TRUE JOY IS IN YOUR HEART

The lack of resources to have daily bread is a reality in many corners of the earth, even in the southern of Chile, in the 10th Region of Los Lagos. In the tourist town of Puerto Varas, there is a sector, a poor area, the city of Puerto Chico. The Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart have been present among the poor and suffering since 1954. To meet one of the needs of the population, an Italian religious founded a canteen for the poor, whose name is “open canteen Sr Annapia”. Today as yesterday, to feed the hungry!

In Christmas time, when God manifests His Eternal Love, by giving us His Son, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" as Saint John transmits to us, He continues to appear in the manger of that table, in the manger of open and charitable hearts who share bread with those who have none. This simple experience is like the star of Bethlehem that guides human beings to offer gifts to the Child God who manifests Himself in those who suffer.

Every baptized person is called to proclaim Jesus Christ, to be a witness with life and with the word. How much more, the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, called by the Lord to reach the ends of the earth. Today, the Puerto Chico district, a long-time marginalized population: inhabitants rejected by society, because life has tried them and they have fallen into crime and alcohol. Thanks be to God, to the generous gift of religious women and many benefactors, their living conditions improve. However, the scourge of alcoholic beverages remains present in the lives of men and women, as well as hunger, which destroys the bowels and touches the  dreams and hopes of poor families, which today as yesterday populate the earth.

There is more joy in giving than in receiving says the Word of God and also the life of many men and women, who by discovering the Lord in those who suffer, share what they are and what they have, being, this, a source of joy.

Today, in Christmas time, the world is filled with material goods; people fill their body with excess food and drink, drugs and pleasures, travel and extravagance. Vanity of vanity, says the Ecclesiastes (12, 8), everything has an end. Others instead find joy and meaning of life in giving and giving themselves. While we live on this earth, it is possible for every person to live and feel the true joy of the heart, the one that no one can snatch, because it is part of the history of each one. The joy of charity is the engine for continuing life with hope and peace, despite the opposition that we encounter in the course of life.

In the open canteen "Sister Anna Pia", with the help of some institutions and people, who collaborate from generation to generation, daily sustenance to people who come, is given. Before the pandemic, the sharing was daily, now, for reasons of it, the lunch is delivered to them only three days a week, for the benefit of people without work and with scarce resources, of those who live in the street, alcoholics and drug addicts, low-income families, migrants and anyone in need. In general, about 60 people receive food, which includes a plentiful single dish, bread and dessert. Sometimes, when supplies are plentiful, they share more bread, basic food for the Chileans, and a bag with food for the rest of the day. Everything is accompanied by spiritual food, singing, prayer, a short catechesis, and games that heat the cold air of the area, for constant rain and humidity, with their voices, laughter and applause to the winners, who receive juices, biscuits and a piece of cake. Those who have nothing, are happy with so little, with simple food, insignificant for the world, but so significant for them; thus sweetens their lives! Every day it brings a novelty, a new face of Christ to welcome and smile, to nourish and listen, to heal and love.

"We must help to recognize that the only way is to learn to meet others with the right attitude, which is to evaluate and accept them as companions on the way, without internal resistance. I is a matter of learning to discover Jesus in the face of others, in their voice, in their needs. It is also learning to suffer in an embrace with Jesus crucified when we receive unjust aggressions or ingratitude, without ever getting tired of opting for fraternity". (Evangelii Gaudium)

In Christ Jesus, we are God’s family, we are children in the Son and brothers and sisters of all. Thanks to the generosity of many, it is possible to make charity; each one is giving what is and has, all very precious contributions in the eyes of God. The college Puerto Varas, which monthly brings packages, and for Christmas, Christmas baskets; while the German College, once a week, offers lunch bringing the ingredients for the menu, and the last day of the year, they collaborate with Christmas baskets for about 35 people. There is also a very precious human contribution: the small group of volunteers who with availability and generosity work to get more food, make purchases, give their time and life, exposing themselves, in these times of pandemic, to deliver lunch to families, to those enable of approaching the fence because prostrate or sick and also to avoid crowding. Great work of the benefactors! In them becomes visible the hand of God, who is present in every person who gives without hoping for anything in return and who, perhaps, does not realize that it is the Lord, with the power of his Spirit, to carry out this service with generosity and constancy.

There is no greater treasure that we can offer our contemporaries than to follow the Lord every day, witnessing to His Gospel. Learning from the humility of Christ who, following the will of the Father, came to serve, to "give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt 20:28).

The charitable and apostolic action that takes place in the open canteen, Sister Annapia, fills the heart with joy, giving the best of oneself, putting at the service of the brother in need the talents and gifts received from God. That no doubt will receive these words: "Come, blessed by my Father, receive the inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for you by the creation of the world. Because I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you clothed me; sick and you visited me; in prison, and you came to me". Then the righteous will answer Him: "Lord, when we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty, and gave you drink? When we saw you as a stranger and took you in, naked, and dressed you? When we saw you sick or in prison, and we came to see you?". And the King will say to them: "Truly I say to you, that what you have done to one of my younger brothers, you have done to me... (Mt. 25:31-46).

God is the Good, all good, creating his children, endowed them with goodness, mercy, compassion... The greatest good is to have God in our heart, this is the true joy as well as to experience in every moment, that He is Father, that His Divine Providence, never abandons.

Sometimes our world forgets the special value of the time spent next to the bed of the sick, because we are pressed by haste, by the frenzy of doing, of producing, and we forget the dimension of gratuitousness, of caring, of taking care of the other. After all, behind this attitude there is often a lukewarm faith, which has forgotten that word of the Lord, which says: "To me you have done it".

The Lord reminds us of the peculiarity of his message: charity.

Charity not as mere philanthropy, but as true love for God who really lives in our neighbour.

It is not enough not to limit oneself to criticizing others, it is necessary to speak well of my neighbour, to promote good and to silence evil, to speak well of others. It is what we wanted to do today, to share the good that is done in the open canteen "Sister Annapia," in the southern of Chile.