By Sister Angelina Mitre
On the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the Bible readings present the image of a woman who is pregnant and about to give birth to a baby. In the apocalypse, the woman must flee so that the baby doesn’t perish and be devoured by the dragon. We are represented in these women who, in their communities, suffer labor pains so that a new way of relating and living can be born.
In the words of Sofia Chipana, Aymara theologian:
In these not so pleasant days, we receive painful and scandalous news from different places, which paralyze our words, because we can’t turn our backs on the events of the world; because it has to do with awakening our conscience to the fact that we are all interconnected, beyond territorial borders, we are beings that flow back and forth. Although those with the power to shoot think that it doesn’t affect them, it does affect them greatly, as everything is registered in our bodies and in the cosmos.
The strength of the dragon is able to exterminate many peoples. Daily, we see the resistance of women and men; some continue the struggle in their own countries, others flee to begin anew in some other place.
The Gospel of Luke shows us two pregnant women that meet each other, that connect with each other, that are happy together, that recognize each other as blessed women, that have the seeds of NEW LIFE.
It is the time for meeting, for regaining our strength with the words that let us know we are not alone, we are interdependent, we are part of the cosmos. We are intertwined among ourselves, with all of nature, with Mother Earth or Pachamama. Sofia Chipana continues:
The cosmovisions linked to the cosmos propose ideas that generate harmony and balance, such as reciprocity, complementarity, communalism and interrelationality, which lead to Good Living and trigger Good Living Together.
(Chipana, 2012)
In the middle of the chaos, of ideologies that tell us we should have more, to be better than others, that we must break the ecological equilibrium in the name of progress, arise movements of youth who want a different kind of society, who are moved to participate in politics so that public conduct respects the principles of integrity and efficiency, who defend the planet from global warming. There are men and women mobilizing, who are not keeping quiet, who demand their right to exist, to live in peace. One manifestation of this movement are the waves of immigrants.
Migrants have become visible and look us in the face to say that they will no longer live in fear, without their fundamental rights. They have migrated to our countries; they have made us uncomfortable and they call on our sense of solidarity. The Lord keeps working among us, as long as we are not resigned to death, to desperation, to the attack of the dragon.
In our Mercy Community, there is a movement of the Spirit to BE ONE, a sign of new life. Like the Woman in the Desert, like Mary and Elizabeth, are we pregnant with the future? How will we make that future possible?