The Joy of Venezuelans

Some people find it a bit hard to understand the reason for Venezuelans’ joy: how we can make a joke out of anything; how we manage to celebrate whatever comes along and get together with family and friends, even when we are flat broke; how we laugh even in the hardest of times.

I will never forget the day when Archbishop Pietro Parolin, now the Vatican Secretary of State, arrived in Venezuela to serve as apostolic nuncio in our country. A few of the faithful gave him a small welcome at the nunciature, and in his homily at the Mass he celebrated, he told us he had been a little afraid to come to Venezuela. He said his family and friends had told him he was “crazy” to agree to go to such a dangerous Third World country.

But then he said something that surprised us. What struck him most when he arrived at the airport was that he saw many smiling, helpful people (he had expected something else). And he kept seeing the same thing in the streets, in the people who welcomed him, in the people he had met in different parishes. He told us he could not understand how it was possible that Venezuelans, with so many problems, radiated so much joy.

I cannot explain the reasons for Venezuelans’ happiness in spite of their problems, but I think one of the most important causes of that joy is our faith. We Venezuelans are people of faith, and we keep our faith close to us, in everyday life. Here the words God and the Virgin are on our lips all the time; words like “bless you,” “God willing,” “God will help us” are never missing from a Venezuelan’s vocabulary. Even in the enormous lines we have had to stand in, where you can feel how tense people are, there is always one person or several who calm those next to them with phrases like: “God is going to get us out of this,” “God is going to help us,” “the Virgin is going to protect us.”

Beyond what I have just written, Venezuela has the privilege of a people who are Marian through and through. The popular devotions to the Virgin under her different titles (Coromoto, the Valley, La Chinita and so many others) are truly unique.

As soon as Pietro Parolin arrived in Venezuela, he attended his first procession of the Divina Pastora, and I remember him telling a television reporter: “I simply cannot believe this incredible display of faith by the Venezuelan people. What people tell you is one thing; what you experience here in person is something else.” In all the years he was in Venezuela, our dear former nuncio, now one of Pope Francis’s right-hand men, never missed the January procession of the Divina Pastora, and you could see him grinning from ear to ear every time the cameras focused on him.

Deep down, I suppose he knew what that great display of popular piety meant.

I am convinced that the faith of Venezuelans, and their popular piety, will lead us to become a country that lights up the whole world with its example of faith and joy, once we come out of the crisis we are living through, in harmony and in peace.

At this moment, God and His Most Holy Mother, under the title of the Divina Pastora, are asking us to live as true brothers and sisters, children of God, following His commandments, and to keep praying and fighting, more than ever, so that we can sow the love, peace and justice that only God can give us.

The joy of Venezuelans is something that can only be understood in the light of God.

How great our faith is! How great our joy is! How great it is that we Venezuelans know we are children of God! How great it is to love all our fellow Venezuelans! How great it is to pray and fight in our beloved Homeland for a better Venezuela for all!

Divina Pastora, on your feast day we ask you to protect Venezuela and each one of us Venezuelans who are here working for a better future!