With the convocation to the XXIII General Chapter, the theme around which the congregational-capitular experience revolves in its various phases began to resonate in prayer and in the spirit: “Strengthened in the Spirit, we embrace our reality and suffering humanity, advancing with hope on a synodal path”.
This theme initially locates us in what is weak in our personal reality, proposing the intuition of allowing ourselves to be strengthened by the Spirit, who calls us to re-captivate ourselves, «to recover the great desires, the marks of the wounds of our passion for Jesus and the Kingdom” (cf. José Mª. Arnaiz, SM, “From disenchantment to enchantment, passing through re-enchantment”), to return to the source that seduced us, to return to the roots that perhaps we have not cared for and watered carefully, but who are on the best ground, that of fundamental belonging: Jesus and His Kingdom.
The being and doing in the future of our congregational family is already giving us a glimpse of well-defined spaces and missions to which we are being re-sent: «To embrace our personal and community reality, and that of each Demarcation. To embrace the reality of the environment in which the suffering of our brothers and sisters and of creation is stirring». Once these realities are recognized, we should humbly opt to take up the path together, to begin to re-create possibilities of reparation, of closeness, of mutual support, and above all of security and hope, with the conviction that in this new sending we are not alone and that we can awaken a new Pentecost: as an experience of re-enchantment, of re-birth in life for the following of Jesus in witnessing joy as disciples, stimulated and accompanied by our founders, by their experiences of conversion and commitment to the Gospel.
Francis and Clare of Assisi, Father Luis Amigó and our sisters of the first hour once again appear at our side, almost taking us by the hand to lead us to the ruins, to our vulnerabilities, not only the external ones, but those that deep inside groan and cry out for compassion. The «leper» excluded from coexistence, from harmony, from fraternity, from activity, from joy and hope, whom perhaps we have taken hidden, and not listened to, ignored, thinking that «he can stay there» and that «he can hold on a little longer».
This reality is touched today in the family-community, and is inviting us to embrace it, to work as sisters in the closeness that led to the recognition, the embrace and kiss that transformed the personal reality of the leper and of Brother Francis, leading him then to San Damiano, to the place of encounter with the broken, disfigured, dusty, forgotten, victimized Christ in the brother and sister with whom we live. It is a slow and difficult process of recognition and identification, but an excellent way towards the experience of the reparative dynamism of our being, able to face the internal and external causes of our insecurity and proud selfishness, welcoming the possibility of finding new realities, new searches in the paschal journey of the Congregation.
To place ourselves as consecrated women, as committed lay people, with the personal reality that accompanies us today, before the extreme love that led Jesus to the cross, is the opportunity to feel the projection of that love, in the gift of brothers and sisters, with whom it is possible to unite answers, qualities, attitudes, ideals, options, strengths and to begin again putting our grain of sand in the strengthening of life and vocation, of identity and mission as Capuchin Tertiary Sisters, before the humanity that also suffers new, deep and serious vulnerabilities: «… the scourge of misery, hunger, unemployment, diseases without access to health centers, lack of schooling, child and youth labor for the survival of the family, trafficking of women and children, organ trafficking, lack of housing, displacement, war, corrupt political and even ecclesiastical administrations, slavery and injustice of all kinds, the cry of the destruction of the common home and the «throwaway culture» that affects above all women, migrants and refugees, the elderly, native peoples and people of African descent»… It hurts «the impact and consequences of the pandemic that further increases social inequalities, even compromising the food security of a large part of our population. It hurts the clamor of those who suffer because of clericalism and authoritarianism in relationships, which leads to the exclusion of brothers, lay people, especially women in the instances of discernment and decision making on the mission of the Church… it worries the «lack of prophecy and effective solidarity with the poorest and most vulnerable…» (cf. Final Message of the Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean).
These multiple situations against the Kingdom continues recognizing in consecrated life, in women, sisters and disciples who are bearers of hope, assisted by the Spirit of the Lord who makes all things new; and trusts and hopes that «we will return singing from the congregational Chapter experience», offering compassionate fruits of listening, discernment, forgiveness, and a more sensitive, decisive and risky missionary attitude to project, create and open new ways of announcing in order to walk together, making a new world possible, a creation revitalized by active, simple and lesser fraternity, driven by the Franciscan-Amigonian spirituality and determined to put in common not only vulnerabilities, but possibilities, intuitions, demands, vocation, options, even contradicting ourselves, contradicting customs, projects, securities, ways of living and thinking.
Then we will begin to live the XXIII General Chapter, as one more step on the way of restructuring our lifestyle and mission, celebrating the wedding feast, in which, if the jars of wine have been emptied and we feel the threat of the end of the feast, we can also feel the woman who has been able to say a YES without limits even in the midst of chaos; she shows us the work that frees us from sadness, hopelessness, distrust, fear that often overwhelms us: «Do whatever He tells you…» and the capitular, personal, community banquet will make our hands, wills and freedom agile, to make the empty jars overflow and allow us to taste the new wine, the best and the capacity to take up again the motivation and initial option and source of our religious profession, of our commitment in front of life in abundance for all, in front of the lament multiplied by so many marginalized brothers and sisters, so many voices, so many realities that ask us: «Go and repair my house».
Sr. Ana Mora, Tc