Father Alberto Reyes Pías, parish priest of Esmeralda, Camagüey, published his Sunday reflection for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time with a question that, as he admits, «is not always comfortable, but is necessary»: «What are you doing with your blessings?»
The starting point of the meditation is a simple object: a piece of pottery with the inscription: "Count your blessings," which a lady gave him years ago and that the priest always keeps in sight, no matter where he happens to live.
"Simply by looking at it, two things come to mind: the first, how much I have to be grateful for, and the second, a question," writes Father Alberto Reyes, before posing that question concerning every dimension of life: family, friends, skills, material possessions, and faith.
The priest anchors the reflection in the parable of the murderous tenants from the Gospel of Matthew 21, 33-43. His reading is precise: «In the parable, it is not said that the tenants had no fruit, it is said that 'they did not want to give it up'. In fact, they kill the son to 'keep the inheritance', to reserve for themselves the fruits they have achieved, precisely, thanks to the vineyard that was given to them».
From there, Alberto Reyes builds a chain of direct questions to the reader: what he does with the family he has been given, if he takes care of his friends, what he does with his knowledge and skills, how he manages his material possessions, and finally, what he does with his faith, "that gift that makes you look at existence in a different way."
The priest's conclusion is that gifts are not meant to be hoarded. "When blessings are nurtured and shared, they grow, transform into transferable gifts, begin to touch the lives of others, and turn us into a blessing ourselves."
The reflection comes at the conclusion of a week filled with the priest's intense public presence. Last Wednesday, CiberCuba published the 177th installment of his weekly column "I've Been Thinking," titled "The Blessing of Persecution", in which he argued that the sentence imposed on the activist Anna Bensi and her mother by a court in East Havana had resulted in the opposite effect sought by the regime: greater interfaith unity, increased public solidarity, and a growing loss of fear.
The day before, Father Alberto Reyes had stated that the hope for change among Cubans «has decreased significantly» as the expectations generated at the beginning of the year by statements from the U.S. administration have not materialized.
In that same interview, the priest was emphatic about what he understands as political dialogue: "How is this government going to leave?"
The Sunday reflection published by CiberCuba this Monday adopts, in contrast to those statements, a purely spiritual and universal tone, without direct political references, focusing on personal responsibility regarding the gifts received.
Father Alberto Reyes has been under pressure from the regime for months: in January 2026, State Security issued him a formal warning due to his public criticisms, and in July, they prevented him from traveling to Miami. But that did not silence him. Last September, he stated in an interview with Tania Costa in CiberCuba that Cuba is "infinitely worse" than in previous periods of crisis.
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