We celebrate a new anniversary of their death and remember how Monsignor Alejandro Labaka, Capuchin Bishop and Sister Inés Arango, Capuchin Tertiary Sister, offered their lives for the love of the Tagaeri in the Amazon of Ecuador. They, two different people, born in different places, Spain and Colombia respectively, with different life processes, are united by the providence of God in a common project, the commitment to the care of life and the rights of the Amazonian peoples. Like all missionaries, they received a call, decided to follow Jesus and serve Him through the mission that took them to different places where they left traces of good. In 1987, they were part of the team of missionaries working in the Apostolic Vicariate of Aguarico, a church that has always been committed to the cause of the people that inhabited these lands since long ago, living in peace and freedom. However, they were not civilized, had no civil identity, did not speak our language and did not understand why they were displaced from their territories. Alejandro and Inés looked at them, they saw them with the eyes of God and felt they were «brothers in Christ», they believed them worthy of love, respect, help, accompaniment and defense of their rights. To them they dedicated several years of their life and missionary service.
And it was on July 21, 1987, when they were trying to enter the Tagaeri, an uncontacted indigenous tribe, to initiate a process that would favor their protection, that they offered their lives. The news caused pain and surprised everyone, inside and outside the country, but as a seed that falls into the ground and dies to bear fruit, it has also generated life. His surrender was not improvised, it was the consequence of his option for Christ and the mission, evidence of his commitment to the excluded Amazonian peoples.
Since then, every year around their anniversary, a strong internal and external, personal, community and ecclesial movement is generated that brings us closer to their persons and testimonies. Those who knew them tell of their «passion for Christ and the mission». They longed for frontier places and were ready to give their lives for those they loved, as is recorded in the positio written about each of them, and which last June, in the discussion of the Theological Consultors of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, received positive votes with regard to the «Offering of life». What does this news mean for us today? The recognition that his life can inspire others, us in various ways, among others motivating us to:
-To discover and welcome the plan of God in our life
– To live to the full, that is, with passion and fidelity the vocation received
– To create inclusive fraternal bonds that allow us to generate and care for our own life and that of others
– To opt in Christ for the poor and excluded of today, from love, joyful and generous service even at the risk of our own life
– To care for the common home Pope Francis in the apostolic exhortation Gaudete et exultate no. 5 notes: «In the processes of beatification and canonization, account is taken of signs of heroism in the exercise of virtues, the giving of one’s life in martyrdom and also cases in which an offering of one’s own life for others, sustained until death, has been verified. Such an offering expresses an exemplary imitation of Christ, and is worthy of the admiration of the faithful”.
We are also aware that Pope Francis in the document Motu proprio Maiorem Caritatem, July 11, 2017, opened the possibility of beatification and canonization by another way, the offering of life, he says: «are worthy of special consideration and honor those Christians who , following more closely the steps and teachings of the Lord Jesus, have voluntarily and freely offered their life for others, persevering until death in this purpose» and adds: «The offering of life, to be valid and effective for the beatification of a Servant of God, must meet several criteria, including the necessity of the miracle happened after the death of the Servant of God and through his intercession.» Now it is a matter of getting to know them better and entrusting our needs to them, asking with faith for their intercession. Link to access all that refers to the missionaries:
https://alejandroeines.org/ In case of receiving graces, favors or miracles, please communicate to: alejandroeines@gmail.com
Sr. Bilma Narcisa Freire Chamorro, tc