Christmas in Caracas, 2013

Today, December 25, we wake up once again short of sleep and with swollen feet in our beloved Caracas. This year the December chill, the “pacheco,” is delightful. It’s almost seven in the morning. We turn on the coffee maker to warm up a little and sit on the balcony to look at the clear blue sky that nature gives our eyes at this time of year. Since very early, the birds have been singing to our dear Ávila, which these days looks more beautiful than ever.

While my children wake up, I think about how happy they were last night. Their smiles erased every problem; those faces full of joy were like something magical that made everything bad disappear, that would lift anyone’s spirits, that encouraged us to keep going with great fortitude, for them!

At the packed midnight Mass, as I watched so many people kneeling in prayer, I wondered why we have had to live through what we are living through: why so much anarchy, so much corruption, so much suffering… why so many families have had to be separated, why, my God!, so many injustices.

As I thought about this, I turned to look at the excitement of the children (you should see how many children there are in Caracas), who were showing off their best clothes and best hairdos and running happily around the nativity scene. You could see them asking their parents things, and I supposed it was the same thing my youngest children were asking me: “Mommy, what time is dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s?” For them, the best part of the night of the 24th is getting to their grandparents’ house to share Christmas dinner with their cousins: the roast pork that only Grandma makes so delicious, Auntie’s one-of-a-kind chicken salad, or the pan de jamón and the special dessert each family is in charge of bringing. Those Christmas dinners will be engraved in their memories for life, and they will want to repeat them later with their own children and grandchildren.

Last night at twelve, as I watched them looking for the Baby Jesus to put him in the manger, I thought about how hard life was for the Family of Nazareth. The Pope reminded us a few days ago that Christmas is not a fairy tale. No! It is something that really happened and came to change the world. It changed it so much that our history is divided into Before Christ and After Christ.

And God chose to become man within a family. Not a powerful family, with every comfort and luxury one could have, but a simple family, like any of ours. And they went through great hardship, and Joseph sweated for his family’s bread every day! And they were completely happy, because they were full of hope.

Hope is vital for us. Recently Pope Francis told us that when a Christian forgets hope, or worse still loses hope, his life has no meaning. Well, I think hope is what keeps so many families here fighting tirelessly. That hope keeps us happy in spite of everything. That hope in God guarantees that Good will always triumph over Evil. And that will come, sooner or later, but it will come. That is why here we are, here we remain and here we will stay, sweating as never before, going through whatever hardship we have to, but always moving forward, with great joy and fortitude, because nothing and no one! can take away our Hope.

Nothing and no one! will take away the hope we see in the eyes of our children, our families and our friends, who are in the same situation as we are. There are many of us in this struggle, and united, and with God and the Virgin!, we will keep working against the injustice and corruption that have destroyed our beloved homeland.

We are not going to lose that hope, because we know our Father God loves us very much and will help us keep going in the country where He willed us to be born. We are sure God will keep helping us, and that when He wills and as He wills we will walk the road that leads us to live with Justice, Freedom and Peace for all. Will it be easy? It won’t, but we are not afraid, because “If God is with us, whom shall we fear?”

Meanwhile, we will go on enjoying our dear Caracas and our beloved Venezuela, doing what is ours to do, and all with great joy, because those wonderful children and young people we see all the time, in every corner of our country, are the lever that keeps our heads held high and our eyes on a single goal: a better future for all the children and grandchildren of Venezuela.

I know the Holy Family of Nazareth understands perfectly what we are living through and intercedes for us from Heaven. I send all my readers a big Merry Christmas hug, and always remember that nothing and no one! can ever steal our Hope of a better future.