Angelus News | January 12, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 1

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a mother of five
who practices radiology in the Miami area.
our individuality more fully with each personal bond we
make, whether chosen or unchosen.
We are, each of us, the unrepeatable center of a vast web of
human connections, and in each strand, properly acknowledged
and lived, is the source not only of individuality but
of real fulfillment and meaning. We know this, instinctively.
When asked who we are, we respond: I am so and so’s wife,
or that person’s father, or my sister’s sister. If we go to the
deepest, most fundamental source of our identity, we can
each answer, in truth: I am an irreplaceable child of God.
As he exists in a relationship of three persons creating eternally
together, and as we are made in his image, we flourish
exactly in the measure in which we love and are loved. This
is why the saddest person imaginable is one who loves no
one and is unaware of the great love God has for him or her.
That kind of loneliness is not compatible with life.
The rugged individualist who will not be beholden to
anyone, the cynic who considers all human dealings transactional,
the armchair Darwinist who sees others chiefly
as opponents in the struggle for existence — these are all
the types who deny the relational essence of man. Perhaps,
at bottom, is a rejection of the burdens that each human
connection lays upon us. To love someone is to act on their
claims on us: for companionship, tenderness, encouragement,
correction, material assistance — the list goes on. And
their claims cannot be set aside for being inconvenient or
ill-timed, or even for requiring some great sacrifice from us.
I can’t tell for sure what claims upon her Abuelita Lalita
was fulfilling when she took two little girls with her to Sears
on those hot Saturday mornings. Maybe she was helping my
mother a little by taking two of her children for a few hours.
Perhaps she knew how hard it was for my sister and I to be
all day in her little government apartment where it wasn’t
safe to play outside. I imagine she found our joy at the lunch
counter with its red revolving stools infectious, and that the
joy sustained her on our weary return journey.
What I do know for certain is that she was the irreplaceable
— and unforgettable — center of a complex web of loving
relationships. And that is exactly what I’m hoping to be, too,
when I become an abuelita.
January 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 27