Happy New Year?

These days I have thought a lot about the phrase we repeat so often and wish others on December 31 when the clock strikes twelve: Happy New Year! Happy New Year!

This year, 2014, after all the terribly hard things we have lived through in our beloved homeland, and after all the dreadful forecasts we have heard for 2015, I thought that perhaps we should swap the exclamation marks for question marks, because we don’t know what we will face next year.

But after I heard Pope Francis’s words at his Christmas Mass and at last Sunday’s Angelus, I realized that whatever happens, those of us Christians who live with our eyes on God will have a Happy New Year!, in spite of everything, because, as the Pope says, true joy is found only with Jesus.

It is true that this Christmas in Venezuela was very different from others we have lived in past years. And it is true that many of us went through a lot of hardship while a few kept stealing and squandering the nation’s money.

But I personally experienced something very beautiful this Christmas. On December 25, part of the family gathered at my sister-in-law’s house (there were about 40 of us). It was very simple, very modest, but we enjoyed ourselves enormously, as always! What moved me most was seeing my nephews and nieces, aged 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20, making their petitions for 2015 to the Child Jesus. They read them right at twelve o’clock. They prayed for peace in the world, for peace in our country, for our soldiers, for justice to be done in Venezuela, for the political prisoners never to lose hope, for Venezuelan families always to stay united and to share many more moments like this, and for all Venezuelans to fight for their rights in 2015.

As I listened to them reading those petitions I felt, once again!, very proud of our Venezuelan children and young people. While a few children and young people live in their “glass houses,” thousands of young Venezuelans have realized that they will win back their country by studying, by educating themselves and by claiming their rights.

How proud I am of this unique generation of children and young people we have in our homeland! There are thousands upon thousands of them in every corner of the country. From an early age they have experienced pain and suffering, and seen so many lies, so many injustices, so much corruption. And they are not going to sit back and do nothing, because they are brave like few others. As I said in another of my articles, they have even lost their fear.

They are the future of Venezuela, and with a future like that there can be no unhappy year! Because besides our trust in God, who will give us the fortitude, hope and joy of the children of God, these young people are a sure and real hope, one we can see and touch, of a better future for our homeland.

This year, 2014, was crucial in Venezuela. Just as we saw clearly who the corrupt hypocrites are who defend this disaster to stay in power, we have also seen a generation of children, young people, mothers, fathers, teachers, workers, business owners and so on, ready to risk everything for this homeland where they were born, which will very soon take another road.

So, Happy New Year? Of course! Always happy, because God is with us. God is with those who follow his Way and love him above all things and their neighbor as themselves. So let’s keep praying and giving thanks for what we have, because we have a great deal!

God and the Blessed Virgin of Coromoto are with Venezuela, and whatever we have to live through will serve to make us Good (with a capital G) and better, so that we may be ready for the stage of rebuilding and reconciliation that those of us who have decided to stay in our homeland for good will have to build.

Happy New Year, my beloved Venezuelans! May God and the Blessed Virgin fill you with abundant graces and blessings! May Truth, Justice and Peace shine in our beloved Venezuela!