In chapter 32 of his series “Thy Kingdom Come,” Ramón Castro Castro, president of the CEM, exhorts laypeople and families to build unity from civil society and reminds that “the I needs the you to form a we”
The Bishop of Cuernavaca and president of the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), Ramón Castro Castro, presented this Sunday his catechesis number 32 of the series “Thy Kingdom Come,” titled “Weavers of Community”. In a clear and hopeful message, the prelate invited Mexican Catholics to become active builders of social fabric in a country marked by political division, violence, and the search for justice.
The full text of the preaching, disseminated through the official channel of the diocese and available on the Mexican Episcopal Conference’s YouTube, starts from a fundamental anthropological truth: “The human being is social by nature; only in relation to others can he achieve a fully human life. The I needs the you to build a we, where the common good flourishes”.
Castro Castro recalled that Jesus himself chose to live in community. “He became flesh, was born into a family, and grew up in a small village,” he emphasized. For the bishop, the family remains “the first cell of society and the beginning of every living community.” From there, communities grow when families organize and create institutions oriented toward the common good.
In Mexico, that wealth is manifested in thousands of civil associations that, day by day, defend human rights, search for missing persons, educate in marginalized areas, and accompany the most vulnerable. “Civil society is the privileged space where laypeople exercise their political vocation as service,” affirmed the CEM president.
The prelate recognized the “diversity of charisms” as a gift from the Holy Spirit, but warned that it only bears fruit when oriented toward the common good and not fragmentation. “Our country is polarized. We need communities that unite, not that fragment; that dialogue, not that confront,” he insisted. For Castro Castro, politics must always be “at the service of people and not the other way around”.
With a contundent evangelical phrase, he recalled that “we cannot love God without loving our brothers.” Faith, he added, “does not take us out of the world; it sends us to transform it with hope.” Every association, every group, every community initiative contributes “something indispensable to the social body.”
“United, respecting differences, we can build the kingdom in our homeland,” the bishop concluded, who invoked the blessing of Christ the King: “May Christ the King bless all the communities and associations of Mexico so that in diversity they build the unity that our country so needs”.
The message arrives at a particularly sensitive moment. Mexico records more than 120,000 missing persons, growing political polarization, and a social fabric worn out by distrust. In this context, Ramón Castro Castro’s catechesis is not just a theological reflection; it is a concrete proposal for action for laypeople. It invites moving from isolated denunciation to organized construction, from parishes, civil associations, and families.
The series “Thy Kingdom Come,” which the Bishop of Cuernavaca has been developing chapter by chapter, seeks precisely that: to ground the Gospel in the national reality. Chapter 32 “Weavers of Community” closes a cycle of reflections on the social dimension of faith and opens the door to a renewed commitment by Catholics to the reconstruction of the country.
Castro Castro, with his dual responsibility as diocesan pastor and president of the Mexican bishops, launches a call that transcends the borders of the Diocese of Cuernavaca. Directed to all the faithful, especially to laypeople who day by day work on the social fabric, the message is clear: unity is not utopia; it is an everyday task that begins in the family, strengthens in the community, and projects onto the nation.
At the end of the catechesis, the bishop reiterated the prayer that gives its name to the entire series: “Thy Kingdom Come.” A plea that, in the mouth of the “weavers of community,” becomes concrete action: to dialogue, serve, unite, and build together the common good.