We’re into the final stretch, now, exerting our energies in both academia and in pastoralia, in both classrooms and chapels up and down the length of Chile, not so much preparing as finishing the courses and workshops that will lead to sacraments and grades. The summer rest and vacation beyond Christmas glimmers brightly, and people walk about with a fixed stare at the goal: another year behind us.
Thus is life in the southern hemisphere, when December marks the end of the social, labor, academic and ecclesiastical efforts of the latter half of the year, and January a peaceful time of summer school and mission experiences in the “provinces” far to the south, or north, of Chile’s capital. February in Chile is absolutely and sacredly devoted to vacation, even if older or poor people are stuck in the city without any possibility of traveling anywhere. As a nation, Chile closes in February.
This imbues the Western traditions of shopping for the holidays with a Chilean sense of preparation for outdoor activities and barbecues, of renewing social and family bonds, and travel. Pools open to the public, lovers lounge in the grassy, cool parks, children play in the streets well into the late hours of balmy nights even as department stores mimic northern-hemisphere decorations of red ribbon bows and garlands of glimmering holly and melodies about sleigh bells and the “Viejo Pascuero” (Old Man Christmas).
Nobody in parish communities wants to create a dependency on food or material assistance at this time of year. We generally don’t organize big giveaways of Christmas presents and boxes of food for the working-class families in our area. There has to be local organization, as well, and efforts at giving something in exchange for the generous contributions from wealthier parishes and organizations in other parts of the city at this time of year, which we often facilitate.
We try to respect the capacity of the recipients of this kind of help to organize themselves and donate time and whatever else they can afford to run Christmas parties for children and for the elderly (“third age” people, as they are respectfully known here). A certain number of families are interviewed over weeks at this time of year by parish Solidarity teams to ascertain their level of need, and some help in the form of toys and foodstuffs is quietly passed on to them at their homes in the week before Christmas.
We also foster contact among different communities of the city, creating awareness in everyone both of the economic divisions in society as well as the structural causes of such disparities, which constitute a direct challenge to the Christian values at the heart of our faith communities.
Of course, we also enjoy ourselves. These gatherings of solidarity and consciousness-raising are good times of laughter and fun, deeply connecting events wherein people rediscover their bonds of humanity and spirituality, their common richness as Chileans who speak the same language in the deepest sense of the word. Our hearts expand as we step into the warmer months of a summertime solidarity, and a time of renewal exhilarates us as bracingly as a dip in the Pacific Ocean.
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