The Parish of the Incarnation of Santa Fe (Granada), has experienced a very special Epiphany this year. People from ‘every language, people and nation’ have gathered to be witnesses of the manifestation of God through the perpetual Consecration of Toñi Cabello, Sister of Consolation. Toñi's family, the parish community, sisters from different backgrounds and an international group of junioras have felt identified with the entrance song:
We are witnessing something great that satisfies the heart and is shared
We are witnesses of love. We are the Lord's family.
Witnesses of something great, wisdom of smallness! The little ones, the humble, let themselves be led by the signs of God.
This is how D. Francisco, Pastor of Santa Fe and delegate of the Bishop to preside over this celebration, expressed it: “The magi were scanning the sky in search of something greater than themselves and they invite us to look up to search for the true Light, a search that sets on the way. This is how the consecrated life is: a pilgrimage in faith provoked by the encounter with the One who first set out on a journey towards us and left us wounded with his love without measure so that we may seek him.”
Some of us would have liked to ask Toñi: what motivated you to pray prostrate asking for the intercession of the saints, what did you want to express?
We understood that with that gesture, with that attitude of adoration and humble abandonment, he was placing himself in the hands of the ever faithful God to later proclaim, also humbly and confidently, “...for all the time of my life...in chastity, poverty and obedience. Vows of freedom and fullness as the celebrant also underlined in an expressive comparison with the gifts of the magi:
To adore is to give gold, to tell Him that nothing is more valuable than Him. A heart stripped of goods and free to love, more valuable than gold.
To adore is to give incense: (relationship with the Lord) To love Him with a chaste heart, with a love that is passionate about doing his will, is the best worship.
To adore is to give myrrh: with which the wounded and destroyed bodies like that of Jesus on the cross were anointed: It is to offer our availability and obedience to take care of the pain of so many tried by suffering, of the weak; weak and humble like them.
the celebration ended with an invitation for each of the participants, because the epiphany is also a memory of our own baptism and therefore of our Christian commitment: May our life be the best gift, may it be a reflection of that Light that shines for everyone, a reflection of Christ's charity, consolation, tenderness; with the freedom and courage of those who fear nothing because they trust in God. May we as Mª Rosa Molas offer every day the gift of our life to sustain the hope of the weak, fight for justice and build the Kingdom of God.
I couldn't end the day without remembering Toñi's life through a video of his day to day building community at the service of the residents of Santa Fe, remembering his time in other communities, his service to the sick, collaborating in the Parishes, caring for his patients at the Hospital de la Reina in Ponferrada and the Hospital de la Inmaculada in Granada and committed to Delwende's projects that were symbolically present in the room where the fraternal agape was shared and an afternoon with a lot of Andalusian flavor.