“Theology is autobiographical, but it is not an autobiography” (1) This words challenges in some degree the idea that God happen in life for some kind of people, in contrast with real people and in a real time. The history of salvation describes in the Bible almost in detail personal experiences of Abraham, Moses, and David etc. In other words God is the story of their life and Christianity is founded in their personals experiences.  “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was call to set out for a land that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land… For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb 11:8-10) But what about the people, the community. Can God happen to the community as a whole? These great figures of Christianity are important because God happen to them, no because God happen to the Community. They in fact have a questionable moral record. Abraham as a man of weak character who is capable of sends Ishmael his son to die at the desert with his mother and endanger the life of the second son Isaac when he tray to kill him. It is interesting enough, that Christianity, Judaism and Islam call this man the father of their faith.  Also the case of Moses is similar a wetly and powerful man who kill a Egyptian man in the name of God and also kill many from his own people because they question the authority and authenticity in which his law is establish. David, king who kills an important general because he wants to have the woman of Uriah. As we can see, moral is not the core value of theses religious figures, but what is it? One of the answers can be, that common people have the appreciation of when God happen in epic form in the life of their abusers is a sacred sign. God bless them, God punishes them. Other answer can be that people is convince that God happen to   powerful people but not to them.
It is possible to argue that these perceptions can offer a different perspective at the time where the community is looking for its Christian identity.  For example, if the community see itself as the people of God which is the case of Jesus and his community.  So the common bond for the community is Jesus poor with a poor community in which God reveled a new vision of reality. From now on God is happening to a poor people, no figuratively but real.

The story of Jesus becomes the story of the 99% and not the theology of the 1% of people. Consequently theology becomes the reflection for freedom, Justice and peace for every one. Theology becomes the autobiographical experience of God in the life of the 99%. In other words, Theology achieves freedom from elites and becomes a place where common people can say: “ It is my story of seeking who I am in relation to the community, the natural environment, time and history, and ultimate reality of my existence which I accept by faith. It is my story of seeking to understand how God acts in my life and in the lives of those who are part of my life” (2)

God happen to all of us and Practice Theology is the scientific tool that everyone in a community of faith is call to develop with the intention to share the experience of God as liberating way of being. Theology that no have contact with real people in real time, it is a brilliant scientific exercise which satisfy the life of some people with a large amount of time and probably live in bubble.  This argument is very easy to probe. For example, If a research professional any day of the week at the 72St Subway Station ask to the user of the subway:  Can you name three of the theologian who make difference in your Christian life?  The answer will no surprise anyone, because people do not read theology, they do theology in an empirical manner, a theology that nurseries them and the community. For the seek of this argument it is perfectly understandably that the language of the new roman missal does not reflect the life of the poor or currently call the 99% which the liturgical bobble pretend to reach out.  The current missal reflects more a language for Park Avenue, Wall Street, Cupertino California and some areas of Connecticut. It is not the language of Jesus and his community. So ones again the brilliant people of the church write a missal for themselves but not for the people, nothing wrong but…..  the poor has to seek Jesus Christ in the reality of their life and with great difficulty in the courtesan language of our mother, the Church.

Anyway, there is hope, when the élites take notices of how many people is going away and with them the Sunday money that sustain the bubble, they will change for better. In these days it is ruff to become a poor and find consolation without the community support. It is in this context of grace and love that a new story of redemption is borne.
In conclusion “theology begins with my life, but my life is related to the lives of others”(3). Life and gospel as one.

1. Page 7Jung Young Lee, Marginality: The Key to Multicultural Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995
2. Page 7Jung Young Lee, Marginality: The Key to Multicultural Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995
3. Page 8 Jung Young Lee, Marginality: The Key to Multicultural Theology.

 Minneapolis: Fortress, 19955

By Rev. Alexis Bastidas

The history of Latino people who came to New York searching for fulfillment of
their lives is a powerful manifestation of pain and suffering in which Christianity
and catholic tradition play and important roll. Big numbers of them are walking
away from institutional churches as a consequence of the racial context in which
this churches are put together and function. Discrimination continuous and the
treatment offer by some churches to the poor is often perceive as a problem (the
Brown problem) with some exceptions. One of the common excuses is resume in “
No Hablo Español” consequently the entire community does not have anything to
do with the Christian immigrant who live among them. It is a polite answer, which
freed then from the pastoral duty to see Jesus Christ in the poor of the poor. These
unchristian behaviors pushes the Latino community in the path of Christian’s
practices outside of the main understanding of Christianity and catholic tradition in
New York and in many places of U.S.A.

The Latino immigrant community is moving toward a new religious identity in
which spirituality is founded in a more contextual form where the community is
capable to have a life in Jesus Christ through the pastoral authentication of the
gospel in real and local time.

The pastoral circle is an important tool in the transformation in which the Latino
immigrant community is making the spiritual journey in New York, the reason is
because “ the pastoral circle, sometimes called pastoral cycle or spiral, has been
helping Christians communities to live contextually for the past twenty years” (1)
everywhere in Latin America.

It is helpful for a pastoral worker in the Latino field in New York, to go true the
experience of the pastoral circle. In doing so, he or she will discover how this
theological way of thinking and doing the will of God become a important tool that
connect the Latino community with the main pastoral plan of the local church. The
reasons for this connection are: First, when churches practice hospitality and open
the mind and hart of the community “ a new way of being church that is more
helpful to practice our Christian faith”(2) emerge, more flexible to face the current
challenges. So it is an imperative for the pastoral worker to be open at the
transformation in which the Latino community is at work; “A basic Christian
community open and in tuned with a basic human community, involve in social
actives with the mission to eliminate suffering, to struggle for a just society and to
sustain the development of the people and the environment”(3) Second, When
churches practice dialogue with the poor, culture and faith. The “ pastoral circle
should become a means of linking faith and justice, a means of making a serious
option for and with the poor. Contextualization means the effort of a community of
faith to live out the gospel of Christ”(4) Third, the pastoral worker “need to respect
tradition in critical dialogue in order to be able to touch their inner core. Contextual
faith and theology should be rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been
always interpreted and will always e interpreted by the faith community”. (5)

Fourth, without prayer and contemplation the Latino community is lost. Therefore
the pastoral worker is call to develop a profound sensibility, in order to “encounter
the mystical experience”(6) through the community. Fifth, with no contextual
analysis and reflection, he or she is in risk of losing “the hermeneutical dimension
and the concrete direction of the ethical dimension” of the life of the community. In
conclusion, to become a parte of the transformation leaders and churches are in a
prophetic situation of denouncing what is wrong and practice Christianity and the
confrontation with the gospel and the Latino community here in New York.

Community for whom Gospel and life is a cohesive unity in which Christian life is
blooming.

Notes
1) Page 73 Johanes Banawiratma. The Pastoral Circle as Spirituality.
2) Page 73 Johanes Banawiratma. The Pastoral Circle as Spirituality.
3) Page 74 Johanes Banawiratma. The Pastoral Circle as Spirituality.
4) Page 75 Johanes Banawiratma. The Pastoral Circle as Spirituality.
5) Page 77 Johanes Banawiratma. The Pastoral Circle as Spirituality.
6) Page 79 Johanes Banawiratma. The Pastoral Circle as Spirituality.