Don't let them steal your hope.

As I prepared for my Christmas homily, these words came from the depths of my heart: “Don’t let them steal your hope.”

It is easy to get discouraged here – especially in light of the recent elections and the follow up.

Poverty still abounds here in Honduras. The poverty rate has increased by almost 3 % this past year to 68.8%, with extreme poverty at 44%.

Most people are worried, uncertain of the future.

Many people are confused, in the midst of credible reports of fraud and manipulation of the vote counting process.

Some people are angry, feeling that the election was stolen from their candidate.

Some of the opposition are disheartened with their candidate who, though still contesting the election, has virtually withdrawn, I believe because he sees how difficult it is when the US government has acknowledged Juan Orlando Hernández as the winner.

And so, some of us are saddened, angered, and ashamed at the behavior of the US government and its whitewash of the elections. The US government which acknowledges what I believe are manipulated elections results, with hardly a glance at the “irregularities identified by the OAS and the EU election observation missions.”

And so it is easy to feel hopeless.

But the situation is more serious than this. St. Paul (Ephesians 6:1) noted that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this world.

What are these? I would suggest they are the systems of power and domination, of wealth and greed, of consumerism and impoverishment; they include the war establishment and the empires that seek to dominate peoples and markets.

These powers deny the human condition – desiring control, power, absolute security, and domination, a sort of godly self-sufficiency (which may have been the temptation of Adam and Eve: “you shall be as gods.”)

But at Christmas we celebrate the birth of one who assumed the human condition. Jesus, God made flesh, assumed the poverty, the vulnerability, the

We are not saved by might and power, nor by arms or money.

And the message of the God made flesh is first revealed to people on the margins, the shepherds. The angels end their message with a great chorus

“Glory to God in the highest and peace to people of good will.”

And what is the glory of God?

According to Saint Irenaeus, “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.”

And, according to Blessed Oscar Romero, “The glory of God is the poor person fully alive.”

This gives me hope and courage for the continuing struggle to be present with the People of God and to make present in our lives and in our country signs of the Reign of God that is first seen in a dark stable in an occupied land.


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The photo of the nacimiento in the church in Concepción, Copán, Honduras, is from last year.