Greetings from Rev. Mariano Jose Sedano Sierra to the Day of St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Dear friends,

this year, I unfortunately cannot be together with you in Russia to celebrate the day of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, our heavenly patroness. While I keep all of you in my thoughts, I’d like to send you my greetings and some special reflections to which I was inspired by the Year of Faith that we celebrate together.

Faith is a new view of everything that exists. Faith should not be blind, as we often get to hear or read. Faith gives us a new light. Those, who have the faith, see this world, in which evil, selfishness, falsehood and injustice undoubtedly prevail. The faith does not make us blind. It does not lead us into another unreal and nowhere existing world. This is actually the meaning of the word "utopia". The opposite is true: the faith opens our eyes and enables us to see that the sources, from which evil and injustice gain their mighty forces, are indifference and permitting silence that always accompany the evil. The silence of those who do not dare to freely express their views because of fear to complicate their life. The silence of the people, who are afraid of losing their social status and financial position or of disturbing their peace of mind. One is probably also silent for the reason that he believes it has no sense to do something. All this reinforces the widely varying forms of evil. Conformism and the unconscious participation are sometimes as dangerous as the violence itself. There is a silence that can be considered as a messenger of hate and injustice, because it blinds the eyes of one’s soul and cripples the ability of one’s heart to strive for a better world order. In order to overcome the evil, our world needs people of faith who can see everything with new eyes, with the eyes of faith.

Saint Elizabeth was one of those people. Thanks to her deep faith, her contemporaries took her life for a reflection of Christ's life. That was not easy, firstly because she was a woman. From childhood to her adolescence, everything in her life was determined by other people, including the choice whom to marry. Her own opinion was nothing outside her home. Nevertheless, Elizabeth did not remain indifferent to all misery and distress she faced in her life. She had the power to somewhat restore justice in the society of that time. She believed in Christ. So she decided, just as He had done, to humiliate herself, renounce her title as a countess and set up a hospital for the poor in the valley below the castle. She said she would not wish to have a golden crown when her beloved Lord was crowned with thorns. Therefore, she sold all her jewelry and turned it into hot meals, shelter, medicine and clothing to the poor. She received and washed them, treated their wounds and made their bed. She could not live otherwise than devoting her love to all people around her.

Thank God, there are still such people among us nowadays. They also cannot be complacent and idle in view of the many problems that surround us today. These people go to those in need and give them the feeling that every person is precious and worthy of care, tenderness and attention simply because he is a human being, a personality, a child of God. Such people believe in men. This belief enables them to address not just an abstract faceless problem, but to see a man in need, who can and must be assisted.

Every person who works with Caritas could say that he or she is not a hero. Everyone working with Caritas feels his weakness and his lack of strength. Despite all he feels the strength of his faith.

We will not remain silent and idle in view of someone’s need. With God's help, we try at least to do that well, what depends on us. Moreover, we feel that not only we help the poor. The elderly, sick, disadvantaged, disabled and imprisoned people also help us because they make us more human, simpler, and more able to love and to show our affection, in contrast to the image we have of ourselves by seeing only our narrowness and selfishness. They help us every day to believe in ourselves.

Today we’d like to thank the Lord for all the people who make feasible contribution to increase warmth, tenderness, closeness, consolation and joy. For all those who have been and still are for us the living icons of Jesus Christ. With the intercession of our Heavenly Patroness, we pray today to our Lord for mercy and source of every consolation, for His power, so that we can remain a small token of faith, consolation and hope for all those in need.

Your brother and father in Christ,

Mariano

Rome, 17 November 2012