When the poor believe in the poor

There’s a hymn that comes from El Salvador in the 1980s that is quite revolutionary

Cuando el pobre cree en el pobre
Ya podremos cantar: ¡Libertad!
Cuando el pobre cree en el pobre
construiremos la fraternidad.
When the poor believe in the poor
we’ll be able to sing: “freedom.”
When the poor believe in the poor,
we will build brotherhood (community).

Friday there was a festival of videos in the town of Lepaera that brought together the efforts of groups in El Salvador and here in the Santa Rosa diocese to help people organize their communities to respond to environmental and other risks. Norma, a worker in Caritas, is working with three communities here in the diocese and they came to participate in the festival.

Part of the documentation of the work is making of videos. The staff worker has been the editor of the videos but some of the people in the communities actually film some parts. This year people in the communities will be trained how to film and edit small videos.

The day began with two videos from the major sponsoring agents. The one from Cordaid, a Dutch Catholic funding agency, is in English but features a lot of the work done by CARITAS of Santa Rosa. Appropriately it’s called “Footprints in the Mud.”

Later the four groups working on the project showed two videos apiece. I especially enjoyed the ones that Norma edited, partly because she herself takes such a background role. She lets the people speak.

What I noticed most was the reaction of the people when they saw themselves in the videos. They were so excited – whispering to each other, like little kids. But it was much more than that. There was a sense of pride, a sense that they were people with real dignity.

What impresses me about this program is that it not only helps people prepare for emergencies, like floods and landslides, but it also give them a sense of their own dignity. But it is a dignity achieved in community. They are no longer isolated helpless individuals at the mercy of the elements. They are people living and working as a community to deal with emergencies that may arrive. They are quite capable people, who are able to do so much with so little. As one of the women there said they are poor people who believe in the poor.

On Saturday, I went with Father Efraín and my visitors, Misty and Jacob Prater, to Dulce Nombre. We spent some time looking at the garden that is on the parish grounds as a sort of demonstration plot for the family garden project.

In the afternoon Jacob spent about two hours with Salvador and Ovidio, teaching them how to use a simple soil analysis test. It was fascinating watching them learn simple tools and simple facts about the soil that they had worked with for years.

Later we went to Plan Grande and stayed for the prayers for Don Luciano who had died earlier this week. It is the custom here and in many Latin American countries to have nine days of prayer after the death of a loved one. More than fifty people squeezed into the small room in the house of his daughter in Plan Grande.

I had first met Don Luciano in Plan Grande in March 2008 when a St. Thomas spring break group helped with the foundation of the church being built next to where he lived with his daughter Gloria, who is a leader in the parish.

He sat watching us. As I talked with him I discovered that he sat outside much of the day, praying the rosary and reading the Bible. His sight was failing but he could read in the sunlight.

As I returned he always greeted me warmly and we talked briefly. But I always remember seeing him sit and pray. He was in many ways living out the contemplative life of prayer.

A few weeks ago his health began to fail. On Sunday May 12 I was in Plan Grande and after Mass Padre Efraín took communion to him on his bed. After this I prayed briefly at his bedside and saw that, despite his drawn face, there was a deep peace. A day or two later he died, at the age of ninety-five.

At the prayer service Padre Efraín and others spoke of his deep love of the Bible, of the Eucharist, of the Rosary, and of the Church. He was one of the first delegates of the Word in the parish. In the mid-sixties throughout Honduras delegates of the Word was chosen and trained to lead Sunday celebrations of the Word in their local communities. Since there were so few priests, the church sought to have a presence in every village every Sunday through celebrations of the Word. Don Luciano was one of these and served as delegate for many years.

On the way back from Plan Grande we gave a ride to a sister whose family lives in the next village. Don Luciano was her grandfather. She spoke of her last visit with him during Holy Week. He gave her advice about her vocation and the life of prayer. She said she’d see him next time about August. He told her that he might not be around then.

Don Luciano is one of the poor who are a real witness to the Gospel here in Honduras. In some ways, I feel as if I met a saint in this man who lived a life of service and prayer.

May more like him abound and give witness to the power of God made present in the poor and humble of this world.