Staying in Honduras, avoiding sin

To avoid an occasion of sin, I remain in Honduras

I think many people are surprised to find someone from the US here in Honduras, who has been here more than eleven years and intends to stay.

How many times I have heard people noting that so many Hondurans want to go to the US but they find me wanting to stay here in Honduras.

How many times I have tried to convince people that it is dangerous to try to go to the US and that it has been so for years. The trip through Mexico has been dangerous. For the past few years, the situation in the US has been extremely difficult, especially with anti-immigrant bias and propaganda. Most recently, the policy of separating parents from children is barbarous.

But this hasn’t stopped many people. A few days ago I heard of someone I know who fled to the US with one of his daughters. They are together. I keep hearing people talking about leaving.

I know some who have been deported. A major complaint is that they are hardly fed in the detention centers and sometimes the lunchmeat is bad.

I have also heard of a father who was separated from his child and deported, without knowing where his child is. Reading a report in today’s New York Times confirms that this is not an isolated case.

Last week someone asked me why I am staying here.

My usual answer is that here I have found a way to live out my calling, to serve God and the poor.

But I also mentioned, almost teasingly, that I am staying here because, if I were in the US, I would probably be in jail.

The treatment of migrants is so appalling, sinful, evil, that I would probably find myself in jail for opposing that policy. At the very least, I would find myself living in a state of permanent rage at the policies of the US government.

So I stay here – to try to be of service to the poor, avoiding at least one occasion of sin.

Marriage and the Eucharist:a reflection from rural Honduras

One major controversy that wracked the public discussion about the recent synod on the family was the question of whether to permit those who had been divorced and remarried to receive the Eucharist.

I won’t weigh in on the issue, waiting for some pastoral wisdom from Pope Francis. But I do want to share some thoughts about both from where I am.

Many visitors are surprised with so few people who receive Communion at Masses here, especially in the countryside. In the past few months, when I’ve been visiting villages with the Eucharist for a Sunday Celebration of the Word with Communion, I encourage the people to receive communion.

I sometimes ask them how many times they eat a day. Mostly likely three, with perhaps two snacks, they finally admit. But then I try to connect this with the Eucharist, the Bread of Life.

I admit that many of them have not been married in the church. I urge them to find ways to get married – which is not easy here, because the civil costs are often at least $100. In addition, many young people do not have examples of married couples and so don’t think about marriage. I see many unmarried couples with children in church and just long to find a way for them to be able to come together at the Table of the Lord.

But also at the base of infrequent communion is the belief that one cannot receive communion unless one has confessed almost immediately before. “No sinful person should approach the Eucharist” is a common sentiment.

This, of course, is rooted in a theology that is emphasizes sinfulness and divine punishment, rather than the medicine of God’s mercy. I wonder how much this is due to political, economic, and religious forces that play down the human dignity of all people, especially the poor. But that’s another very serious question.

I try to help them understand the theology that says one can receive communion if one has committed a mortal sin that has not been confessed. I sometimes think that this is new to many of them.

But not going to communion doesn’t mean that there is not a deep devotion to the Eucharist. In our parish, every Thursday there is a Holy Hour – and sometimes hours of adoration  before the exposed Eucharist – wherever the Eucharist is reserved. There is even one village where they have a Holy Hour even though they don’t have the Eucharist reserved!

2011 Corpus Christi procession in a village

I believe there is a hunger for Christ, indeed a hunger for the Eucharist, that some theological musings and church customs don’t recognize.

Can we pray and discuss the question of marriage and communion with this hunger in mind?

Can we pray and discuss these questions as we find ways for couples to be married as a sacramental sign of God’s love which they may already be living?

These are questions that deeply touch my heart.