AS PALAUTIANS AND AT THE LIGHT OF “LAUDATO SI”, HOW CAN WE RESTORE THE IMAGE OF THE CHURCH BROKEN BY THE HARM CAUSED TO OUR COMMON HOME?

Sister Marta invites to imagine ways for restauration of the broken and wounded inage of the Church by the harm caused to our common home. And to start moving.

She desplaced to one of the places which she visits as companion of those persons who, for different reasons, live on the street, spaces usually occupied by the marginalized of our society, so that from there tell us some words. How to begin o use our sight to see the reality, what is happening, what we live as humanity.

“We are being witnesses of a migratory movement of such a magnitude that persons go out of their land leaving all what they had known, because they have no future, because they search for happiness to which they have been called, because all people, as ‘Laudato Si’ says, has been called to be happy, to live in their most profound dignity, to live in their dignity of the children of God. (…) What touches me more is, as ‘Laudato Si’ says, that we live in the culture of dicard where we see that in a brutal way we live in a world of plastic, in a world of garbage”

A culture that invades not only things, not only Earth, but also our relationships.

How, in palautian style, to restore the broken image of the Church?

In a first place, she revises our style of life at the light of the Gospel and the style of life of Jesus. Later, to allow ourselves to be questions by reality, by our surroundings, by how persons close to us are living. This requires from us to go out.

“It can happen that you will see many things and many poverties, and you will feel discouraged, overwhelmed, because you will see that you can’t reach out to all of them. It can happen. But if you see this Church, if you see this harm, althought only with your prayer, you can help. That’s why the second step is to allow ourselves to be questioned and in a concrete way to go out and see and contemplate in what way. Sometimes it will mean to go our physically, go out for a walk and see a place where we live. It can be for many years from different points of view, because now we will look with palautian eyeglasses, with eyeglasses of Francisco Palau who was looking at the reality, the Church, with the eyes of love, eyes of commitment, eyes of desire to lift up the dignity of a neighbor. You will look at the reality with the eyeglasses of the Gospel”.

The next move: to pass it through your heart and take an attitude of “I will contribute my grain of sand”, to construct the culture of life, restore dignity of our brethren. To search with renovating, evangelical creativity the new forms of acting. It will be different depending on places.

In language of Francisco Palau it would mean to live with passion for God and the neighbor, to live with passion for the Church. Passion reflected in every day life. Every encounter we have with any person can be an encounter that will restore dignity, heal, and that should also be a step in our journey: to live in a way that every encounter will be healing and meaningful. May our daily life be in the key of a culture of love, key of Francisco Palau, key of love.

It is a dream to become true: a new solidarity where every human being will be important. Where we live in communities, families, neighborhoods that are fraternal, open, joyful and welcoming.