At the beginning of 2020, we found ourselves hopeful, dreaming of the world with open doors, looking at ourselves indifferently. Many were already in the streets demanding equity, justice, and the recognition of human rights. Others were perhaps unaware of the social conflicts that were about to explode. Everyone was standing in their own trenches of struggle, resistance, or indifference. Clearly, we did not anticipate that we were about to face our own human fragility.
The virus arrived, the pandemic closed our international borders but opened worrying doors. Domestic violence escalated, mental health problems accelerated or increased. Excessive workloads doubled or tripled. Hospitals were overwhelmed. World leaders showed their inability to respond effectively to a health crisis. Society showed its true rates of awareness and empathy, of interest in personal and collective care or disbelief in government. The world came to a freeze. The unstable economic situation put millions of jobs at risk. Genuine social struggles were condemned, liberties were threatened. The educational system was overwhelmed, the digital media fell short.
And in the midst of all the complexity, some of us who were privileged learned to connect with our families and friends in a safe way, we thanked the health personnel’s actions with hymns, we opened our doors to art. We looked for new ways to meet, to reflect, to help. We lost our courage and recovered it. We learned to read eyes because the mask hid the gestures expressions from us. We knew we were fragile and in that fragility, we discovered ourselves in solidarity.
The Arrupe Initiatives team celebrates the ability to feel fragile and vulnerable and at the same time accompanied, to reflect collectively, to support each other, to care for the whole person, to take a moment to feel and assume our own feelings and thoughts.
We do not lose hope. We know that together we will continue to fight for a more just and united society, we trust that our students will be luminaries in this society immersed in the shadows of racism, hostility, violence, inequality. We are confident that it is our Ignatian formation that will give us signs of hope, accompanied by deep discernment and the seal engraved in our hearts with the motto “In everything to love and serve”.
The Arrupe Initiatives team invites us, as St. Alberto Hurtado did, to “be fires” that light other fires, that during these holidays and looking forward to 2021, we act from love and solidarity, being people for and with others. We wish you hope, love, and reconciliation during the holidays. May this be an opportunity for deep reflection, allowing us to collectively analyze what happened throughout this year.
