Life is a walk, a walk with joy!
Galo Reinaldo Bogarín (PAR)
Galo Reinaldo Bogarín Alen, 52, an architect by profession, is the current director of the Centre of Paraguayan Studies Antonio Guasch (CEPAG) in Paraguay.
I present this narrative to you intending it to be a "sharing" of the experiences and motivations of my life;
what I have been collecting, learning, and sharing from the mission in the social apostolate, initiated in 2005 in CEPAG.
Until that year, my job was to make designs for architectural and construction projects, which were linked to social questions. Taking the more profound decision to support rural and indigenous communities through this mission constituted an important step in my life.
From there on, I had to work with my companions in the mission to design and plan strategies and projects for the training of farmers and indigenous people; through agro-ecological production, through organization by production committees and their instruments, and through education; seeking to improve the living conditions of families, all the while promoting and building a better country with the accompaniment of the Church.
My life hasn´t always been marked by the life and mission of the Jesuits. I was trained in my human and Christian vocation by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, where I learned that service is important for mission and that mission is founded on the love of others. The principal reason that made me accept the challenge was the cause that the Jesuits assumed, assume and will continue to assume in Paraguay. It is one which participates in the phrase that inspires decision-making: "In all things, love and serve.” It is a dream of building a just and united country, mainly from the most excluded sectors of our society. This option is consistent with my vision and personal option, and in this sense I also believe that it is the path we must take to build the new Paraguay of which we dream, which we want, and for which we work.
My work in the CEPAG is motivated by a phrase which always led me to reflect and which I wanted to make concrete in deeds, in action. It is the following: "A man of the church in the heart of the world, and a man of the world in the heart of the church." This is the summary of a path that, even with the difficulties of the mission, inspires us to walk with joy.
In the personal and work-related challenges that life presented me I integrated these phrases, and in them the dreams of accepting the opportunity to work for CEPAG: I left my job as an architect feeling that from this place I could contribute much, both to the construction of the country and of our Church, through the social apostolate.
My reflection is the following, and I want to offer it from two directions or specific angles: one perspective from society and the other from the Church.
In the first, society´s perspective, it would be good to consider the subject of equity and real justice; considering principally the crises that are occurring not just at a national level but also globally, including crises in the areas of food, energy, the environment, and finance. To get out of this "crisis" a political and cultural response is needed, thus it is crucial to work with people, with organized groups, and also in the structural aspects so that there are fewer people excluded and impoverished. The situation that is arising requires an evangelical response.
From the point of view of the Church and a living faith it would be good to increasingly work with a grouping of different congregations, charisms, and missions, for a more coordinated and supported effort for these excluded and impoverished sectors. Equal is the clear option from Jesus, who adopted poverty to truly seek liberation from situations of injustice which are essentially the heart of the problem.
This path, marked with the very consolations and desolations of a walk, has come to show me the presence of the God of life in this walk. Various moments in these past years have allowed for the confirmation of this presence.
Being able to understand, thus, both life and the mission, has meant that during these many years in CEPAG ours has been a walk with joy, with camaraderie, with intimacy, with networking, with the understanding that we are as small as grains of sand, like a mere yeast in the dough. The presence of the God of life accompanies us in our walk, day by day, and while our plans sometimes appear to be perfect or attempt to be so, for God, who has a plan for us all, it is of greater significance to be able to affect or work on our everyday lives.
