ADVENT MESSAGE FOR THE POOR
(English google translation of Wuilver Carrillos’ Spanish message)
Shared by Caroline Sheaffer
Esta historia se escribe en Español = This story is also written in Spanish. Click here.
I want to share with you a few words about this season of Advent. The grace and peace of Jesus be always with us! Every year we receive the gift of grace time called ADVENT, a time that helps us to prepare our hearts and our spirit in a very special way and thus joyfully receive the baby Jesus incarnated in our brother, in children, in the elderly, in the sick, in those who are in prison, in people who are discriminated against because of their skin color, their sexual preferences, their special abilities, etc. I am happy to receive that child JESUS because he is a being that turns all prejudices upside down.
When we receive Jesus in our hearts, he acts like the potter shaping our lives, giving us a privileged role in the mission. Advent is a time to prepare, but it is also a time to discover more and more our role in the mission that Jesus has entrusted to us; a time to discover families in our communities. The families in our communities are sick and sad, many of them lack more than one member who is unjustly imprisoned by the emergency regime we live in. Families are saddened by the high cost of living, by the lack of employment, because health and study have become a privilege for a few. This Advent is connected with the hope that something new is going to happen between us and the poor. We look forward to that event because this year has been loaded with many burdens, uncertainties, injustices, violence, arrogance, lies, excess power. *The powerful have not understood that families are groups that we must see as a great LIVING TREASURE and that children, young people and the elderly are the living presence of Jesus among us and if they are the presence of Jesus among us, we owe them all our love and the care they deserve.
Advent and Christmas is LIGHT and despite all the difficulties of life, Christians are called to make that LIGHT shine, so that the dark nights of our lives and those of others become a night illuminated by faith, hope, joy, and love.
Now all together we send you many greetings, hugs and thanks for being our brothers.
Rev. Wuilver Francisco Carrillos Calzada Shepherd
[The * in the above refers to the Salvadoran government’s State of Exception policy which, in an effort to reduce crime and gangs, has also imprisoned thousands of innocent people without providing due process.]
