New Year 2020

On the first day of every new civil year, January 1, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Mary, Mother of God - as well as the World Day of Prayer for Peace. 

But what is the real situation here in Honduras?

When I came to Honduras in 2007, the road from San Pedro Sula was terrible, full of large potholes. Some I called traga-carros, car-swallowers. Now there is a fine concrete road from Santa Rosa to La Entrada and the rest of the way to San Pedro Sula is not so bad.

When I first lived in Santa Rosa, there were two small grocery stores. Now there are five large supermarkets, including two that are part of Wal-Mart’s empire, and several smaller mini-markets.

In the last couple of years there have been many construction projects in Santa Rosa, including a mini-mall (which was just expanded to include a movie theater) and lots of new houses. There is also a lot of construction in Dulce Nombre and in the rural area where I live. There has also been an expansion of coffee fields, where there were once open fields or forests.

It appears as if prosperity is coming to Honduras.

But under the appearances there are signs of poverty. The poverty rate in Honduras is about 66% and severe poverty is about 44%.

Two images stick in my mind.

A few Sundays ago I went to San Agustín for an afternoon Celebration of the Word with Communion. I passed several small groups of families, with small kids, walking on the side of the road. (They were going the opposite direction and so I didn’t stop to offer them a ride.) It was obvious that they were coming from picking coffee. Some were Guatemalans. Even on Sunday the poor go out to gain a pittance from picking coffee.

A few days ago, as I passed one of the public trash containers in Dulce Nombre I saw a woman with a child going through the rubbish. I don’t know if she was looking for food, though I suspect she was looking for bottles and plastic to recycle for a few lempiras.

This is the reality – in a country where millions are being spent on arms and military personnel; in a country where drug-traffickers flourish with the police, military, and political powers seeming to turn a blind eye – if not getting a share of the drug money for their pockets and political campaigns; in a country where environmental devastation, with attendant drought and hunger; in a country where mining interests continue to devastate the environment, even disinterring bodies from a cemetery nearby to profit from the gold found underneath.

But do I have hope?

I am not optimistic but I do have hope. God can make a way out of the desert, the devastation, the violence and destruction.

There are several things that offer a bit of hope.

This year, in our parish, people are taking more seriously Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, and have been making serious efforts at reforestation, especially at the communities’ water sources.

The Catholic Church’s National Pastoral Congress has set this as a theme for 2020: “A reconciled community builds a nation in peace and in truth.”

Our pastor is making an urgent call this Christmas season for disarmament, urging people to turn in their weapons to the parish where they will be destroyed in the sight of the people bringing them. I hope this will happen and that we might be able to get some blacksmiths to turn these weapons of violence into tools for farming.

In addition, this year the Honduran Bishops’ Conference has issued three very strong messages, criticizing the injustices in the country. This is something new and welcomed.

But, above all, I think of the many people in their villages who are seeking to live out their faith, despite the challenges.

Yesterday I baptized thirteen children in the village of El Zapote Santa Rosa. Tonight we will have Exposition of the Eucharist and a Holy Hour and Celebration of the Word with Communion in Plan Grande.

There are innumerable couples preparing for sacramental marriage. I have heard that in at least one village there are five couples in preparation.

There are the ministers of Communion who are visiting the sick, not only in the towns where they live but throughout the parish.

There are the catechists who are preparing for a new year, preparing children for the sacraments and, in several villages, beginning a new catechetical process with religious formation by age levels.

And there is much more – known only to God (and a few people).

In the middle of this, I pray that we may see the presence of God.  

Monday, as I preached at the baptisms in El Zapote, I reflected on the Gospel story of eighty-four year old Anna in the temple, recognizing the presence of God in the tiny babe that Joseph and Mary had brought to be presented in the temple. Only she and the aged Simeon recognized God coming to the temple.

May this world find more people like Simeon and Anna who can recognize God in the poor and humble, can praise God with joy, and can announce that God does not give up on us.

A blessed Near Year of 2020.