By María Luisa de Maccaferri, Monterrey, Mexico •
“2022, a new year marked by the challenges inherited from the previous ones, the pandemic and its consequences, how do you personally feel about this calendar period we are beginning, I am struck by the words of the Holy Father with the theme of indifference that seeps through like a virus; indifference to the poor, to the poverty that little by little is also seeping into the middle classes as well”. F. José María García’s comments became a lively conversation that took place on January 1st within the team of collaborators of schoenstatt.org. It made me reflect and answer. —
During this time of pandemic God has brought me inside. We have two children who, like my husband, are working at home because of the pandemic. I am in charge of things at home and I sell Japanese health products whenever I can.
We have been as close as ever, but in 2021 I felt a great inner exhaustion: my 25 year old daughter fell while exercising, she got several fractures and she spent a month and a half in a wheelchair, my son had mild Covid in January and in February also did my husband, he spent two months in treatment at home; although we went out very little, I spent a lot of time taking care of everyone.
Entrusting my concerns to God our Father
Today when I woke up I realized that my closeness to God our Father was distant and I decided with the help of Jesus and Mary, by the hand of the Holy Spirit to give him my concerns, the situation of Mexico, of all the people who have great needs and lives without hope, the loss of so many loved ones, their illnesses, the suffering of the people that the Pilgrim MTA visits, the uncertainty that my children and the youth live, the lack of faith, well… a huge list that I was carrying because of my lack of faith, of trust in my Father.
I got up thanking for this new year and all the blessings that it gives me and I am not seeing and enjoying, those embraces that Mary gives me to give me courage and strength to help with my smallness as I have learned in Schoenstatt, but that my pride made me demand of myself and think that I can change the world, forgetting that the bravest woman in history changed the world by taking care almost totally of only one person, the son that God entrusted to her.
Is in the small things we must act
Today I was thankful for everything I have, most importantly my family, the training I have received living in a country different from the one we were born, which has taught us to have family far away and to find family from the heart where God has taken us, to live the losses of beloved relatives at a distance before this pandemic, which has strengthened us and allowed us to accompany those who have never lived these situations and it is in the small where we have to act and help.
One of the greatest satisfactions is to have a seven year old boy learn to read and write because he has had two years without school and his mother, who comes to help me three times a week, when it has been possible due to the pandemic, She has brought him to me because she could not study and has not been able to teach him. I have been very angry with the unfair system and the shortages of our Latin American countries that I cannot change, but I have the possibility to change the circumstances of a child and his family, accepting this today, the first day of the year, took a weight off my shoulders and gives me the enthusiasm to take care of the things that my Father gives me and trust that He is the one who is in charge and knows our capabilities and limitations, so He loves us and blesses us with the help and company of Jesus and Mary.
Great is my joy to see how little Joseph, with the Scrabble pieces, already knows how to write his name….
Original: Spanish 2022-01-02. Translated by: María Aragón, Monterrey, México
