door; we lack the courage to cross it, because it challenges us to examine our lives.
Entering through that Door calls for the sacrifice involved in taking a step forward, a small sacrifice. Taking a step towards something so great calls us to leave behind our disputes and divisions, and surrendering ourselves to the outstretched arms of the Child who is the Prince of Peace.
This Christmas, at the beginning of the Jubilee Year, I invite every individual, and all peoples and nations, to find the courage needed to walk through that Door, to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sound of arms and overcome divisions!”
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