Special note: This is our second reflection in a series as we share the MISEVI experience of the six Vincentian characteristics that guide our mission. Our second reflection is from Asuncion, who is part of Misevi Venezuela and a member of the International Team.

Participation of the missionaries in the condition of the poor, so that we not only attend their evangelization, but that we ourselves are evangelized by them.

Being a true evangelist takes a lot of dedication. But evangelizing requires a good attitude of true Christians, who want to communicate the message of God. Many of us comment, advertise or even more: we communicate to people that God loves them. We can all evangelize and even more so if we make an effort and begin to guide and organize our knowledge and motivate others to be part of this ministry that would enhance the work of God. Let us remember that we are in the times when many do not know the truth of God through the scriptures.

It is time to be aware and to be able to carry out this wonderful work: to evangelize, to distribute the true message, to bring lost souls to the door of salvation. Today many die without really knowing Jesus, today many give their lives to certain human practices and ideologies that serve themselves and not the Lord. That is why it is necessary that we be aware and take from now on the importance of evangelizing well a person or a group of people that God arranges daily in our wonderful lives. But how to put it into practice? Or how to exercise it? These are strong and serious questions when making the decision to be a good missionary, but the most important thing is to be available, and above all to live in a poor condition in order to be in tune with each person who is going to be evangelized.

The most beautiful moment as missionaries is when we feel that we are not only evangelizers but that we are evangelized- becoming true servants of God when we internalize the light of the scriptures without deception and injustices, fulfilling the law of Christ or his teachings as God commands in his word. It is there where we understand and make others understand that the mandates of God are in our lives and in that church where there is Justice and truth in Christ. Those who do not ignore the sacred scriptures have their scales well defined thanks to the delivery of a good heart and accurate reading of the word of God, thus thus being able to understand very well the commandments of God through Jesus Christ.

We must take into account something very important: that evangelizing begins with respect for the dignity of the other. “Dignity” is intrinsic to man because he is a human person; the person is the most worthy among creatures.

In letting ourselves be evangelized by the poor there is a poverty that is not desirable. That of hunger and misery. That of those who do not reach the end of the month (or the end of the day). The one with barefoot children and tables without bread. You cannot play at making poetry with that poverty, but fight, as best we know, to end it.

There is another necessary poverty. The one who does not feel omnipotent and does not walk with an air of self-sufficiency. That of the simple, the humble, those who do not walk around as if the world belongs to them. This is what it is all about now. To know how to get rid of the riches that bind us, lock us up and separate us from God.

The poor seem to break the barrier of power, wealth, ability and pride. They remove the shell that surrounds the human heart to protect themselves. The poor man reveals Jesus Christ. He makes the one who has come to “help him” discover his own poverty and vulnerability. He also makes him discover his capacity to love, the love potency of his heart. The poor man has a mysterious power; in his weakness, he is able to touch hardened hearts and bring to light the sources of living water hidden within him.

It is the little hand of the child that is not afraid but that slides between the bars of our prison of selfishness. And he manages to open the lock. The poor man liberates. And as evangelizers this is the best way to live among the poor from within their reality.

The poor evangelize. That is why they are the treasures of the Church.