«Do not be afraid» (Is 43,1). The word that unites the Vigils of May 2026
"Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name: you belong to me" (Is 43.1), is the phrase from the Bible that this year will accompany the Vigils to overcome homotransbiphobia that will be held in may 2026.
It's not a random choice. In that chapter the prophet Isaiah speaks to a tired, dispersed people, struck by fear. And God does not begin with a reproach, but with a caress: don't be afraid. It is a word that does not deny pain, but passes through it. A word that does not erase the wounds, but calls them by name.
And immediately afterwards he adds: "I called you by name." Not by category. Not by label. Not by moral definition. By name.
For many LGBTQ+ people, fear was – and sometimes still is – a constant presence: fear of being rejected, of losing ties, of not finding space in Christian communities.
Fear of having to choose between faith and self-truth. In this context, Isaiah's verse sounds like a promise that puts things back in their place: God's love comes before all conditions.
It is the same logic that runs through the Gospel. Jesus meets first, judges later – when he judges. Call first, explain later. “We love because he loved us first” (1 John 4:19). Before. Not at the end of an adjustment process.
The Vigils of may 2026 they are born within This awareness. they are not a gesture of opposition, but an Act of faith. a way of saying, together, that violence and discrimination cannot have the last Word. that fear is not the language of God.
“Do not fear” thus becomes a pastoral, concrete Word. it means: don't be afraid to pray with your face and your story.
Don't be afraid to stay in church without hiding. Don't be afraid to believe that your name – your very own – is spoken with love.
Perhaps this is the deepest meaning of the Vigils: to create a space in which faith does not ask to fade, but to remain. Where we can listen, in the silence of prayer, to that ancient promise that continues to resonate: "You belong to me" (Is 43.1).
Said not as possession, but as mutual belonging. Like home.
INFO> Vigils to overcome homotransbiphobia
