I was born in the village of Sallent, deanery of Manresa, diocese of Vich, province of Barcelona

(Auto. 3).

JOYFUL GIFT OF LIFE

After the introductory information, Claret begins his Autobiography with the words “I was born”. These words explain us his attitude towards his own life, considered always as a gift from the love of God. And this gift is not an abstract one; his mentioning of the place birth qualifies his existence from the cultural and religious point of view: a village with its identity and customs and a dioceses which is the context of his ecclesial belonging.

This recognition of life as gift led Claret to pay attention to it. In his transition from teenage period to the adulthood, he realized the importance of revive his spiritual fervour through an assiduous listening of the Word of the Lord and his corresponding obedience as a means for the fullness of his life. The episode of his unfaithful friend along with the attraction of the fame of an excellent manufacturer in Barcelona led him to remake his very life, “the hidden treasure” with which he couldn´t do any other thing. In the experience of a danger of drowning in the sea, added up to all the earlier things, he discovered the fragility of life which has meaning only in surrendering it for the cause of God; this was for him “the best part” which he found in him to choose without any hesitation. In the future, in the face of persecutions, rejections and disdain, his faithfulness to this mission was the only force to fight for hil life.

Human life is a primordial vocation among all the vocations. To be a person is our major commitment; it is none other than taking care of the image of God that we are. Our life is a gift that deserves care and concern from the threats to which it is exposed; those threats are the dangers of death; “the partial deaths” are the deterioration and degradation. Claret teaches us the following means to live this gift of life: obedience to God, the vision of life beyond its materiality, the realization at the service of God with plans and actions and making use of one´s own energies in favour of others to live.

How do contemplate my life? Is it a reason for grateful joy and a call to bear fruit?