Today we, Catholics, celebrate Pentecost. For those who do not know what is Pentecost, today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. Today is our Church’s birthday!

I had a beautiful idea to celebrate Pentecost: sharing the idea of a “human pride movement.”

Yes, you read it right: a human pride movement.

Where this idea came from? What is “human pride”? How we can celebrate our “human pride”?

Let’s answer all this.

Where the idea of a “human pride” movement began?

It all began with Twitter.

While using Twitter, I read that someone was proposing a “straight pride” parade. Among the reactions to that idea was an image that explained that the “gay pride parades” celebrated the right of gay people to exist without being persecuted.

You can read exactly what I wrote in these screenshots…

I will repeat the same ideas in shorter words: I think we all should celebrate the right of existing without being persecuted…. the right to exist humanely. I mean: everyone. This includes the unborn, by the way (they are probably the most persecuted human beings of our planet). I think we all should remember that we are all human beings, with unconditional human rights. I think we all should celebrate that we are brothers and sisters of the same human family. I will go further: I think that it is extremely necessary to celebrate our human pride in our times.

You see, if you affirm only the humanity of some ––like it happens when you only affirm the human rights of gay people–– you are dehumanizing everyone else. Said in other words: if you only respect the human rights of those who are convenient to some ideologies, you are dehumanizing our society, you are destroying humanity, you are committing social abortion (systematic dehumanization of society, dehumanizing systematically some). I will give another example: if you only affirm the human rights of those who are not immigrants, you are dehumanizing immigrants. Please notice that this is happening in both sides: we are getting used to a society being persons is being defined according to ideologies, not according to our unconditional humanity.

Respecting each other as human beings and respecting human rights can depend upon ideologies. Respecting each other as human beings and respecting human rights unconditionally is the very core of our democratic society. We can’t normalize dehumanization. We can’t legalize dehumanization. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies violation of human rights. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the violation of the human rights of a gay person. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the violation of the human rights of an immigrant. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the violation of the human rights of an unborn person. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the violation of the human rights of a black person. You get it? Nothing justifies ANY violation of human rights. Nothing justifies dehumanization, period. We can’t get used to the dehumanizing game of “well, gay people can’t be killed due to their sexual orientation, but an unborn person can be aborted and that’s all right…” No, we must affirm EVERYONE’s human right to life. We must give growth choices to EVERYONE.

Suddenly, it is SO necessary to remember: EVERYONE is a human being, everyone is entitled to human rights. Suddenly, it is so necessary to remember that we all must respect each other as human beings, no matter what. Suddenly, it is necessary to remember that we all must help each other to grow in communion, as brothers and sisters, that we are all equal, that we are all one humanity. Suddenly, it is SO necessary to celebrate our human pride: we all are human beings, we all must respect each other as human beings, we all must called to grow unconditionally and become the best person we can be. This is human pride: celebrating that everyone is a human being, a brother and a sister with human rights.

This is the creative genesis of the idea of a human pride movement.

I don’t know if you noticed a very important detail. As a Christian that has been persecuted, I could easily have chosen to create a “Christian Pride” movement. Well, that is not how Christianity works, as anyone who has read the Gospels the right way knows. The “pride” of a Christian, if you want to call it “pride”, is to help everyone to grow as a daughter and a son of God, like Jesus did and still does through His Church, whose birthday we celebrate today. The Gospel says “love one another as I have loved you”. The “pride” of a Christian is helping others to become who they are called by God to be… and for that, we need to see each other as brothers and sisters unconditionally, something that Jesus taught us to do as His disciples. Because the pride of a Christian is helping everyone to grow first of all as a brother and a sister that are humans beings created by the same Creator, I chose to create a “human pride” movement, and not a “Christian pride” movement: our Christian pride is making possible that everyone can grow as the human being that God created everyone to be, and also, if the person chooses it, as a person that let God’s Love convert his or her heart and become the saint He calls every Christian to be. So, the right way to celebrate “Christian pride”, to celebrate what Jesus taught us, is through celebrating “human pride”: we are all loved, we are all called, we are all brothers and sisters called to grow in communion.

