Prophets of Fraternity Amidst a Pandemic

By Br. Rafael Vargas, SDB

My two-year experience in the regional center for the formation of the Salesian brother, also known as CRESCO, offered me many blessings and helped deepen my own vocation as a Salesian Consecrated Brother. Even though this past year was affected by the pandemic, I believe that it not only forced me but also forced many to find new ways to communicate and interact together. This “new” way of interacting virtually sheds a light on my own understanding of what it means to be a prophet of fraternity.

I have both witnessed and experienced how reaching out to others through a simple text, letter, and/or voice/video call can have such a meaningful impact on someone else and even ourselves. This has caused me to reflect on my own understanding of accompaniment. If our technology allows us to easily be in touch with others from a distance, then why aren’t we making more use of it? Can we better make use of it now, especially when it comes to accompaniment of young people, especially young adults? Finally, I would even go further as to recall the importance and impact that we can have on being able to accompany each other, not only those within our community but especially those that we no longer live with in the same house. Even though we can make the excuse that we tend to be busy or that we do not want to bother the other person, I have always appreciated those times I had a chance to catch up with another person, and I am sure everyone can probably say the same. How hard is it to simply message or ask someone when they are free to chat or catch up? Let’s never hesitate to reach out and be those witnesses of fraternity God calls us to be and that others need us to be, especially those most isolated or farthest away.