A new year has begun with new experiences for the ministry and for my pastoral formation. At the beginning of January, we had the traditional celebration of the three wise men, and at the same time, I had the experience of visiting the Holy Land with the seminary. Both were very important experiences for the future of our ministry.
The celebration of the three wise men was held without my presence. A group of leaders were in charge of the logistics for the organization of the event. We had our traditional rosca, exchange of gifts, piñatas, lunch, the visit of Baltazar, Melchor and Gaspar with their gifts for the Child Jesus and for the children, and for the second consecutive year the Puerto Rican group accompanied us, both leading the music at worship and entertaining us during our time of fellowship. While I was in the Holy Land looking at the photos of the celebration I asked myself, what did I learn from this activity? I believe that both the community and myself learned how important it is to promote leadership among the disciples for the well-being of our ministry because if for some reason the leader or pastor cannot be present, the activities of the community must continue for the well-being and the future of the church.
That brings me to my pilgrimage in the Holy Land. I am very grateful to God for allowing me to have such a wonderful experience today as I am about to finish my academic training process with the seminary. We had the opportunity to visit Bethlehem, the wall that divides Palestine with Israel, Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, the desert of Judea where our Lord spent 40 days and 40 nights after his baptism, the journey of the cross, the empty tomb, the tomb of the patriarchs, and many other places where our Lord walked, healed and fed many with words and food. We also had the privilege of learning about the practices of the Jewish and Muslim religion.
Probably many of you would like to know what was the best part of my pilgrimage. This would be a very difficult question to answer because all the places were wonderful and each one of them created a time for meditation and reflection in the visitor’s mind, however, if I had to choose, I would choose the time we were around the Sea of Galilee. We boarded a boat and toured the lake, looking at the mountains that our Lord had to walk for us to receive the message of hope. During that time, we had a devotional in which we listened to the Gospel of Mark 4.35-41 (Jesus calms the storm). At the end of our time on the boat, I went to the lake, and reflected on the storms that my family and I have faced. I know that we are not alone and many of you have faced or are facing storms in your own lives. Storms are inevitable in this life and very painful. As Christians, we have comfort in remembering that Jesus is the one who calms the storms and gives us hope as we continue to live our baptism. My time at the lake brought me a sense of peace being reminded that we do not face our storms alone.
Brothers and sisters, let us continue to let ourselves be guided by the presence of Jesus in our lives so that the storms that come our way do not make us perish in our hope of a new life. Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. (1 Corinthians 16.13).
Edwin Aparicio, Pastoral Intern