13/12/2023
This is my latest article. I will share it to be read in the Linkedin app and here if you do not had a Linkedin account.
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A few years ago, I found an article that Josean Ramos wrote for the University Newspaper Dialogo of the University of Puerto Rico. In it, he shared about a Boricua Cancionero (Puerto Rican songbook) made with “war songs” that emerged in both world wars. One of those songs was “Despedida” (Farewell), written by Don Pedro Flores, which features a man who goes off to war and is worried that his poor mother will be left unattended in his absence. “It only breaks my soul and condemns me that I left my mother so alone, my poor little mother who is alive. Who will remember her in my absence?” These verses capture the anguish a son or daughter can feel when they fear their parents will be left alone in their absence. Unfortunately today, this anguish does not seem to exist for many in our country (Puerto Rico) when we observe the abandonment that our elderly suffer in our hospitals.
According to the Department of the Family, by mid-year, a 125% increase in cases of older adults abandoned in hospitals had been reported. For the fiscal year 2017-2018, the reported cases were 285 compared to the fiscal year 2022-2023, with a preliminary number of cases that amounts to 769, as written by Felipe Gómez Martínez on Wapa. Tv. The unfortunate thing about what is happening with older people in our country is that they not only suffer abandonment, but they also struggle with problems such as the lack of doctors, both economic and physical limitations to pay for their various services, income, and food. In addition, we cannot fail to mention older adults who are not abandoned but who experience abuse such as neglect and financial exploitation, as reported in 2019 by the Division of Prevention and Control of Chronic Diseases of Geriatrics.
All this is possible because orthopraxis is embodied in solidarity. According to Gutiérrez, solidarity is “a lifestyle, a break with their social class of origin, helping the poor and dispossessed to become aware of their situation of exploitation and seek to free themselves from it.” This definition within this challenge that we have as a Church in the face of the abandonment of the elderly is a point to question whether we, as the Church of the Lord, know what is happening with our elderly in our country. Jesus told Peter in John 21:18 that the time would come when he would not be able to gird himself and would need someone to do it. Many older adults cannot understand their state of oppression, but we as a Church can, and for that reason, we are called to be in solidarity amid their oppression and need. May we as a community identify with these little ones as Jesus identifies with them according to his parable of the King and his little ones in Matthew 25:35-40. A supportive Church can imitate Jesus and incarnate to be an active liberator and representative of those who can no longer stand alone. A supportive Church is incarnated by taking the suffering of those older adults alone and becoming their shepherds and their community. A supportive Church shouts when the little ones have been silenced, fights when the little ones have lost their strength, and liberates when the little ones have been subjected to the oppressions of this world.
In conclusion, taking a representative and active role among older people in our country is more than a social duty; it is patriotic. For the Church of the Lord, it is not an option but an obligation. The Church is called to have the same feeling that Christ Jesus had, as Paul would say in his letter to the Philippians. The place of the Church is not in the palace; it is where he is hungry, naked, thirsty, imprisoned, and forgotten in the hospital like our abandoned older adults. It is meritorious that we can unite to make a better country, as Hostos would say, by establishing the Kingdom of Christ through his Kerygma. Being a supportive Church seeks to transform society and create a better nation.
Given this situation that older people in our country are experiencing, we should be honest and ask ourselves these questions: Am I worried knowing this is happening to our elderly? What representative role do I have as an individual? What role should we have as the Lord's Church? Eugenio María de Hostos, in his work “Social Morals,” spoke of the “duty of duties,” and it focuses on the fact that our duty, outside of the individual, is accompanied by the duty to the family, to the neighborhood community, with society, with the country, and in conclusion, with all humanity. Hostos did not believe that the human being is only a biological component but also a social component. Through Hostos' thoughts, an invitation arises and, at the same time, a prophetic challenge that we as human beings, as citizens, as Puerto Ricans who point out that we have the banana brand and many with blonde hair whistling with sporting patriotism, Let us be called to be an integral part of watching over those Puerto Rican men and women whose hair is dyed gray and who find themselves alone in the oblivion that Don Pedro feared that his poor little mother would be in his absence. Hostos said that our social responsibility is not only to our race or origin; therefore, they don't need to be something directly ours to feel the weight, responsibility, and love to help those who have been forgotten. The Hebrew Bible states that old age symbolizes wisdom, justice, and dignity since the human being, even in his old age, is a creation of God in his image and likeness. Hostos believed in the value of each person, in the right that every human being is capable of learning and becoming a citizen transformed by education to create a better country. We must embrace the desire to dignify the lives of these older adults who live in solitude, silence, and anonymity.
What is the role of the Church? Gustavo Gutiérrez would tell us that the participation of the Church is found in 2 roles: prophetic and supportive. The Church has been called to point out the oppression experienced by marginalized communities. Denounce and be a partisan voice for those who suffer. Likewise, the church must report itself if it is silent and does not participate in the call for solidarity with marginalized communities. The Church must be an active representative in the struggle for the dignity of every marginal community since it follows God's representative action through his incarnation in Jesus. According to Jon Sobrino, “Jesus is the one who carries out a practice aimed at transforming an oppressive society into a society of brotherhood and justice, by the ideal of the Kingdom of God.” This is the same mission that the Church has. The mission of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ is that Good News remains orthodoxy and is incarnated in orthopraxis that seeks to transform society and be a community based on “fraternity and justice” that chooses to live in freedom and liberate.
