Post

Hello friends! I hope everyone has a great monday. I would like to share with you an excerpt from Eduardo de la Serna's last post on his blog, a Catholic priest whom I read frequently. The post is titled "A contribution to spirituality from the Covid" and addresses the issue of meetings and celebrations of worship, which have been banned since March in the country to avoid contagion of the virus:

"Looking at some expressions, some certainly unfortunate, we must admit, it seems that believing human beings cannot "meet God" without the possibility of worship. Churches (and Synagogues, and Mosques, and Temples) are closed and, it seems, that God is closed for us, but is that so?

(...)

God chooses Israel as a people, not because they are the best, nor the strongest, nor the wisest, but simply so that they live in right and justice, and thus show the other nations (“light of the nations”) that another world is possible, not a world of oppressors and oppressed, masters and slaves, superiors and subjects, but a society of brothers (and sisters, let's add, although this idea is not developed in the Hebrew Bible). That is to say: God is found there, in the brother, in the practice of these qualities, only afterwards worship is an option of encounter. "After". If "worship" is the area of ​​encounter with God, then it must be stated clearly: that happens in the brother, not in the temple (or its subsequent circumstances) (...) If it is about "encounter", certainly we will meet God "where he is" and not where we would like (...) This new family, gathered around love is what the followers of Jesus will call “Church”. The Church is, then, a community gathered in the love of sisters and brothers with their Father.

(...)

All this leads us to conclude undoubtedly that it is in the other that we meet God; only “after” does the community meeting of worship make sense (...) In times of pandemic, of so many sick people (known or not), of so many who are spent and wear themselves out to serve (essential services personnel...), of so much suffering, loneliness, anguish... where do we find God? The father of the poor, the orphan and the widow, the rescuer (go'el) of the impoverished and enslaved, the one who recognizes himself present in the hungry, thirsty, sick and imprisoned is certainly there, in the brother and sister! (...) ".

Is not this fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Is. 58: 6-7).