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newsletter > 2003
"I gave you a land where you never toiled
you live in town you never built;
you eat now from vineyards and olive groves
you never planted"
Joshua 24,13
This issue comes at the close of 2003. I hope that "StanduP" has been a useful tool for the actualization of our Comboni charisma amid today's challenges to our missionary life in the British Isles. I am most grateful to the Provincial Council who posted me to this office, though I am not an 'expert'. Surely, there are among you better qualified persons then I am. I will hear from you at the next mini-assembly of Sunningdale on how to link up with people working for Justice and Peace in your areas. As religious we are living witnesses to the fact that everything is a gift from God and that man should not claim possession for himself of what is God's property. See for instance this year's campaign against the privatization of drinking water.
To show gratitude is something fundamental for us missionaries. We live, thanks to the support of our benefactors, and mission projects are made possible thanks to our openness of heart to share the little we have.
The frequent expression used by the Latin American Church Speaks of a preferential option for the poor. What does option for the poor mean? It is preferential because God loves every person and the universality of the love of God is the central point for our Christian faith; at the same time in the Bible in addition to the universality of God we have this preference for the the poor.
When we read the news or see the news on the TV it is important that we see it from the perspective of those who are most in need in our society. So if we hear of a reform in a certain law or we hear of a government plan, we have to ask ourselves first of all how does it affect those most in need.
Furthermore, to offer one's life for the poor means that you are willing to use your life for the poor and on the side of the poor; it is a willingness to take on the point of view of the poor. It is the poor, the marginalized, the people that do not matter in this world that pulls us out of our own selfishness and bring us to God. How to speak about God to poor people. How to speak about God from the unjust suffering of the people. It is a challenge to our creativity, it is a challenge to our imagination, it is a challenge to our faith in the Lord, it is a challenge to everything that we believe about what is possible of the human person.
With the month of December we entered the Advent season, a time of hope and conversion. "Look up... Be alert... Wake up... Vigilance is the basic attitude by which we unmask the frustration triggered by economic crises, social conflicts, the abuse of power, the lack of food and employment.