Gustavo Gutierrez O.P. Died...
I always thought that when the day came for Gustavo to go to meet the Liberating God and Lord of Life, I would write something brief about his thoughts through this medium, but from the moment we were informed of his death, despite not being surprising due to his advanced age, in addition to the suffering he had been experiencing for some time, from that moment on, I said, I was speechless, I locked myself in my small room, which I pretentiously call a library, I realized that I had also been unable to write, and it is not that I had nothing to say about his thoughts, which I have known for almost 30 years thanks to my mother especially and for whom I am infinitely grateful for all her criticisms and observations as or more careful than those of the philosophers, teachers and theologians who in many cases I had at my side, through reading his books, essays, articles, etc., in addition to listening to countless classes, talks, presentations, spiritual retreats, etc., and above all in several hours of conversations and even discussions with him. Some people might think that I am writing this to pretend that I was one of his closest friends. That would be absolutely false, if I think about how close I was to him, possibly beyond the third or fourth circle of friends. What I really want is to bear witness to the immense heart of this intellectual and spiritual giant, of short stature, who always liked to be close to people, to start friendships where he gave himself completely.
No one who can honestly approach the work of this unique and transcendental person will doubt the things that are said and left unsaid here. The value of the writing is enormous, but as we know the wealth of the people is far greater than the work per se, because not everyone can immerse themselves in the ocean that is the corpus of each author, with its own characteristics and worse if its dimensions are so wide and its gigantic figure is not due to its physical stature but to that of its soul and spirit. Condolences again for a departure more painful for those of us who remain than he himself, who now rests in peace. So, let us continue forward in this subject of the actions and departure of the great Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez.