RELIGION

Have we ever wondered what the rite of the imposition of ashes means? What is the point for our Cuba today of this sign?

Fasting, prayer and alms, as presented by Jesus in his preaching (cf. Mt 6:1-18), are the conditions and expression of our conversion.

Advanced in the second month of 2021, Father José Miguel González Martín proposes to resume the message of the Papa Francisco of the most recent World Day of Peace to talk about healing and reunion, two such urgent realities in Cuba today, which presuppose that there is disease and fracture, confrontation and disenquitment. “In open and sincere dialogue, he believes, without prejudice or prevention, among all partners, its causes must be addressed, because symptoms and consequences are already known and suffered. By analyzing the causes together, we will be able to propose, not impose, common paths of peace and reconciliation, of healing and reunion; we will be able to implement ingenious and bold solutions, but achievable and that benefit everyone. The free and sincere expression of all that we understand as a lack of truth in the social fabric of the country cannot do without the also sincere desire for healing and reunion. Truth, however true, cannot be imposed or cast by force, reason, ideology, or even religion; it must be sought, found and shared in open, sincere and fraternal dialogue.”

In his address this Sunday #14defebrero, Lord’s Day and Valentine’s Day, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of #LaHabana, invited the faithful to do the same as Christ: listen to the sick, pity them, reach out to them, help them, speak to them, fill them with peace. “This peace, he said, will lift their spirits and make them fight with all their might to regain the health of soul and body.” He recalled #17defebrero next year in every church in the world will be celebrated on Ash Wednesday. In this way the path of forty days of preparation to Holy Week begins. “During this time, he said, God invites us to conversion, to change to be better.” Taking advantage of the celebration of Valentine’s Day, the Haban archbishop exhorted husbands to live a new life in their marriages, full of hope and illuminated by the light of the gospel.

It is worthwhile for us to spend a little time today thinking about what our leprosies are, our individual or collective scourges, which drive away, stigmatize, discriminate and dehumanize. We cannot be left alone in concluding that the leprosy of our time is covid-19. There are many more leprosy spread and hidden or hidden: hunger suffered by thousands of people and, along with it, poverty in any form, lack of decent housing, lack of fairly paid work; other leprosy are forgotten wars in poor countries and any form of explicit or hidden violence against women, children, the elderly, including abortion, which is the murder of the unborn; another leprosy is the oppression and repression of totalitarian regimes that cancel out personal freedom and hurt the economic and social development of peoples; another leprosy is the manipulation of the masses through deception, lying and false promises through some means of social communication… Discovering, unmasking and identifying our individual or collective leprosy is the first step in healing and ridding us of them.

Olallo lived, from 1835 until his death, in the Hospital de San Juan de Dios, from this period, he was in a convent community truly structured until 1854. In 1857, as a result of the Laws of Exclaustration, the Order lost the administration of the hospital that passed into the hands of the Civil Lobby of the City and only two friars remain there: Manuel Torres and Olallo and, from 1876 until his death, he was left alone, not only there: in Havana the Hospital de la Orden was first closed , then the community closes and at the same time the same thing happens in the rest of America.

In his Sunday address on 7 January, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of Havana, reminds us that prayer cannot be any occupation in the life of a Christian, as it was not for Jesus, who dedicated himself to the service of his brothers and sisters. “The man who has lived on the watch over others has been someone who has not been overcome by activism, agitation, haste, dispersion, but has sought throughout his life silence and prayer, even when everyone was looking for him.”

In our world there are many Job who need to meet Christ; the pandemic we suffer, social inequalities, forgotten wars, hidden violence, systems that suppress freedom continue to engender many Jobs who shout: why, Lord!

On the fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of Havana, recalled the feast of St. John Bosco and inspired by his work said: “In the face of the difficulties presented to us by others to teach young people, let us become deaf and continue with them in the style of Don Bosco.” Jesus Christ is our model.

Jesus is the Prophet of God, the Father’s envoy, the Holy One of God. The fascination that your person produces cannot be compared to that of any social or political leader of our time or of any era. His figure and message are based on the coherence of life he showed that led him to the final sacrifice on the Cross. When the exercise of power is exercised without principle and without conscience, every spiritual, moral or social authority is lost and falls into authoritarianism, which leads to the imposition of ideas, ignorance or elimination of the adversary, oppression and suppression of freedom. And this, done in a subtle or uninhibited way, leads to the same personal and social result: the destruction of the person and society. He has come into the world to build a new humanity. Jesus reveals God’s love for each of us. His authority is not an oppressive power but a balm that frees us, a new light that illuminates the dark stretches of our existence, a force that encourages us in our struggles, difficulties, trials and temptations.