2017 - my life in Honduras

From the midst of violence and repression, I wish you the peace of the God of justice, who became flesh in the midst of violence and repression.

This year I celebrated ten years in Honduras and seventy years on this good earth. It was a good year.

I am sending this out without finishing it since Honduras is now in a critical moment. After charges of fraud, manipulation of the voting, repression of demonstrations, and more, the Supreme Electoral Board declared the current president as victor in the November 26 presidential election on Sunday night, December 17. This past week there have been major strikes, takeover of the streets in about 100 places in the country. There was some violence by the demonstrators, but in various places they were met by government forces with tear gas and even live ammunition. The current announcement already is bringing out people to take over the streets.

I am safe. God willing, I will be here to accompany God’s poor until God sends me elsewhere.

What distinguishes this year for me? I think this photo sums up a lot of my life.

Accompanying the people, I get my shoes muddy – and the pickup is even worse.

This is my first full year as a deacon. One of my concerns when Bishop Darwin Andino asked me to consider the permanent diaconate was whether this would create a deeper chasm between me and the people I minister with. I don’t think this has happened. Instead, I find myself more involved in the lives of people.

Bringing communion to the sick, interviewing couples right before their marriage in the church, presiding at the rite of entry into the catechumenate for 52 people, baptizing probably over 100 this year, and going out many Sundays to a village for a Celebration of the Word with Communion.

But the most profound aspect of being a deacon has been presiding at funerals. Somehow, I feel the compassion of God for those who are mourning and am able to pass on a little of this.

I continue with much of what I’ve been doing for years – training catechists and other pastoral workers. A challenge has been working with the leaders of the youth groups in several towns and villages of the parish, as well as trying to revive the parish social ministry.

One good experience this year was working with two young priests to write material for base communities for this coming church year. Also, the parish is hosting two seminarians in a three-week pastoral experience.

As an associate and a friend, I have continued to connect with the Dubuque Franciscan sisters here in the diocese. They are a real support.

This year I made two trips to the US, one to celebrate the fifty years that my cousin Mary Barrar has lived as a Sister of Saint Joseph. It was great to see family and friends on the East Coast. The other trip was to Iowa where I preached at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames and visited with friends there and in Dubuque.

My health has been pretty good, though I went through a bad case of parasites in May. My pickup is working, finally after three major repairs this last month. I am in the process of getting permanent residency; but this is a long process.

In the midst of this I still find great joy.

There’s the joy of the beauty of the land – despite the bad roads and the poverty of the people.

There are the surprises I have working with many people, of all ages, who, in their poverty, show me God’s face. I cannot forget how two catechists helped me see the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in a new way.

There are the sorrows, when I accompanied our pastor to visit a bed-ridden young woman in an adobe house with a dirt floor and I found myself with my arm on the shoulders of her brother and father whose eyes were filled with tears. But then four days later, as the pastor told me, this family gave the parish a bag of sweet bread to help celebrate a parish feast. The generosity of the poor.

Yet we live here in a precarious situation.

There are the problems of daily life, compounded by a non-operating legal system; thus many seek vengeance on those who have killed or hurt their loved ones. There are the cases, all too common, of sexual and domestic abuse. These touch my heart – and have helped me to grow in compassion.

But the real problem now is an election and post-election process that seems wrought with fraud and manipulation. Many people are fed up. Some just express it personally – and I’ve heard a number of complaints. Others go out in the streets and protest – sometimes blocking traffic and burning tires in the road, sometimes being the victim of attacks by security forces.

It’s rather complicated and I’ve written about it on my blog: http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com

In all this I feel blessed and safe – in the loving arms of God, in friends from many places in the world who love and support me with their prayers and messages, and with the people here who look out for me.

In a few days, we’ll celebrate the birth of God made flesh among the poor. It’s a privilege to live among the poor (though I don’t live poorly).

I close this with a quote from Jesuit Father Alfred Delp, written in a Nazi prison, a few months before he was executed. In the midst of all, he had hope:

Advent is the time of promise; it is not yet the time of fulfillment. We are still in the midst of everything and in the logical inexorability and relentlessness of destiny. To eyes that do not see, it still seems as though the final dice are being cast down here in these valleys, on these battlefields, in these camps and prisons and bomb shelters. Those who are awake sense the working of the other powers and can await the coming of their hour.
 Space is still filled with the noise of destruction and annihilation, the shouts of self-assurance and arrogance, the weeping of despair and helplessness. But round about the horizon the eternal realities stand silent in their age-old longing. There shines on them already the first mild light of the radiant fulfillment to come. From afar sound the first notes as of pipes and voices, not yet discernable as a song or melody. It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold. But it is happening, today.