Back home

It's good to be back home.

I’ve been back in Honduras since October 22 and, though I’ve taken time to do some cleaning, some car repair, and some preparation of materials, I’ve been involved in several different ministries.

On Saturday October 26 we had the first part of our parish annual assembly, a day to evaluate what we are doing in the parish. More than fifty people came and we worked in groups. The first part was identifying social problems. Problems of water and deforestation were identified as two of the most serious problems. Migration and its effect on the disintegration of families, health problems and the lack of health services, and drugs and alcohol were also frequently mentioned. We also evaluated the formation activities in the parish as well as organizational issues.

I had to leave early since young people from six different places were having a day long get-together. They had asked me to come for a closing Celebration of the Word with Communion. I arrived and they were still doing a number of activities. After the celebration, I had a short evaluation with the leaders. There is a great desire for formation.

AMIGA Honduras, a medical group that comes to our area twice year arrived on Friday. I drove some of them to San Juan Concepción Saturday morning before the parish meeting. But I really didn’t get to interact with them until they got to Sunday Mass in Dulce Nombre. That afternoon, they came to my house and I shared with them some of my thoughts on the situation of Honduras.

Monday and Tuesday they went to two rural communities – El Zapote de Dulce Nombre and Granadillal. I accompanied them to help with translation, although they had help from some young people from a bilingual school in Santa Rosa de Copán.

In Granadillal, they saw over 550 people – many of whom I know. This was the first time a medical brigade had been in that region – and it was apparent to me that the needs are great in that part of the parish. I hope they can get there when they come next June.

Wednesday in the afternoon I helped arrange the delivery of a wheel chair from the brigade to a dentist I know who would see that it was delivered to a remote village in Ocotepeque.

Friday was the feast of All Saints, which is not very big here. But there was a Mass in the cemetery of Oromilaca, which is in a beautiful place, with gorgeous views. I could even see my house in Plan Grande several miles away!

Padre German had another Mass that day, in the cemetery of San Agustín, but he had four Masses on Saturday, All Souls Day, the commemoration of the faithful departed.

I got up early Saturday and headed out to the 7 am Mass in the cemetery of Delicias. In a light rain, we celebrated the Eucharist – but got pretty wet.

Afterwards I went with some people visiting graves. I stopped at the grave of Juan Ángel Pérez, a young father from Debajiados who died three years ago. He was a candidate to become a Communion minister. I had gone with him several times to bring communion to his parents and was there at his funeral and his internment. His son and his parents were cleaning the gravesite. This was his mother’s first visit to his grave since she had been gravely ill and confined to home until recently.

In the afternoon, there was Mass in Candelaria. I went to the cemetery hoping it would be there, but they had moved it to the church because of fear of rain.

Today, Sunday, I went to Debajiados for a Celebration of the Word and Communion – in the midst of a cold rain. There was a nice congregation despite the rain. After the celebration a kid asked me if I could help his family with a little money for milk. They had been at the brigade’s clinic in Granadillal and his widowed mother was told that the youngest needed milk to prevent calcium deficiency. I gave him a little money and need to see how to help more in the future. This reminded me of how people need simple food like milk to keep their children healthy but don’t have the resources to get them.

After Mass I gave a few people a ride to relatives in El Zapote Santa Rosa and then, as I returned home, I saw some folks out working in a coffee field in the rain.

This afternoon, there’s Mass in Plan Grande.

This week I have a meeting of catechists on Wednesday and a meeting of Social Ministry on Friday. Friday night and Saturday there is a deanery evaluation meeting.

November is here – and it’s starting to turn colder. It’s only 68^o and has been rainy, though the sun is out now. I expect we’ll have temperatures in the fifties in a few weeks with rain; this is bone-chilling. I can put on several layers of clothes and two blankets at night. But I still wonder how many will be cold in their homes (outside of the kitchen).

Still, it’s a continuing blessing to be here.

Praying for the dead

Today is the feast of All Souls, the Catholic day to remember all those who have died.

The commemoration here in Honduras is subdued. People go to the cemetery, clean the grave of their loved ones, and put flowers on the graves.

In the neighboring village of Candelaria there is a cemetery which serves both Candelaria and Plan Grande. The cemetery is on the top and the side of a hill. We celebrated Mass there this morning.

I had only been there once before – for the burial of Nicolas Sánchez which I wrote about in April 2014 here.

When I arrived there was a small area at the base of the hill prepared for Mass but there were many people walking among the graves. I joined then, praying and talking with them.

I met a woman whose sixteen year old son had died of malnutrition – twenty years ago, but the pain remains.

I talked with a woman whose son was killed by a falling tree about a year ago.

A young man spoke with me about his father who had died when he was eleven years old.

There were all sorts of tombs – small and large above ground tombs, simple slabs of concrete, some which look like drawers. 

Walking among the tombs, I saw several young girls from Plan Grande with baskets of flowers, spreading them over the tombs. They were not honoring any particular person but wanted to bring a bit of beauty.

Mass began with a hymn and then several people read the names of the dead. Gloria broke down after she read her husband’s name but she recovered and read a later part of the  long list.

During the Eucharistic Prayer Padre German asked me to read the list of the dead again, at the point where we remember those who have died. Five long pages.

I also thought of several friends who had died this year – in particular, Mary Sawyer and Father Pat Geary – though I did not mention their names. I also remembered the mother of a friend who had died this year.

After Mass, Jerry whom I will sponsor at his confirmation in a few weeks, invited me to go up to the tomb of his father who had been a policeman and was killed in February 2011. I was moved that he asked to be there to pray with him and to see what he and other family members had brought for the tomb.

Being at the Mass and walking amid the tombs with the people I live among is a great privilege.

Accompanying those who are mourning is part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus who became one of us and listened to the cries and tears of the people.

It is also, I believe, an important part of the ministry of a deacon – if God calls me to be ordained to the permanent diaconate next year.

-----

More photos here.