Blessed Fransisco Garate. He was a brother who obligingly guarded the portal of Deusto University for 41 years. He dedicatedly did the responsibility until people called him ‘a smiling guard’ for his friendly and respectful deeds. On this reflection, I will use the daily reading since it talks about the beatitudes and the woes of Jesus to reflect on the grateful vocation of Brother Francisco Garate.
Jesus asks us to be a happy and also a discreet person. The blessed condition of beatitudes come from and will come from the kingdom which Jesus is affecting. The Gospel shows us that Jesus wields a two edged sword of the Gospel. Blessing and justice for the poor on one side and woe and wrath for the rich who reject God's call for justice on the other.
As God's saints, He calls us also to take sides and not only to take sides as protectors but to take the great step of claiming the poor, the rejected, and the hated as beloved children of God, to enter into community with them as Christ entered into community with outcasts, especially the poor. Jesus comes to bless the poor.
We know that Jesus comes from the poor, from Nazareth where nothing good comes from. From among the poor will come the salvation of the world. This is God's way and we can share in that way. We can share in the Grand story of healing by being the saints of God, by looking to the poor and the outcast and the hated and seeing Jesus for Jesus said that when you give the least of people as glass of water you give it to him.
This is God's way, the way of love, the way of Christ, the way of the saints of God, a way that we know will one day be victorious over all the Beasts of the world, over everything that impoverishes the human condition.
Same way as I reflect on brother fransisco garate. God gives happiness to him as he wishfully followed God’s will. Garate was born in a farm family. He joined the society when the Jesuits thrown away from Spain. He joined when the society was in an unpleasant time. After novitiate, he worked for 10 years as a nurse and a sexton in a collage. After that, he moved to Deusto University and worked as a portal man. He faithfully did this job for 41 years. The entering gate of that collage was always busy with people in their different needs such as some parents always came to visit their children, some people came for an appointment to Jesuits priests or professors, and beggars who daily asked brother garate charity. Meanwhile, brother garate also had to take the phone. He never murmured or be angry to people. He is very altruistic. He ever said “I do my job as I can since God is always beside me and sometimes takes over my jobs. By the grace of God, everything becomes light and pleasant. Every guest we serve is the best guest of all.”
So, do we dare to follow the way of brother fransisco garate who faithfully do the job as God’s will. Or reflect on the gospel, do we dare believe that the hungry will be fed and those who weep will laugh, do we dare to bless the poor? In Jesus Christ we should say "yes" What a blessing when we answer Jesus call to bring peace to those who weep, to bring food to those who are hungry, and to bring love to those who are hated.
Jesus is calling us to a holy calling as the saints of light, as molded by brother garate, to be a people who are willing to share life with those who suffer, to break out of lives of woe, and this is the way he calls us to.
So, what should be our real vocation? Brother Garate invites us to share the cup of solidarity with the poor which is the cup of blessing, through his works, well, he also invites us to faithfully work and study on the hands of God so by then our work and lesson will be lighten and pleased.
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