Encarnate the Gospel...

Then, Jesus sent them to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick and He said to them: "Take nothing for the journey..." Lk 9, 2.

Assumption style mission was one of my motivations for joining the congregation, it has always been a time to share who I am with others. During this Holy Week I was in Tepetlapa, a town in the municipality of Atenango del Rio, Guerrero.

It is a small town dedicated mainly to agriculture. From this experience I learned three things: to share what we are, to be simple and to embrace our reality with joy.

It is interesting that during this mission I talked more about planting and caring for farm animals than about anything else. The people taught me to share what I know, it is a way to incarnate the Gospel and sharing life in love.

On the other hand, the people helped me to live a Holy Week in a simple but meaningful way. I asked myself, what else can I teach a community that shares food, takes care of each other, knows each other well, respects each other, believes in God and collaborates with each other? That is the real experience of living the Gospel.

Sometimes in the big churches we get distracted by enormous and exaggerated decorations, but on the night of Holy Thursday, only a small table, some plants and candles were enough to have an evening of intimate and authentic encounter with Christ.

The people embrace their reality, there is no ambition, they do not want big houses or millions of pesos, they recognize their wealth in what God has given them in the field.

Any other person in the city would say that this is conformist or mediocre thinking, but many times we are ambitious without knowing it, we aspire to great riches without recognizing our essence. The people of Tepetlapa taught me that we do not need too much to be happy in life.

In the end, in this mission I learned what the Gospel says, to go to proclaim the Kingdom without any attachment, carrying nothing along the way. The only thing we need to share life, is in the heart and in the mind.

Rafael Huerta Ramos, a.a.