A Prayer for People
2008 by Francisca Cortes This prayer comes from the book edited by Chris Iosso and Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, Prayers for the New Social Awakening: Inspired by the New Social Creed [Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008], 38–40, available from www.TheThoughtfulChristian.com. It is republished here with permission from the author and Westminster John Knox Press.[wpcol_1half id=”” class=”” style=””]
Dios todo lo puede y está con nosotras y nosotros hasta el fin de nuestros días.
Dios está siempre en dondequiera que estemos y cuando lo necesitamos; Dios está con los que luchan en este mundo. Dios está cuando luchamos contra el mal, cuando pisotean nuestros derechos y nos golpean, cuando nos maltratan tratándonos como esclavas y esclavos. A Dios no le molesta acompañarnos a las cortes judiciales cuando reclamamos justicia. Dios hará que haya justicia. Si no en este mundo, habrá justicia cuando rindamos cuentas ante Dios Todopoderoso al final de nuestras vidas.
Dios es grande, generoso, y bondadoso con todas y todos los que luchamos por una vida digna. Dios nos dice, “ayúdate que yo te ayudaré,” y nos da la sabiduría, la fortaleza y la fuerza para seguir adelante cuando estamos cansados de la situación que vivimos. Nos anima el saber que cuando alguien nos golpea, nos humilla, Dios se siente golpeado y humillado. Sabemos que podemos contar con Dios, en las buenas y en las malas.
Debemos de agradecerle a nuestro Dios por tener la oportunidad de luchar por justicia para toda la humanidad. Especialmente al estar lejos de nuestros países, lejos de nuestras familias, trabajando largas horas para poder mantenernos y poder mandar ayuda a nuestras familias— esta es la hora de luchar con fe, con amor, sabiendo que Dios siempre nos protege. Este convencimiento nos ayudará a continuar nuestra lucha por la justicia.
Ante Dios todas y todos somos iguales: ricos y pobres. Pero en la tierra los ricos nos quitan a los pobres lo poquito que tenemos para hacerse más ricos con el sudor de los pobres, dejando a los pobres hundidos en la miseria. Los ricos creen que pueden gozar a costa del pobre; pero el pobre goza de Dios, quien está siempre entre los que no tienen privilegios. Esta necedad divina es más sabia que toda sabiduría humana; la debilidad divina es más fuerte que toda fortaleza humana.
El sufrimiento pone a prueba nuestra fe en Dios. A veces nos parece que Dios está ausente o so ha convertido en un incapaz. Pero tenemos que confiar que Dios está siempre con los luchan por la justicia.
¡Que Dios nos cuide, nos guarde, y nos bendiga!
Amén.
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God is almighty and is with us and lives with us every day until the end.
The Lord is always wherever we are and is with all the struggles throughout the world. When we are struggling against evil, when our rights are trampled and we are beat, mistreated and even enduring conditions of slavery every day, the Lord is not angered when the people responsible for these conditions are taken to court to bring about justice.
God will bring justice and maybe it will not be the justice of humankind on earth, but when we will have to stand before God almighty at the end of our lives and be judged.
God is great, generous and kind with us who struggle for a life with dignity for all. God says, help yourself that I will help you, for a reason. God gives us the wisdom and the strength to continue forward when we are tired of our situation.
Because when someone beats you or humiliates you, in reality they are not only beating you or humiliating you, they are doing this to our God almighty, whom we are with in the good and the bad.
That is why we must be thankful to God when we are in any struggle for justice for humanity. Especially when we are far from our country, far from our family, working long hours to be able to sustain ourselves and to help our families. We arrived here for a reason and now it is time to fight with faith, love, and hope in our Savior that always protects us and this is how we will continue forward in the struggle for justice.
God made everyone equal. God did not make rich and poor, but humans on earth have made this be this way and decided whom to take the little they have to make themselves richer from the sweat of the poor and leave the poor drowning in misery. The rich have all the privileges to enjoy everything the poor do not possess, but is among those that do not have things to privilege from.
God’s divine stupidity is wiser that the wisdom of human beings and God’s divine weakness is stronger than human strength.
The faith in God, almighty, can be tested by experience and suffering. Sometimes it seems that God is absent and incapable but we must know that God is always where there is Justice.
May God take care of us, protect us, and bless us. Amen.
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Francisca Cortes, a Zapotec indian from Oaxaca, Mexico, is a farmworker and member of the CIW. When Francisca was 18 she immigrated to the US in order to help send her younger brothers and sisters to school. After experiencing first-hand the injustices and miserable wages in the Southwest Florida tomato fields, she joined with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to fight for better wages and treatment for her fellow workers (www.ciw-online.org). A nationally respected speaker and grassroots leader, in 2005 she was a finalist for the Cardinal Bernadin Award for young leaders. A practicing Catholic, Francisca resides in Immokalee, FL. Banner photo courtesy of The Poverty Initiative.
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