Every 29 November I gratefully celebrate three gifts received from the Lord: the first, in 1932, the birth of my father, who has just turned 90; the second, in 1982, when I was 10 years old, my baptism and my first communion; and the third, in 1997, just 25 years ago, my ordination to the priesthood.
Unlike my sisters, who were baptised as soon as they were born, I had to wait. My parents wanted my godparents to come to my village from different and distant cities. When I was 10 years old, I felt a strong inner call to participate in the Lord’s Table, but I could not do it because I was not baptised. So I talked to my parents, chose my own godparents and asked my parish priest to give me catechesis. Taking advantage of my father’s 50th birthday party, I received the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. I remember that many people came to the house; however, I would highlight the presence of my paternal grandfather’s sister, who was a Salesian nun, Sister Carmen Sánchez. She was an elderly woman who lived in her congregation’s care home in Lima, some 800 km from my village. In the middle of the celebration, when the music was blaring, she called me aside before retiring for the night and said to me with a look full of tenderness and joy: “Dear nephew, don’t think that I have come from so far away to participate in your father’s celebration; in reality, I have come because today is the most important day of your life: you have received the grace of being a child of God and, furthermore, He has given you the Body of His Son so that you can be intimately united to Him”. Surely, at that moment, I did not understand the depth of what my elderly aunt said to me; nevertheless, her words touched my childish soul and made me intuit, with joy and bewilderment, the closeness and newness of God’s Presence. I believe that in that context I began to perceive God’s call to follow Jesus in a special way.
I chose this date for my priestly ordination because it allowed me to celebrate with greater evidence the continuity of God’s work in my life: He, who had given me life through my parents and had called me to be a Christian, was offering me at that moment the gift of the priestly ministry to serve his People as a Claretian missionary.
1Fr. Carlos E. Sánchez Miranda CMF is General Prefect of Spirituality and Community Life of the Congregation.
I am happy to celebrate this anniversary with you, my missionary family. When I look at the road we have travelled, three words spring from my heart: gratitude, forgiveness and renewal.
I want to thank God for his love. I sing, humbly and firmly, what we prayed in Psalm 146: “The Lord is great and mighty… his wisdom has no measure. The Lord upholds the humble…” (Ps 146:5-6). I am a witness of so much love received throughout my life. God has cared for me with his grace. How can I not be grateful for the gift of celebrating the Eucharist every day in community and uniting ourselves to the mystery of the incarnate and surrendered God. I am grateful for the gift of being a child of the Heart of Mary; the maternal closeness of that Heart has inspired my priestly service, inviting me to seek depth in the everyday and to be a cordial witness of God’s mercy. I have been cared for by God through my biological family and my missionary family. I am grateful in a special way for the gift of living in this Community, I feel it is truly my family, where I experience fraternity, friendship and mutual care. I am grateful for the gift of celebrating this anniversary as part of the General Government team; with them I live a deep communion, in spite of our differences; I am happy and encouraged by our openness to learn, to discern and to put our whole being at the service of our dear Congregation. To this list, I must add my friends and so many others who have enriched my life and have been instruments of the Lord in shaping my priestly service. I remember in a special way so many dear people from a slum on the outskirts of Lima, in Pachacutec, where I exercised my ministry for eleven years, going with the seminarians on weekends. They taught me to live close to their lives in the midst of their difficult situations; there I also learned to remove from my heart many pretensions and styles that did not correspond to the Gospel of Jesus. God has been present in many ways in my life and I am grateful for this in the words that flowed from the Heart of Mary: “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid…” (Lk 1:47-48).
The second word is forgiveness. I am aware of my weaknesses and sins. I want to ask God’s forgiveness for my many infidelities to his love, for my accommodations and for not having overcome all the temptations that come from clericalism. Above all, I ask forgiveness for my resistance to his constant call to convert and to allow myself to be transformed according to his heart. Through you, I ask forgiveness from so many people whom I have consciously or unconsciously caused to suffer during these 25 years. And I ask for forgiveness from those of you who have experienced my weaknesses at close quarters; I accept your understanding, correction and help. Happily, I am convinced that the Lord’s love is able to redeem every sin and that his grace is always superabundant. With the psalmist, I am a witness that “the Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up wounds…”.
The last word is renewal. Today’s Gospel shows us a Jesus who has compassion for the suffering of the people and goes through the towns and villages to proclaim the Gospel. This Gospel page reflects so well the missionary style of Jesus which so impassioned our Father and Founder and which is at the heart of our charism. I remember when I first read the Autobiography of Fr Claret and was fascinated by his missionary style; it was the trigger for me to decide to leave everything. Today I feel once again called by Jesus to renew the yes I gave 25 years ago to live as a priest in the style of Fr Claret. He asks me to continue to do so in this local community and in the
service of the universal congregational community. I believe that at this moment of my life I have no other dream or purpose than to make real what today’s gospel tells us: “You have received without charge, give without charge”.
