Mary's Magnificat and Honduran street demonstrations

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and raised up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.

Mary
Luke 1: 53-53

Today is the second day of a nation-wide strike in Honduras. In many parts of the country, teachers, medical professionals, university students, and others have taken to the streets. The government security forces have come out and often responded with tear gas and, according to a few reports, with live ammunition. In a few cases there has been violence by the protestors.

This has not affected me directly in our parish, but it concerns me.

What has spurred this round of major demonstrations is a new law in Congress that affects the education and health systems.

The health system here is, in many ways, a disaster. There are hospitals and health centers without medicine. There are some rural health centers that have no personnel.

The educational system is also problematic.

In addition, these public sectors and others are affected by the political system that often hands out employment based on one’s political affiliation. In the last election, some public health employees were told to publish propaganda for the governing party on their social media pages. Nepotism and cronyism are not uncommon.

I do not know the details of the laws but what many fear is the privatization of health and education. According to one report I have heard, the money for these sectors may be placed in the hands of local officials who, if they cannot run the programs, may contract out to private corporations.

Decentralization sounds good, but in a corrupt system this will lead to even more corruption. Who will get the jobs? Who will get the contracts? Who will oversee the expenditures? Who will determine if the private companies will work for the good of the people or be more concerned with their corporate profits?

People are suspicious, especially in light of the semi-privatization of the electric systems. Many people experienced extremely high bills. Electric outages continue.

But the current unrest is happening in a context – both nationally and internationally.

There are more and more reports that high government officials have been and are involved in the drug-trade. The brother of the current president is in jail in the US, denied bail, on charges of major drug trafficking. There have been investigations of the previous president and his wife, mostly on corruption charges. There are also rumors of major investigations of the current president and his advisers.

There have been major increases in the cost of living for the poor and the tiny middle class. The minimum salary (which means almost nothing to the people in the countryside) doesn’t cover the cost of the basic food basket.

Coffee prices are extremely low and the small coffee farmers are struggling.

Then there is the increased emigration.

This is a complicated issues and my opinions are complex. So I won’t comment much in this blog. But one of the effects of the emigration is the exodus of men, especially young men and fathers of families, from the villages.

In light of the immigration, US president Trump has called for ending of humanitarian aid programs in Honduras. I have heard reports that USAID, that does have a number of projects aiding farmers, is pulling out.

Yet the Honduran government, with the aid of the US and Israel (among other nations), is increasing the militarization of the country, including the militarization of police forces, as well a buying lots of military equipment. There is enough money for weapons and tear gas and bullets, but there is not enough for health.

All this – and more – has brought us to this point, where the people are on the streets.

My hopes are that the government will respond to the demands with care for the needs of the poorest, without violence, and that the forces of opposition will be more engaged in activities that help the people to organize themselves and initiate creative responses to the problems facing the poorest. I also hope that the US will change it immigration policies.

But today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, as recorded in Luke 1: 39-56.

Mary’s response to her cousin’s greeting is the beautiful and revolutionary hymn, The Magnificat. Rooted in the hymn of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2: 1-10, the hymn presents us with a God who takes on the cause of the oppressed, turning the world upside down.

So today, I will pray this hymn with even more attention – to the world as it is around me in Honduras with the hope and the determination that the Lord – with our participation – will make this country anew, where “the bows of the mighty are broken” and the Lord “raises the needy from the dust,” and where “the hungry are filled with good things.”

 ---

 Image by Ben Wildflower.

Mary - homely and revolutionary

Today Honduras celebrates its patron, Mary under the title of the Virgin of Suyapa, after the image found in 1747 by two campesinos – a statue of about 2.5 inches.

It wasn’t until a week or so ago that I saw a photo of the real statue. Mary is homely – and apparently not white. I love the image.

I have been a bit put off by the images of the Virgin of Suyapa – often ten to twenty times large than the original – adorned with a beautiful large dress.

Mary has been kidnapped.

Not like the two times the statue was stolen – once being found in a men’s bathroom in a restaurant in Tegucigalpa.

No she’s been co-opted – no longer a campesino.

In addition, she is the patron of the Honduran armed forces, their “capitan.” And the festival Mass in the basilica in Tegucigalpa has often been turned into a love fest for the government, with the president and others in the front pews.

But this is the Mary who said “yes” to the unlikely proposal of becoming the mother of God.

This is the Mary who gave birth to her child and laid him in a manger.

This is the Mary who stood at the foot of the Cross of her son.

This is the Mary who, finding out she was pregnant, visited her relative Elizabeth, while she herself was in the first months of pregnancy.

This is the Mary who, reflecting the words of Hannah in 1 Samuel, sings a revolutionary song of praise of God who overthrows the proud, send the rich away empty, casts down the mighty from their thrones.

This is the Mary who bears a God who lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry, sends the rich away empty.

I wonder if her Magnificat will be banned in Honduras as revolutionary.

Yet I am beginning to love the Virgencita de Suyapa.

This Mary, the tiny Virgin of Suyapa, homely, dark-skinned, campesina is the servant of the Lord who bears God-made-flesh and shows me what God is really like.

This is the Virgin whose statue was found when Alejandro Colindres felt a sharp pain in his back – from trying to sleep on the statue. May she still be a sharp pain in the back of all those who oppress the poor, who rely on power and wealth, who do not realize that they are servants of the Lord.

Thank you, Virgin of Suyapa. Pray for us. Pray for Honduras. 

Virgin, homely and revolutionary, I love you. Move us and all Honduras to repentance.