SERVANT MINISTRY

Introductory note: I wanted to share two events that happened in the past few days. After I finished, I realized that they have to do with trying to be a servant, being images of Christ the Servant to the world. 

 Friday we had another training for Delegates of the Word, those who lead Sunday Celebrations in the absence of a priest so that people can come together and worship. There were about ninety participants. 

During the first part of the morning Padre German led the group in the retreat in the training manual for delegates. 

After a break, I went aside with about eighteen women and men aspiring to become delegates. I am very encouraged that almost all are young. We need new blood in this important ministry. 

Padre German asked me to work with them on basic church teaching and to start with examining them. Being a rebel, I decided to do the exam differently. They divided into groups. I asked a question which they were supposed to answer in the group and then we’d discuss it. This broke down when people began to just shout out a response and then we discussed the response.

But Padre German had the more difficult task with the delegates, some of whom have served for more than twenty-five years. 

 About a week ago the shared with me a concern about our annual celebration of Christ the King.

The tradition here is to get the whole parish together for Mass, often preceded by music and presentations, at times with a procession. The feast of Christ the King is also the day to honor the Delegates of the Word.

Father was concerned that we give an image of Christ as a king, who lords it over others, dominates, has the last word, and is the supreme leader.

I too share this concern. When I discuss our baptism into Christ - Prophet, Priest, and King, I almost always say King/Servant. 

A problem is that emphasizing this image  of a worldly king on the Day of the Delegate of the Word may give the message that the delegate is to be the one who makes the decisions. I have even heard of a delegate who said something to the effect that the pastor rules in the parish, but he’s there; I rule here. 

And some think clericalism is just something that has to do with priests. Clericalism runs deep in a patriarchal society and the notion of a privileged caste in the institutional church.

Don’t get me started. But, if you want to read more, I highly recommend Clericalism: The Death of Priesthood, by George B. Wilson, S.J.

Anyway, Padre German spent time trying to elicit from the delegates another way of looking at Christ the King – gentle, suffering, servant, humble.

We’ll be trying to emphasize these images for the feast. 

Today, Sunday, I was supposed to pick up a group of people from Ames, Iowa, connected with the group importing coffee from an association in our parish. They are also connected with our sister parish, Saint Thomas Aquinas in Ames. 

 I was late leaving home for the airport (three and a half hours away) when I got a WhatsApp message that they had only twenty minutes to get to their second flight because of delays due to fog.

A few minutes later, there was another message – they had to rebook their flight.

So, I stayed in Plan Grande.

Tomorrow I’ll pick them up and be with them until next Sunday. 

In the meantime, this morning, the pastor had called me to ask if I could assist at a funeral this afternoon.

I finally tracked down the people concerned and went for the two o’clock funeral.

I wasn’t as prepared as I usually want to be. I almost forget the books and my vestments and when I arrived there I realized I had only green vestments – for hope, as I explained to the people gathered at the family home. 

 The house was poor and up a path where only motorcycles could enter.

The woman who died, whose husband had died two years ago, was in her seventies. They had twelve children, only two of them women. Most were there, together with lots of kids and friends. 

I was moved by the presence of kids around the table we used for an altar, just outside the tiny room where the coffin was. They were attentive as I put on my vestments, as I explained to them a little of what they meant. 

The Celebration went well, and God provided me with what seemed like the right words. People seemed attentive. 

I was also surprised and grateful that so many came forward for communion. 

At the end of the celebration, I asked the adult children to come into the house for the final rites of sending – saying goodbye. La despedida. 

Then they carried the coffin to a pick up to begin the procession to the cemetery.

What a privilege to be able to share with these people, to offer them a few words which I hope will give them courage and consolation. This gives me joy. 

Just a last note. People usually give the priest who comes for a Mass a donation to cover fuel. They ask me and I try to decline. But today one of the sons insisted on handing me a two hundred lempira note, which, I told him, I will put into the parish solidarity fund for the poor. He insisted. How can I refuse?

Between visitors

I had a family from Ames visit me for a week over Christmas. it was, for me, a good experience, including living with three teenagers!

For me one of the best experiences was Christmas morning.

I had gone with the parents to the church in Dulce Nombre for the Christmas Vigil Mass (at 9:00 pm) but we had decided to go out to a village, San Antonio El Alto, for a Christmas morning celebration of the Word with Communion.

The church in San Antonio El Alto

The church had recently been expanded and they put a ceramic floor to cover the previous dirt floor. The Celebration went well, with lots of people going to Communion.

