The Jesus that captivated Claret is the Jesus of the synoptic gospels: itinerant preacher surrounded by a group of followers, both men and women, who He wants to make “fishers of men” (Mk 1,17). “I am ever more deeply impressed at the thought of Jesus moving from town to town, preaching everywhere – not just in big cities but also in little villages” (Aut 221).
He didn’t live this form of life only in his younger years; as the archbishop of Cuba he did the same thing. Some of his eventful journeys were full of curiosity, like that of crossing the “The Knives of Baracoa” after wading across the river Jojo 35 times… (Aut 541). Asking for time to recover his health, he tells Isabel II “the exhaustion that I had to suffer… more than five years, in a climate very contrary to the European climate, walking for more than two thousand leagues (11,000 Km.)… through high plateaus and deserts… sleeping in the open air…” (EC, I, p. 1190). Without doubt the missionary-archbishop applied to himself and tasted many times the beautiful text of Isaiah about the mission “how beautiful they are on the mountains the feet of the Messenger that announces peace, that proclaims the good news and preaches the salvation saying to Zion: your God is King!” (Is 52,7), and he enjoyed seeing himself literally in continuity with Jesus and the apostles…
The whole church is called to continue the preaching of Jesus; all believers should be a “loud-speaker” translator of the Good News for our time. Some will do it at the limits of the church, in the Missio ad gentes; others, from the pulpits of the old Christendom or from the social media; others, transmitting the faith to their children and celebrating it with them in the peace of the home… A long procession of pilgrims, a great choir of proclaimers!