What If This Lasts Forever?

About a month ago, one of my sons climbed into my bed at night and, with a worried look, asked me: “Mommy, what if this lasts forever?”

Honestly, I had never asked myself that question, because I have very great hope in the Venezuelan people, and I know that at some point in our history this will take a different course.

But I had to answer my son, and this is what I told him:

“I honestly don’t think this will last forever. And it won’t, because Venezuelans don’t have the mentality of slaves. Remember that we are one of the few countries in the world where anyone who wants to go to university can do so. That, my son, is extremely important, because people who are educated, who are prepared, who long for their children and grandchildren to get ahead too, are not going to allow the country they live in to keep being destroyed.”

“In the meantime, son, what we have to do is keep praying and fighting with all our strength, each of us doing what we have to do and giving our very best to build a better future. You, like many of your classmates, have a very great responsibility for your human and academic formation. You’ve seen for yourself how the young people in this country are preparing themselves with everything they’ve got to be the generation that takes over, the one our nation needs. We need a generation that will steer the nation toward true development, where we can all live with dignity.”

“What you have all learned in these very hard years has made you suffer and worries you as much as it worries us, but it has also made you stronger, so that you can keep holding out in this titanic struggle of living and working in a country with so many problems.”

“The secret, my son, is never to lose hope, and to live happily with whatever we are given to live right now, even if it is the greatest injustice. Because remember that whoever acts rightly, before God, even if locked in a cell, has an inner freedom and happiness that nothing and no one can take away. What you do have to understand very clearly is that right now there is no room here for the word weakness. We have to be brave, strong and ready to face anything.”

“You keep studying and preparing yourself as best you can; sow values and good things around you, in everyone who crosses your path. You and your friends can do wonders. You’ll see that if you live like that, day by day, the thought of what might happen in the future won’t paralyze you. And always remember one thing: God is with us and will never abandon us.”

After I told him all this, he gave me a kiss and went to bed. The next day, as always, he was up at dawn with his computer and books in the kitchen, drinking coffee and studying before heading off to the university. I have never seen my children study as hard as they have this year, even though they lost many days of classes.

Life goes on, and only God knows what will happen in our beloved Venezuela. And I am convinced, utterly convinced, that it will be our wonderful young students who lead this country out of the crisis we are in.

Those thousands of young people are as strong as iron, because they have been forged by pain and injustice. They have experienced firsthand the worst of human misery, and they will not allow the country where they were born to continue down that road.

My greatest hope that we will come through this rests above all on God, but I also have an objective foundation that no one can dispute: our young people, and so many of their fathers, mothers, grandparents, teachers, workers, business owners and others who are in this country giving everything they’ve got in this chapter of history we have been given to live.

There is no shortage here of good people, fighting people, strong people, hardworking people, people of faith and hope. People who know this will not last forever. Will it be hard? We all know it will. But we are not afraid, because God is with us, and if He is with us, what are we to fear?

May God and the Blessed Virgin pour out their graces and blessings on those of us who are here (and on those who help us from abroad), putting up the fight with pain and suffering because of so many problems, but also with great hope and joy, because we know we are doing what we must.

The day will come when Truth, Justice and Peace will shine throughout our beloved Venezuela. I know I will see that day, and I will be able to write about it with all the emotion of my life.