TAKE US FOR A WALK, PUT US ON THE WAY

Journeying towards July 30^th, International Day of Awareness Against Human Trafficking, I lift up my voice in the name of my children, alive and dead, in the name of every victim of this web of perversity. I lift up voice to say NO to fear, to silence and indifference; and with strength I say IT IS ENOUGH, it is time to make visible what corruption and “the powerful” want to hide. It is the cry of my children what makes me deaf, as they cry for help, as they claim their right to life and freedom. When God offered me this mission, I couldn’t imagine how it would be; I only said YES to what He was dreaming for his children. To save only one of them would be already worthy, but God always dreams big and we felt encouraged to dream together with Him (and I say ‘we’ because this dream of freedom was made true thanks to a group of people). I make an echo of the words of Fr. Palau:

“A cry of horror awakened me: “My Father, my father, I am drowning!” As I awoke I saw that the daughter of Jephthah [Jgs 11,34-40), wandering through the desert, had fallen into the sea and was fighting against the waves. The people were crying, sorry for her, and they were looking down from a high precipice, and were not helping her, afraid of perishing with her. I had at my feet a roll of thick strong rope. I picked it up and hastened down the mountain; I reached the precipice, unrolled the rope and threw one end into the sea; the people held the other end and pulled and said to her: “Hold tight, don’t drop the rope.” I stood firm and kept hold of the rope, and she came up safe and sound. At once I heard the Father’s voice which said: “Go, quickly. My daughter is drowning. Take this law: “You shall love God for being who he is, infinite goodness; and your neighbour as yourself” [Mt 19,19; 22,39; Mk 12,31; Rom 13,9; Gal 5,14; Jas 2,8 . . .] Unrolled it, throw one end to the world, and the peoples who want to be saved from the waters must hold firmly onto it.” (MR 1,23)

My experience was something similar. I was feeling “deafen” because of the cries of so many victims, full of impotence and tiredness that corruption was getting so much space and lives. I was looking, listening, knowing, experiencing, but I had no courage to say YES, to commit myself. It was necessary to make a formal denounce to make this ENOUGH concrete. I was feeling like I was drowning. It was urgent, necessary, vital. Even though, I didn’t want to “enter and get dirty with the cause”. But God won over all my resistance and, encouraged by mediations, I decided to say YES. One first YES that brought discernment of every day of if continue saying YES or go back to the apparent “normality or commodity”. And today, after all the process, I would continue saying YES, in spite of all the difficulties that might appear; I would continue saying YES only to be able to see the joy of those being saved. There can be no NO in me, I cannot turn my back afer having listened to so many victims, my children, for whom I am and always will be “mommy angel” for those whom nobody loves, “mommy angel” of those who don’t matter, as they use to call me.

“My children”, the mission that God entrusted me, is the motor of this fight and this sacrifice. They trust in me, in us as a family. They know that they can count on a numerous family, that they have their “mommy angel”, grandmother of long arms and many grandparents and uncles and aunts who will always protect them and take care of them. I cannot abandon them; to do so would be to attempt against my own life, my own beliefs and who I am.

And adding to the testimony of sister Olga I would like to invite you to not abandon them neither. Our prayer can achieve what can’t be achieved any other way. In other commentaries I will tell you experiences and testimonies, but today I would like to tell you about something recent, the deepest thing in this moment.

Maybe for some of you it will sound like craziness or waste of time; maybe for some it will be difficult to understand, but for me this is mission, life, miracle, God reflected in the little ones.

It’s impossible for me to be with my children and embrace each one of them, because in the world there are thousands and thousands of victims who cry desperately for liberation and nobody listens to them. For all those who are dying every night by the hand of perversity and corruption, for those who are wounded and tortured by cruelty and lack of mercy, for all of them (for this whole reality and for so many other realities of our world where they oprime and kill the most vulnerable), I ask God every night to “TAKE ME FOR A WALK, PUT ME ON THE WAY”. And that in this walk, he might bring me in places where his children are dying without being rescued, and that he might allow me to take them in my arms, touch them tenderly, guard his last breath and tell them not to be afraid, because there is God who receives them, that they can rest in peace, that noone will hurt them anymore, and that this God who loves them so much will give them the biggest embrace of the world that will heal their wounds and noone will ever steal it from them, and that the last thing that they will see won’t be the face of a pervert who hurt them but the sweet face of someone who loves them.

And I do so, from my prayer, with certainty that it arrives to them. Sometimes, in the middle of the night or at the dawn I will wake up and continue my task of taking care of them. Every minute is full of meaning, and not even one day or night is sterile. And I am sure that God, from the deep mystery of prayer, brings us (each one of us who want it to be so) to take this walk through the streets of pain of his children, and in some mysterious and deep ways brings us closer to hic children and offer us the privilege to help them, take care of them and accompany them. It is a prayerful experience that I share with sister Olga and that I would like to share with all of you who desire, who fill encouraged. For this reality and for many other realities that need someone who will take time to embrace, protect and remind them that there is God who loves and is present with them, even in the middle of the darkest night. God wants liberation of his people, he suffers with every one of his children and is doing his work in a mysterious way. And for this he needs of those who will help him, who will become a face and an embrace for his children. I tell hm YES and I encourage you to continue saying YES. And finally, a call o attention to our society. Without clients, this business of human trafficking, drugs and pornography doesn’t subsist. If you know any data that could be a help to make someone be saved, DON’T BE SILENT, don’t keep it for yourself. Your courage can be the liberation and salvation of the children of God, your brethren. In next writing I will tel you what was the most important thing for my children in this process of liberation. I give you a trailer with this sentence of Fr. Palau: