Neighbor to me

When the parish of St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames, Iowa, was doing major renovations, they decided to have a major artwork on a wall in the new gathering space. This “story wall” would connect the life of the parish with the scriptures and liturgy that sustain it.

An artist parishioner, Jo Myers-Walker, chose to make clay images to mount on the wall. She involved parishioners in the project, and some even helped with the clay.

I lived near Jo and one day I stopped by to see her work.

She told me that she was going to put an image of the Good Samaritan and the man fallen among thieves on the wall. She mentioned that she wanted to put me as the Good Samaritan with a Central American as the man fallen among thieves.

I had been working with some refugees in the parish, advocating for justice in Central America, and had been visiting El Salvador for many years.

By the way, my interest in El Salvador and Central America was a gift of the people of the parish of St. Thomas, especially its Charity, Justice, and Peace Commission. I knew of Central America before beginning work there in 1983 but it was not an area of major concern until parishioners moved me to respond. Thus, Jo wanted to portray me as the Good Samaritan. 

I explained to Jo that in many ways the people of Central America had served as Good Samaritans for me, helping to heal my wounds, helping me to grow in faith, rescuing me from a commitment to justice that was just in the head. They opened my heart to God and to the poor. Thus, I should be the one being attended to by the Good Samaritan.

Also, I noted that the Good Samaritan was an outsider, one despised by the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. It was thus appropriate that the Samaritan be an outsider, one who was despised and seen as less than human, as Central American refugees were depicted then and as refugees are still treated.

Jo listened, as she does so often.

The image – a Central American Samaritan and me as the man fallen among thieves – is at the top of the story wall sculptures.

Today the Gospel is the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

As I now walk among the Hondurans in the parish of Dulce Nombre, I feel more than ever that the people here have helped me heal, have moved me to reach out to the needy, and been a source of joy for me.

Some people read this parable allegorically in a way that posits Jesus as the Good Samaritan – and that reading does make sense.

The rejected person sees the man fallen among thieves, has compassion, comes near, and anoints him and takes care of him.

So does Jesus do for us.

So do the people of Honduras do for me.

And so I am called to do likewise – to make myself neighbor to those at the margins of this world. 

May I be made so worthy to become a good neighbor, a good Samaritan, a disciple of Jesus.

Mission Sunday - Iowa, Honduras, Bolivia, the Amazon, and the world

Today is Mission Sunday in the Extraordinary Month of Mission that Pope Francis called for to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Maximum Illud, an apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XV on the missions.

Today is also the end of the week of mission in the deanery of Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. About fifty members of the parish of Dulce Nombre de María went on mission to the parish of Corquín, Copán, more than an hour away from Dulce Nombre. They spent the week – without money and without cellphone – visiting homes in scattered villages throughout that parish.

Missionaries of the Dulce Nombre parish

I had a less gruelling mission – visiting our sister parish, Saint Thomas Aquinas, in Ames, Iowa, and a visit to the Iowa City Catholic Worker.

At Thursday Night Liturgy at St. Thomas Aquinas, Ames

We prepared our missionaries with four sessions. At one of them, our pastor had asked me to share some thoughts on the letter of Pope Benedict XV.

The letter does respond to the situation of the early twentieth century, but there were several points that clearly redirected the sense of mission. One that I particularly appreciated the call to separate missionary activity from nationalism of any sort.

Part of the problem of missionaries has often been that they have come with the invaders – Franciscans and others came to the Americas with the conquistadors. I wonder if sometimes the native peoples identified them with the mother country and not with our real mother country – the Reign of God. A few like the Dominican priest and bishop, Bartolomé de las Casas, were exceptions.

But Pope Benedict XV advised missionaries to avoid nationalism. He noted that

“…such a situation could easily give rise to the conviction that the Christian religion is the national religion of some foreign people and that anyone converted to it is abandoning his loyalty to his own people and submitting to the pretensions and domination of a foreign power.”

And so, “it is not our vocation to expand the frontiers of human empires, but those of Christ, nor to add any citizens to countries here below but to our fatherland above.“

Pope Benedict XV goes on to characterize the missionary as humble, obedient, chaste, and a person of prayer. Meeting the unbeliever,

“...his bearing toward them is neither scornful nor fastidious; his treatment of them is neither harsh nor rough. Instead, he makes use of all the arts of Christian kindness to attract them to himself, so that he may eventually lead them into the arms of Christ, into the embrace of the Good Shepherd.”

In my meeting with our parish missionaries, I noted how they were going to different places not to impose our way of being a parish but to help open spaces for God to work.

As I look at the Synod of the Amazon, I see a part of the Church struggling to be a Church in place, not a church which is tied to any foreign nation or culture. I believe that some of the opposition comes from trying to hold onto a European/North American cultural expression of the faith – without noting that the Church in those places took much from the local culture in the early centuries of the Church.

What is important is to be open to the presence of Christ Jesus who was born into a particular culture and political situation but who transcends these. Christ and his message can find echoes and reception in many cultures. We should live in hope – and not in fear.

This afternoon, I had a few hours between Mass and dinner with some friends and so decided to spend time at the Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Student Center, here in Ames. I decided to visit the room dedicated to the Dulce Nombre de María parish, acknowledging our sister relationship, and also the room dedicated to “Cigar Box Ray.”

I entered the room and immediately saw the display in honor of Father Ray Herman, a graduate of Iowa State University, a priest of the Dubuque archdiocese, and a missionary to Bolivia. Reading one plaque I realized that today is the anniversary of his martyrdom in Morochata, near Cochabamba, Bolivia.

I wrote about him a few years ago here. He lived among the poor, responded to their needs, and died after getting a hospital built. And he did it with great austerity. His body was brought back to be buried in Iowa. His personal belongs fit into a cigar box.

I am far from that but he and many other missionaries, such as Blessed Stanley Rother and Blessed Tulio Marruzo, ofm, inspire me and encourage me to deepen my commitment to mission.

And so, today is a special mission Sunday for me, a time to recommit myself to the mission we all have as missionary disciples. For, as Pope Francis wrote in The Joy of the Gospel/Evangelii Gaudium (120):

"In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples (cf. Mt 28:19)."

Letter to St. Thomas Aquinas from Dulce Nombre

Letter to St. Thomas Aquinas Church from Padre German Navarro, pastor of the church of Dulce Nombre de María, Dulce Nombre de Copán, Honduras.

Dulce Nombre de Copán,

25 October 2017: “The Family; House and school of love”

We thank God that we share the same heaven of hope, the joys of the Gospel in the sorrowful lands, wreaked by mire of corruption, violence, drug-trafficking, among other things; pilgrims of peace amidst the debris of ecological disasters, contaminated rivers, mountaintops chopped off by human ambition. We proclaim our hymn of faith in the midst of migrants crossing walls and on death trains, leaving their children enveloped in hope but nourished in anemia with their households broken by anxiety, loneliness, and disintegration.

Esteemed sister parish of St. Thomas, thank you for your solidarity; with your generous help we are a parish which promotes the mission of evangelization and of charity with those most in need. You are Good News and from a humble silence you make present the Reign of God in our midst. And more: the manner you have of sharing and serving arouse in many of our parishioners the desire to give themselves. The tenderness of God is flourishing, as from their poverty they give part of their lives to assist the sick, the elderly, and the widows. Thank you, sisters and brothers, for evangelizing us through your charity.

You, in the person of Deacon Juancito [John Donaghy], are missionaries. St. Thomas as a parish reaches the farthest crossroads of the parish. There [our parish] is embraced and animated by the face of God; it is supported with the healing and liberating embrace of mercy; there the tears of those who are mourning are wiped away, helping them to contemplate the heaven of the resurrection in their passage as pilgrims from death to life, from violence to the ways of peace, from the walls of squalor and egoism to the bridge of fraternity where we celebrate together and share the table, with the tablecloth of solidarity and the providence of God. You are here with us, singing in our choirs, going with our missionaries of mercy, with our catechists and the children who share with us their desire to grow. Thanks for your part in our family.

Let us continue evangelizing – Christ crucified, who has been raised, waits for us in the Galilee of our families, who live in loneliness, abandoned, in young people without a future horizon. Jesus waits for us in the monotonous roads of everyday, which makes us easy prisoners of depression, violence, alcohol, drugs, and human trafficking. We keep quiet, not communicating to our parishes that in the desert of our hearts, nettled by egoism and greed, there is still present the New Heaven and the New Earth which can put us on the path to the peace to the peaceful sources, even though we happen to pass through the bludgeons of pride, indifference, corruption, and even hypocrisy.

My esteemed sisters and brothers, the parish of Dulce Nombre de María – from its commitment and hope – we await you. We can count on the shelter of friendship, with hearts beating in many homes with a rhythm in harmony with the heartbeat of our Creator; we can count on the hands of the worker who offer you hot tortillas and refried beans as well as the fraternal coffee of sharing and celebration.

Don’t let the news in the mass media hold you back; many times the means of social communication don’t manage to understand the life of our people which doesn’t interest them at all. Let us continue walking together, evangelizing, passing through the mire of pain, sorrow, and darkness, leaving on every face the divine spark which regenerates – which God alone can do. God counts on you and us.

I send cordial greetings to Father Jon and every one of our brothers and sisters who have visited us. We hold your faces and your gestures in our hearts. Again thank you for having been here with is and teaching us to evangelize with a silent evangelization.

May we, as pilgrims in this world, share very soon in the wedding feast of the Lamb, where there are no one and no one needs a visa – all we need is to wear the festive garment, that is to say, clothed with humility, mercy, and seeing us always as sisters and brothers, children of the same Father. There where we will be illumined by truth and justice and where we dance to the rhythm of the joy with the fragrance of eternal love.

Many thanks for everything.

Attentively,

German Navarro

Pastor, Dulce Nombre de María

Honduras

----

Loosely translated by John Donaghy.

The photo is of Padre German giving a rosary to one of the missionaries. Each missionary was given a cross and a rosary to be given to people they visited during their visits to homes in the villages where they were sent.

Mass of Thanksgiving

When it was finally decided that Bishop Darwin Andino would ordain me deacon on Friday. July 15, Padre German said that we should have a Mass on Sunday where I would preach for the first time as a deacon. I agreed but insisted that this was a Mass of Thanksgiving for my ordination as a permanent deacon.

The preparations began early. Saturday a group of women began to prepare the meal for all those who would attend. When I arrived early Sunday morning they were at work, preparing several cauldrons of a type of beef stew. More than 1000 people were fed after Mass. Also, a special meal was prepared for about 30 special guests, with lots of meat. I, of course, ate none of the meat, vegetarian that I am.

For the Mass, we brought two altar boys from the nearby municipality of Concepción. A communion minister from Dolores helped with the incense. Several people from various communities proclaimed the readings and led the Prayers of the Faithful.

I wore a green dalmatic, a gift from the parish of St. Thomas Aquinas made by Marianne Today, and Padre German Navarro wore a new chasuble made from the same material and embroidered by a woman in the parish.

The Mass began with a procession in which I carried the new Gospel Book. The deacon proclaims the Gospel and can preach.

One of the moving parts of the ordination rite was when the bishop handed me the Gospel Book and told me:

Recibe el Evangelio de Cristo,
del cual has sido constituido mensajero,
ten presente que debes
creer la palabra de Dios que proclamas
y hacer de ella norma de tu vida.

Receive the Gospel of Christ;
You have been constituted as its messenger.

Be aware that you ought to believe the Word of God that you proclaim
and make it the norm of your life.

The English version, which in this case I prefer, reads:

Receive the Gospel of Christ,

whose herald you now are.

Believe what you read,

teach what you believe,

and practice what you teach.

When he began Mass, Padre German noted the importance of combatting domestic violence and abuse of women. I was very pleased to hear this since the good collected at the ordination Mass went to Casa Hogar, a shelter in Santa Rosa for abused women. Also, I had recently heard of a horrid case of abuse. Mentioning this touched me and challenges me  to be more attentive to this.

The Mass proceeded normally. I proclaimed the Gospel and gave the homily. It can be found here in Spanish, and a first draft in English here.

There was a procession of offerings, which is very common here. 

First of all, Phil Barutha, visiting from St. Thomas Aquinas, brought up a signed banner which we affixed to the wall. 

Then gifts were brought representing the deacon’s ministry in service of the poor and in service of the Word. Then, to my surprise, children dressed in typical garb brought forward a gift for me. I was stunned.

Then, finally, a family brought forward bread and wine for the Eucharist, remembering that the deacon also serves at the altar.

During the offertory, the deacon adds a drop of water to the wine. The words prayed during this simple action have often struck me, especially the English translation:

By the mystery of this water and wine
may we come to share in the divinity of Christ
who humbled himself to share in our humanity.

Christ took on our humanity so that we might share in His divinity. He emptied Himself so that we would be transformed into Him. The call to downward mobility, which Jesus shows us, is the path whereby we are lifted up. I think this is an important message for us deacons (as well as for all Christians.)

After the gifts are prepared, the priest incenses the gifts and the altar and the deacon (or another person) incenses the priest and the people, as a sign that they are set aside to offer (and be the offering) of a sacrifice to God. I got carried away when I incensed the people and almost lost the censer. One disaster avoided.

As I was preparing for the diaconate, I noted that the deacon is an ordinary minister of Communion, especially of the Cup of the Blood of Christ. At the end of the Eucharistic prayer, he lifts up the chalice. I insisted at this Mass that I hold the cup while the priest and the communion ministers served the people with the Body and Blood of Christ by intinction (dipping the host in the precious blood.)

At the end of Mass, a few words were said by Padre German, Phil, and two members of the parish. Then we went forth. The communion ministers distributed holy cards I had had printed and the people ate and had their full. After numerous photos, I went and ate with a smaller group.

It was a day of deep joy, mostly because I saw so many people coming together to pray and give thanks. Reflecting on the Mass, I think that this was really a time of prayer and reflection. I did not feel as if it were a celebration of me – thank God. I hope that it was for the many who came a way for all of us to celebrate the gift and call to serve God and the People of God, especially the poor.