Whose Brothers and Sisters? Three criteria for an impossible fraternity

There is nothing new about stating that we, as human beings,  need to live in fraternity,  nor in adding that this is an urgent matter. We do not  doubt that this cry has been raised down  through the centuries by people who have given their lives for this ideal. What always requires a  new approach, however, is to do so in each different context. We must ask the Spirit to show us with creative fidelity what new ways, what updated pastoral pedagogies, what original inspirations will help us grow towards this goal to which faith invites us and our religious leaders call us.

Experience leads us to propose three pedagogical and pastoral criteria by which we can induce our brothers and sisters to see this goal as their own and to associate themselves with the development of this desired project in the present moment.^[1]

A pedagogy of open lineage

Each of us belongs to a certain lineage; we come from a certain historical chain of relationships, of which we are but a link. Regardless of whether or not we know them, our genealogies influence  our identity by virtue and by defect. We are to a significant extent what we do with what we have inherited on a genetic, familial, cultural and personal level. If we were to ignore this, we would be committing a grave  error.

Being able to make ourselves aware of this historical memory inscribed in our personality is a useful pedagogical action that prevents us from falling into the trap, typical of an excessive   subjectivity, of believing that everything begins with our freedom. Rooting ourselves in the nourishing fibers of our relationships grounds the possibility of consciously embracing  the horizon of meaning that we expect from tomorrow. 

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