Brazil: "Give and it will be given to you"
A promise kept

An unexpected monetary gift arrived which Adriana and her husband decided to give to the least…but then they were hit by a series of disturbing incidents.

I always wanted to be a builder of peace, of that peace we experience when we live the Gospel and which can overflow onto the lives of those around us, wherever we are and whatever we do. This year, something happened which put me to the test. I received an unexpected monetary prize for a piece of art I had exhibited and, together with my husband, we decided to set it aside for the construction of houses in the slums in Brazil. For more than ten years I had been involved in a project of the Focolare Movement in a poor district on the outskirts of San Paolo. Aside from giving direct assistance to the poor, the aim of the project is to construct houses to replace the shacks in the shanty towns. The building materials for this project are bought with donations and we are all involved, each according to our economic means, in this great communion of goods.
It was at this point that a whole series of disturbing incidents began. My husband was involved in a car accident and our new car was a write-off. The car was not yet insured and so we lost all the money we had saved up to buy it. As well as this, heavy summer rains partly destroyed the roof of our house. The water-tank on our farm was also damaged, and apart from having to replace it, we had to pay the damages caused to neighbouring houses.
So from one moment to the next it seemed as though our whole financial situation was turned upside down. We endeavoured to overcome these problems.
To cover the expenses, we sold part of our farmland. But when we went to the bank to deposit the cheque given by the purchaser, we realised we had been cheated. The purchaser had withdrawn all the money from his account the previous day.
Many other small landowners of that district were victims of the same fraudulent activities. All of us banded together to search for this person and, after several days, we managed to track him down. At the police station, however, we were informed that the person denied any wrongdoing. It seemed our only recourse would be to take legal action – which would be very protracted – and which consequently would make huge inroads into our finances.
The other people who had been defrauded became increasingly hostile towards the swindler and started to show real hate. They came up with the idea of paying someone to persuade him, even through violent means, to refund our money. Night fell and we were still at the police station. There was a growing conviction that the only option was to use violence. I found myself in a rather delicate situation. I was the youngest person present, I was the only woman and I had lost the most money. A real struggle was going on within me because I really needed that money and I too felt angry and powerless in the face of what had happened.
Suddenly I remembered a phrase from the Gospel: "Blessed are the peacemakers because they will be called children of God". This phrase was a real challenge to me. I made up my mind to say clearly that I was against the use of violence and that we couldn’t use the same means used by the person we were condemning. By the time I had finished speaking, their fury knew no bounds. They said that I was afraid, that women only follow their hearts and that they wanted justice for themselves no matter what the cost. I tried to keep calm and to answer with simplicity. I reiterated that I would have preferred to lose everything rather than go against my conscience, that we were workers, fathers and mothers of families, not thugs, and that the use of violence would only cause more violence. We talked for a long time and eventually, everyone gave up the idea of taking any kind of revenge.
We embarked on a legal action, even though we knew it was likely to drag on for years, but at least we had the certainty that in this way we were acting with justice – and love – towards the man who had swindled us.
In the meanwhile at home, our financial situation still had to be set right. The only possible solution seemed to be to use that money which we had set aside for the building of houses in the slums. In a very open and sincere discussion with my husband, I said that charity would surely find different solutions from those suggested by human judgement. Together we worked out that we could overcome our financial problems more easily than many of the inhabitants of the slums. And so we decided to give the money to build the houses as we had originally planned.
In the following weeks, we worked extra hours, saving as much as possible and spending money only on what was indispensable. Just the same we were still far from paying off our debts.
But God is never outdone in generosity and we experienced the hundredfold. We received a letter from an uncle who wrote to tell us that he had a part of an inheritance from my grandmother to give to us. Give and you will receive. Jesus gave us an abundance not only of material goods but above all of peace and of love to give to others.