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Jesus wants us to make a way with Him; he does not think it is convenient or enough to explain to us to convince us or suddenly overflow with his truths. He wants us to follow in His footsteps and lively experience who He is and what He calls us to; that we stay with Him to share His own life and destiny because He wants to share ours. The “come and see” that Christ directs us to each one demands renunciation, sacrifice, trust, and patience. The disciple of Christ must be entrusted, sacrificed and light of luggage. The Church is a missionary by nature and all the baptized are called to evangelize, to be missionaries. Anointed by the Holy Spirit, which we have received from God and who dwells in each of us, we also want to say today to the Father, through Christ, from the depths of our hearts: “Here I am, Lord, to do your will”.

On October 3, 2020, Pope Francis gave the Church and the world a new Encyclical, Fratelli tutti (Brothers All), subtitled “on fraternity and social friendship”. In the most recent issue of #PalabraNueva, Fr. Jorge Luis Pérez Soto approaches some topics developed throughout the document, with the intention of sticking them to Cuban reality. It is a material written with reason, as a teacher who wants to enlighten and introduce a student; as a Cuban who feels deeply and with his heart the reality of his land; and above all as a priest and believer, convinced that the gospel and the via amoris are the only way to restore hope.

“Serving means caring for the fragile of our families, of our society, of our people”

Let us rebuke from the baptism of Jesus our own baptism and its meaning. This is the sacrament that identifies us with Christ, through which God delivers us from sin, aggss us with his Spirit and looks at us lovingly to say to us too, as jesus: “You are my beloved son”. How important it is for Christians to remember every day, in every place and in every event that, by baptism, we are called to identify with Christ, who went through the world doing good.

We celebrate the solemnity of the Epiphany or feast of the Three Wise Men, a feast very full of symbols and meanings for our Christian faith, for it is the revelation of the presence of the Incarnate God. Jesus Christ recognizes all men and women of good will. In front of Christ, king of light, there will always be the Herods of every age and place as kings of darkness. Herod “reincarnates” in all those who subdue, oppress, deceive, humiliate, manipulate, violent, or kill whoever it takes to remain in “his power.” Herod’s figure also represents the evil to which we are always exposed. Above all, the evil that can go against love and faith, against others and against ourselves. Just as the Magi set out to be trusting in a star, we too are invited to stand in the way of Christ, detaching ourselves from all that does not allow us to be his disciples. Only God can be offered and given everything. From the image of the Three Wise Men, Christians are called to be missionaries; transformed by the living experience of encountering Jesus, we are sent by Him to witness his light.

2020 was the year maritza Sánchez, director of Cáritas Cuba, planned her retirement after more than two decades leading this Catholic institution, and in which she was given a gift? farewell, face the covid-19. God has not given him a break, as if he were still trying it at the end of the long career of his professional life. Maritza, with the energy and faith that have always characterized her, has continued to work since the day of March when it was decided to implement telework, sustain the essential services and continue from the central office encouraging and accompanying the diocesan Caritas.

With the entry into Cuba of covid-19, the Church insisted on an affective, spiritual follow-up and, in many cases, material support for food, grooming and medicines, to those who needed it most. This is the specific field in which you have expressed your charitable commitment during this period. It’s easy to say, but the experience we’ve experienced makes us think we’ve gone through “a real ordeal.” The arrival of covid-19 on the island at the beginning of the year added to a reality of crisis, a health situation that was already complex, even for countries with strong economies, in many of which it put its health systems in check. The disease entered and added to a complex scenario characterized by a shortage of medicines, food and a variety of necessities. In this same context, more sharpened, we continue, with the addition in these final months of the year, of the discontent expressed by some sectors of the population, especially intellectual, so that the Cuban State recognizes the right of citizens to dissent and freedom of expression. By the way, Palabra Nueva spoke with Msgr. Emilio Aranguren Echeverría, President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (COCC) and Bishop of the Diocese of Holguin.