CHRISTMAS

This was my first Christmas outside the United States.

Sister Nancy Meyerhofer, OSF, invited me to join her in Gracias for La Noche Buena (December 24) and Christmas (December 25). Initially I had thought of staying in Santa Rosa but decided to go to Gracias.

After a moto-taxi ride and a short hike up the nearby mountain of Celaque and a two hour hike back, we had supper. Nancy took me to the house where the Posadas was going to begin and I walked with the folks who accompanied several children dressed as Joseph, Mary, an angel with a star, a shepherd girl, and three wise men. They knocked on the door of the church where several hundred people had gathered outside; when the door opened we surged into the church. I hardly needed to walk since the crowd pressed in so tightly that it could have carried me over the portal of the church.

Mass was beautiful, with many touching moments. The pastor, Padre Loncho, gave a beautiful and tender homily speaking of the God become flesh to save and liberate us, who came to welcome all – the poor and all those who are willing to share. During the offertory four little boys carried in the platform with the images of Mary and Joseph that had been used in most of the posadas in town. At one point I noticed the old woman in the pew in front of me: she wore a bright blue skirt with red flowers which sort of billowed around her waist; she had a unique covering on her head that looked like a folded towel; and she was bare-footed. (I wonder if she is an indigenous woman.) She reminded me what Christmas is about – God come among us, among the most needy.

I stayed that night in the rectory and so didn’t have to avoid getting caught in the firecrackers that went off in all parts of the country at midnight. Christ may have been born in the quiet of a manger but his birth is celebrated here with massive fireworks. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The next morning I went to the morning Mass where forty children were baptized. The Mass lasted almost three hours since the baptisms were celebrated within the Mass. But it was a very moving liturgy.

After a quiet day talking and eating with Nancy I returned to Santa Rosa with a US family that lives in Santa Rosa and was visiting friends in Gracias.

I went to bed Christmas night with a deep sense of the love of God which has been manifested in our midst.