We are living the month of the missions, it is a time to reflect on how we live and collaborate in the mission. But it is also a time to remember, that is, to go through the hearts of our missionaries who have given their lives for the Kingdom.
Today we remember Fray José Luis Garayoa. A religious who had the missionary DNA running through his veins, a person who loved the mission, no matter where in the world he lived. Fray José Luis died on November 23, 2020 from COVID.
Today we want to remember him by recovering a text he published in 2012 on the occasion of the mission day in his blog. In it we find a reflection on life, on the mission, but above all we read a heart in love with Christ in the style of St. Augustine.
For Mission Day I was given the cover of Black World Magazine. I smile between two generations of women. Mariama, the young one, dreams of going to university. For her grandmother it is already too late; the old woman tells me that she would like to drink clean water from the well we have promised to dig next dry weather before she dies. She has been drinking dirty water all her life and walking miles to get it.
There are those who dare to call us heroes. And I repeat, with Leon Felipe: “I am only a worm who dreams, and who knows that the light and the wind can turn us into butterflies. In multicolored butterflies for men, our brothers”.
Announcing Good News, which after all is what the Gospel means, is not easy. In a world like the one I live in, so full of primary, basic needs, it is not possible to do very deep theology. Or yes, if as the central message of this theology we ourselves become witnesses of God’s love.
An unconditional love, a love capable of dying for all, without distinction. A love capable of forgiving 70 times 7, when your hard-earned savings are stolen. A love capable of continuing to believe in spite of feeling so many times that the effort is useless. That progress is too slow, in which you constantly have to start again. A love that believes in those who no one believes, That hopes in those who no one hopes. And that loves those whom no one loves.
For if you believe in those who respond, if you hope in those who will not fail you, if you love those who love you, what merit do you have, Jesus of Nazareth insists. The novelty of the Gospel is precisely to be able to love those whom no one has loved. And to love him first, to the uttermost, regardless of the response.
It is true that they steal from us, lie to us, use us. But we have not taught them otherwise. It is only necessary to read honestly the History, their History. It is true that we must love without creating dependencies. But, as soon as we are sincere, we will recognize that their dependencies are as basic as survival itself. We also have dependencies, but in our case they are much more sophisticated.
†Fray José Luis Garayoa, OAR.