As happens with any movement, there can be thousands of reasons to start it. My reason to start a “human pride movement” is to radiate the light of God’s Love unconditionally to everyone, helping everyone to see himself and herself as the brother and the sister he or she is. No one is an object of profit, dear brothers and sisters. No one is a slave of ideologies, dear brothers and sisters. Everyone’s humanity is unconditional, dear brothers and sisters. We all are brothers and sisters, son and daughters that are unconditionally loved, saved, illuminated, freed and renewed by same God that unites us in His Love, that makes all things anew.

I think it is everyone’s duty to save his or her fellow brothers and sisters of all kind of hate, of all kinds of violence, corruption, social abortion, dehumanization… of anything that does not allows us to grow as the human family we are all called to be. A Christian does this through radiating God’s Love unconditionally, through radiating the light of the Love that can make al things anew…

You may an atheist that doesn’t believe in God’s Love. It doesn’t matter: you are a brother or a sister because you are a human being with human rights that must be respected unconditionally. Though my reasons to start a “human pride” movement are clearly inspired by Christ’s Spirit, no one needs to be a Christian to celebrate “human pride.” You just need to be human.

So… How to celebrate human pride? There are many possible ways to do that. I suggested a human pride parade. We can do that if there is enough people interested in the idea. No matter how you celebrate human pride, the important thing is to celebrate that we all are human beings, that we all have human rights that must be respected unconditionally. I mean: all. You can’t celebrate human pride celebrating only the humanity of some. You must celebrate everyone’s humanity, how we all are human beings with unconditional human rights.

I created a human pride symbol. Yes, you read it right: a human pride symbol. You can see it in this picture.

What is that? Well, let’s call it a “goeiz”. “Goeiz” is an amazing word that I had known since long time ago: it means “the spirit of a living person” in taino language. I choose that word because what makes us a living humanity is respecting everyone unconditionally as human being, seeing in everyone a brother and a sister that is unconditionally called to grow in communion. The spirit of a living society is the unconditional recognition of all human rights of everyone.

The origins of this goeiz was a Christmas ornament that I made long years ago, that you can see in the following picture. The smaller goeiz is the original one; the bigger goeiz is the actual one.

In the original goeiz the three red hearts where the Holy Trinity and the Holy family. The color red meant “Love”. The three hearts meant “growing in communion”, like the Trinity. The color yellow of the thread meant “light”. Eventually, it became a pro-growth/pro-life/pro-family symbol. “Growing in communion” became “helping to grow in communion.”

In the actual goeiz, the unity of the three hearts still mean “helping to grow in communion”: helping to grow everyone as a brother and a sister of the human family. Three different colors means diversity. The same size of the hearts means equality. The use of the three primary colors means that these are the most basic principles of our humanity: respecting each other as human beings unconditionally, recognizing all human rights of everyone unconditionally, seeing unconditionally in everyone a brother and a sister. The color blue is faith, the color red is love and the color yellow is hope. The color green of the thread is life. I used the primary colors because those are the colors that make possible ALL other colors. I only used the form of hearts as a symbol that all persons must be unconditionally loved as a member of the human family. It is hand made —it is artisan-made— because human pride is “hand made”: it is upon us to walk together hand by hand as one humanity, as brothers and sisters that respect everyone’s human rights unconditionally and help to grow each other in communion unconditionally.

So, Goeiz is a symbol of human pride: of the pride of seeing everyone as part of our human family, of the pride of seeing everyone as a brother and a sister of our humanity. Only a sense of human pride, a clear conscience that we are all human beings called to grow in communion, called to grow as brothers and sisters, can save us from the dehumanization that ideologies ––like the ideologies that only respect the human rights of gay people, or like the ideologies that only respect the human rights of the persons that are citizens if the own nation–– are spreading everywhere.

I truly believe that celebrating what unites us is in the very core of our Christian faith… so I chose to share this idea today, the day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

So, now I ask you: how do you choose to celebrate human pride?  How do choose to celebrate that we are all the same humanity? How do you choose to celebrate that we are all brothers and sisters unconditionally called to grow in communion? How do you choose to spark a light in our humanity?

Let’s keep growing!