Chevalier family: Who would have thought!

Attending the last General Assembly of the Chevalier Family Laity in Cebu was not part of my plans. It was completely spontaneous and unexpected. However, something made me insist on going, overcoming unforeseen circumstances and critical opinions about the difficulty of such a long journey and unknown conditions. “You’re crazy!” many people told me.

I must say that the trip seemed endless to Ana and me. It was practically 48 hours of flights, transfers, and buses… and thank goodness, we were together.

Finally, we arrived in Cebu (Philippines) to meet the other members of the Laity of the Chevalier Family from 52 countries on all continents.

We joined the European delegation with lay people, now good friends, from Belgium, Holland, and Germany, who welcomed us very warmly. It was precisely at that moment that I felt that this sudden unity among strangers from different backgrounds was something very, very special and the one thing we had in common could only explain it: Faith. That was it, you could feel Faith there! That was our connection and that was giving us Hope.

In fact, we integrated so well that, for me, the examples of life and the talks with Rita and Fr. Mark, both Belgians, led me to react and understand that my life as a Christian could not be limited to watching and keeping quiet. I had to take the reins firmly and put my Christian activity at the centre of it, learning to follow the human example of Jesus: love, mercy, and service. What better way to do this than as a lay member of the Chevalier Family, adopting as my own and practicing the charism of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart: Formation, Prayer, and Mission. With a strong conviction that we lay people must also play a major role in transmitting the Christian word and thought, leaving behind the widespread belief that “that’s what the ‘priests’ are for.” I am reminded of the message of Fr. Abzalon in Cebu, who told us with conviction that we lay people have the future of the Mission in our hands and the responsibility to Grow in Love.

I was also fascinated by the stories of life and dedication to others told by the missionaries attending the meeting, cheerful, smiling men and women, not at all closed in on their habits, devoted to others and doing good wherever they go. This is the case of the Filipino sisters dedicated to the care and protection of children who are victims of abuse by their relatives.

Living there with them, I became truly aware of the existence of a kind-hearted and much-needed Church, as human as can be, a marvel!

All of this was the catalyst for my change in Christian belief and spirituality. It was an intuition beyond logic, dispensing with the self-imposed requirement of filtering all beliefs and thoughts through rationality.
Until then, I was accustomed to living my faith as a family tradition. I had not discovered the power of faith to humanize us and give new meaning to our lives. I was already opening my eyes to this when I met Fr. Chema and participating in his weekly evangelical spirituality meetings in Madrid, where I began to realize the need to be attentive to the words and actions of Jesus, as what truly matters and as a guide and way of life.

So after Cebu, I came back ready to do mission work, right here and now, in my neighbourhood with my neighbours, with those I saw as most in need of companionship, affection, and time. The fact is that I had understood that Jesus’ call leads us to wake up from the indifference, passivity, or neglect with which we often live our faith.

I shared all this when I arrived in Madrid with my friend and spiritual companion Fr. Chema, who is being the best support and pillar to carry out this task of doing everything possible to bring the beauty and joy of the Christian faith to those around us, building community with them, sharing and transmitting a message of love, fraternity, help, and mercy, showing them a smile that facilitates their hope that God is indeed in and with all of us.

This is how the Program for Accompanying the Elderly came about in the parish-shrine of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Madrid, with the aim of trying to alleviate the unwanted loneliness of those who, because of their age, find themselves marginalized and hopeless.

I am now fully committed to moving this forward and am very grateful for the warm welcome and the large number of people eager to collaborate to achieve it.

The program has two lines of action: one consists of visits to nursing homes and hospitals, and the other is the creation of a meeting place in the parish that we have called the “Golden Age Athenaeum,” where older people come almost every week to meet, chat, learn about current issues, and feel useful and accompanied.

For the visits to nursing homes, we have created a group of seven lay volunteers who, with the collaboration of Caritas Madrid, are already visiting two nursing homes on a weekly basis. Access to hospitals is proving difficult, but we have not lost hope of starting to collaborate with them as well.

Our “Golden Age Athenaeum” has now completed its first year of existence, and we are very happy with the participation we have received.

My impression is that with all this, we feel more and more like a community, we share more, we know each other better, and we help each other more. It is beautiful to see how we reach out to each other altruistically to achieve the common good.

This includes lay volunteers, seniors from the “Golden Age Athenaeum,” parish collaborators, and the MSC. Together, we have achieved a deep sense of closeness in this truly shared mission.

A clear example of this union was the charity market we organized, together with Fr. José Antonio Rafael, MSC, to help the Elderly Centre of the Association for a Dignified and Happy Old Age in Paraguay to improve its medical clinic. It was here that we all participated very actively. Ana, with her experience in this type of event, made it very easy for us to prepare and run this market together. The lay people threw themselves into its organization, the parish gave us all kinds of facilities, and the members of the ‘Golden Age Athenaeum’ were also very actively involved in making it happen. In short, it was a great success in terms of solidarity and Christian community.

The purpose of this reflection is to convey to you the great importance of shared mission and the urgent need for lay people to participate in it.

I would also like to thank all of you who made this possible. To you, Chema, Jaime, Javier/es, Miguel, Ana, Lourdes, Pilar/es, Ulises, Teresa, Charo, Carmen, Ricardo, Lucía, Rosario, Mercedes, José, Juan, Carlos, Rosa, Ángel, Ángeles, Elaine, Santiago, Mónica, Cristina, Enrique, Manina, Luz, Purificación, Lucho, Adelina, Laura, Isa… Yes, many people have collaborated on this community project, sharing their time and dedication to make it happen.

I sincerely believe that I can conclude by conveying our joy at laying the foundations of a Christian community from our MSC parish. Don’t you agree?

I will end with a quote from Pope Francis that I read recently: “… we must take Christ out of the sacristy. Christ is on the street, with the people…”

Silvia González del Amo, LCF