I attended high school at a Lasallian school in the city of Chihuahua, Mexico. This school organizes missions directed to the indigenous communities that live in the beautiful Sierra Tarahumara. This is a beautiful place where nature is abundant, there are lakes, mountains, forests, waterfalls and canyons. The territory it occupies within the state is large and vast.
In the Lasallian missions that take place during each Holy Week, among other activities, catechism classes are organized in preparation for the Easter Triduum services.
In one of those years I happened to be with a group of teenagers who were around my age. In that decade, one of the most critical and common situations was the pregnancies of Tarahumara teenagers from the age of 13 onwards. It was not very difficult to discover the consequences of this situation in their own lives and in that of their babies.
The Tarahumara community is very rich in traditions, and they are also very reserved with the “chabochi”, who are those of us who are not Tarahumara. After making the invitations in the community to attend catechism, the groups of attendees were organized by age, and as I mentioned, one year I was in charge of the teenagers my age. There were several days of sharing before the Holy Week services were celebrated, and having members of the Tarahumara community attend was a great achievement.
When it came time to welcome the Tarahumara girls, it was a great challenge, for me and for anyone else. Yes, they were there, but they hardly spoke. The fact that they didn’t respond didn’t mean they weren’t interested, but it was so different from what I was used to, because it is a different culture.
In one of the sessions we were talking about the love of God. Well, I was talking, hahaha. Some looked me in the eyes, and others had a blank stare or avoided me completely. But there they were, the fact that they came back day after day meant that something interested them, or caught their attention.
Anyway, trying to connect with them, I realized that the image of a loving father was not close to them, since many lived only with their mom, and there was no father figure nearby.
In a moment that I consider complete inspiration from the Holy Spirit, I told them:
– Ask God for a sign that He listens to you. What would you like to see in nature? If you would like to see a white flower, tell Him. If you would like to see a bird of a certain color, tell Him. If you would like to talk to someone you haven’t seen in a while, tell Him. Tell God what you would like to hear, so that he can answer you and you will know that God is with you.
– (The girls received my words with a deep silence)
After finishing our time together, I thought:
– What have I just gotten myself into…?
And my head began to spin, thinking of everything that could go wrong.
– What if they don’t see what they ask to see?
– What if they think it’s my invention?
– What if it is my invention?
I think my head even hurt from thinking about it so much.
In the end I got tired. And I remembered the time someone told me the same thing, inviting me to ask God for a small sign that He was listening to me. And at that time, God did answer my small request. And then I decided to put my thoughts to rest. It wasn’t about what they had told me, but about me being open to hearing from God. So, it wasn’t about what I had told the Tarahumara girls either. It was about them being open to God’s response.
The next day came, and I asked them if anyone had heard from God according to their request. After a long, very long, very very long silence, one by one the girls began to respond.
And it turns out that they all received an answer to their request.
Wow…
God wanted to find them, and the meeting point for them, was their small petition.
In the Gospel we hear about Simeon, who moved by the Spirit goes to the temple, where he sees Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. He takes the child in his arms, and thanks God for having found him. Somehow Simeon knew that he was meeting the Messiah.
What does it mean to you to be moved by the Spirit?
Inspired, or moved by the Spirit, was why I made that invitation to the Tarahumara girls
– If you would like to see something in nature, tell God.
In the same way, I am sure that the person who at the time made the same invitation to me, was also inspired or moved by the Spirit.
Simeon, moved by the Spirit, went to the temple.
In your case, do you know what moves you?
How does the Spirit move you?
Could it be that being moved by the Spirit is when God also seeks to find you?
After I was invited to tell God what I would like to see, and receiving an answer to my small request, I was able to be more open, and that’s where God found me.
And in a similar way, God also found each of the Tarahumara girls.
And it was thanks to Simeon, inspired or moved by the Spirit, who went to the temple. Not only did Simeon see the Messiah, but the Messiah also found him.
If the Spirit inspires or moves you, share with Jesus the Carpenter something small that you would like to see, and perhaps, that can be a meeting point for God to show you his love.
Marisol
P.S. We can hear about what happens when Simeon is moved by the Spirit in the readings for the IV Sunday of Ordinary Time, year/cycle C.
