Grupo B (part. Filipe da Guia e Coletivo Candiero)

I bought a field, I need to check it out
What do you mean? You bought it without seeing it?
Are you going to check it out at night?
Yeah, I’m sorry

And then someone else will say
I bought five yoke of oxen
I need to try them out
You bought high-tech gear
Without testing it first?
Are you really doing this in the middle of the night?
Yeah, I’m sorry

And yet another will say
I got married, I can’t go
This one doesn’t even apologize
It’s the worst kind of lie
You’re not going to the party because you got married?
Come on, getting married isn’t exactly
The best excuse to skip parties
In our culture?

Newlywed brides used to
Wear their wedding dresses
For a whole year
At every party they could
You’re at a party
And that’s why you’re not going?
It doesn’t make sense, it’s pathetic, it doesn’t make sense

Life invites us every day and still
With the most absurd excuses
We pull away from the party
As if we’re all under
A terrible agreement plotted in the shadows

The wife next door, a party to celebrate
The kid in the room, a party to smile
The city and its sounds, its rivers
The sea inviting a pregnant girl
A party exploding before our eyes
The wine, the bread, the holy book
Meeting of the holy brothers
Everything shouting, calling us to go

But I bought a piece of land
My job demands a lot from me
I can’t celebrate life
I bought five yoke of oxen
Technology distracts me
Too many movies, too many games
Too much of everything, I don’t have time for life

I got married, my family, my kids
Need me, they need English
They need the entrance exam, they need to rest
I can’t waste time
With the banquet of life, and so
We keep sending them off in droves
Polyglots, qualified for hell

What a tragedy, it’s not funny anymore
When the joke is about us
The servant returned and reported this to his master
Then the owner of the house got angry
And ordered his servant, go quickly
Through the streets and alleys of the city
And bring in the poor, the crippled
The blind and the lame
And so in the palace I found myself
I entered through the front door

Here the storyteller tells us
That a second list
Of guests is being made
This list must be invited
In a different way
While in Group A the servant must say
Come, everything is ready for the second list
In Group B the master orders bring
This word in its original sense
That we translated as bring
Points not to a simple bringing
Like someone saying follow me no
The idea is that this word evokes
Demands physical contact, physical commitment
As if the master of the feast were saying
Bring by the hand, come guiding
If necessary carry on your lap
If needed put on your shoulders

Why was it a simple
Come for the first list and for the second list bring
Commit physically?
The answer is obvious, the first guests
Were willing if they wanted to go
They had the right clothes, knew the way
Surely they had servants to take them in carriages or on their shoulders

But the guests of List B even if
They loved the idea of going
To this unusual banquet, between
Majesty and the poor, weren’t able
To get there, some might say
What a beautiful invitation, but I don’t have
Clothes to go to a place like that

Another might say
I’m blind, I’ve never been to
Those parts up there
I’ve never been anywhere
But here in the city center
Begging and feeling my way around

And yet another might say
I’m crippled, how do I get there?
It’s impossible for me
That place isn’t for people like us
We’re not appropriate

So now the servant must also be a guide
Not just a proclaimer of this banquet
But someone who physically commits
To the cause, will take some by the hand
Will dress others, will carry someone
On their shoulders, will sweat, will fulfill their mission
At the cost of their own comfort
And that’s how in the castle I found myself
I entered through the front door

The invitation reached people like us
People who weren’t suitable
But were made suitable, blind people
Guided by the hand, people unable to walk
Carried on laps, people like us
Foreigners, strangers to this incredible news
Of the banquet in Palestine

The invitation was first announced among them
But turning their backs and making light
Of the banquet, the master fervently
Sends his guides to bring us
From afar into his story

How many guides were sent
All over the world, how many people
Committed physically
Financially, emotionally so that
Gentiles, outsiders like us, who never
Walked through the palaces of Israel
Don’t belong to this story
Nor do we belong to this geographical space
People far away, blind, poor
Out of context
People like us, heard the invitation

So we were carried
Here, thank God for each one
Of these guides, do you remember your guides?
Most of them have already died you don’t know
Even the names of the men and women
Who committed so that this book
Would be in your language, in your lap
And you could have the privilege
To celebrate the banquet

But there are some guides that
You know exactly the name, the address
You know who committed
To your journey here
Who guided you by the hand, you know the number
Of those people’s phone and maybe
You won’t see them in time, go ahead
Maybe today
Is the day, send a WhatsApp and say
Hey, thanks for committing
And carrying me to the party, may God help me
To do the same for someone
That’s how in the palace I found myself
I entered through the front door