After the Celebration there was coffee with sweet bread for the adults while we arranged the piñata we had brought – full of candy.

After the piñata was destroyed and I had handed out more candy I had brought, we visitors were fed coffee and ticucos, a cornmeal ball with some spices and either beans or meat in a corn husk.

Then the visitors kicked around a soccer ball, for about half an hour.

They left on Wednesday, after participating in the Posadas one night, picking coffee in the Plan Grande church field with people from Plan Grande, learning how to make tamales, playing Frisbee, attending many Masses and seeing baptisms, visiting the Mayan Ruins in Copán Ruinas, and more.

Plan Grande residents picking coffee

Another group is coming Sunday, but I’ve had a few days to catch up – cleaning the house, getting clothes washed, doing some work on a booklet on the saints of mercy for the base communities, visiting with Padre German, and more.

New Years Eve there was adoration of the Eucharist in the Plan Grande church followed by a Celebration of the Word with Communion. I went and got roped into leading the Celebration of the Word and giving a reflection. I was not really prepared and so I read a series of questions for the new year by José Antonio Pagola. (The text in Spanish is here.) 

New Years Day I went to Mass in Dolores and Padre German had me give a reflection – a sort of preparation for the diaconate. Someone caught a picture of me speaking there.

Then I headed for Gracias to spend some time with the Dubuque Franciscan Sisters there, to celebrate Sister Pat’s birthday, and to help three of them move to their new ministry in La Entrada. As always, being with the sisters renews me and I get a few great meals!

Four of the sisters.

Saturday morning, two pickups from Gracias, my pickup, and the sisters’ car caravanned to La Entrada. A mini-bus took some of the parish’s communion ministers to bid the sister good-by.

As we took the sisters’ possession to their simple dwelling on the second floor of a house in a poor neighborhood, I was struck by the simplicity and the poverty in which they will be living.  It is a challenge for me. They are living their Franciscan mission in poverty, among the poor.

Now I’m back in Plan Grande, relaxing, preparing to head for San Pedro Sula tomorrow to pick up my visitors. I’ll first head out to 7:00 AM Mass in Concepción and then drive to San Pedro. We’ll stay overnight since two of the visitors don’t get in until after 5:00 PM.

But now little things: some writing, some reading, some preparing of materials, and getting the house ready.

That’s what a new year brings: many little things done, hopefully, well and with a sense of the presence of God – and the hope of living faithfully a new year serving God’s people.

New Year's morning sunrise

Too busy to write much in June

A few friends have noted that I have not written a lot on this blog during June.

The month began with my sixty-eighth birthday, which I spent fairly quietly.

The first Saturday of June I went to Intibucá with about 25 young people from the parish for a diocesan youth gathering. The trip was three hours long and the weather was bad. Most of us got soaked during the Mass.

It was good to be with the young people, but - to be honest - the event was disappointing. But two of the youth groups are planning to get together for a joint meeting.

I have had three visitors. I went to El Salvador for a few days with two of them and visited with some friends while there. I spent four hours talking with a journalist friend in English, which was very intellectually stimulating.

The other visitor has been studying medical missions in Honduras and I accompanied her on a visit to a clinic supported by a US Foundation. We talked a lot about Honduras and so-called “mission” groups. I also took her to the Copán Ruins which are only 90 minutes from my house.

In mid June I visited the Amigos de Jesús center for children near Azacualpa, talking with the US volunteers. The directors have asked me to visit with the volunteers every two months or so in order to help them process their experience and deepen their faith and spiritual life as volunteers in Honduras. This should be a very interesting and challenging experience.

This means that I have spoken more English this month than I usually do in three months. I wonder if I might be slowly losing my fluency in English.

 I’ve been involved in several workshops – for delegates of the Word and for base community leaders. I had full responsibility for one, but Padre German did most of the work in the workshop for delegates. I also accompanied a meeting of the extraordinary ministers of Communion.

I have also accompanied Padre German to several villages, which have included Baptisms. Padre German is having me help a lot in the liturgies – presumably as a preparation for my possible ordination as a deacon.

In San Juan, I spent about ten minutes before Mass talking with the kids and asking them a little about why they were getting baptized. They also had a load of questions for me.

I am regularly visiting villages on Sundays for their Celebrations of the Word. That means preparation for my reflection on the readings.

I’m also in the midst of trying to see how the coffee from a small cooperative in formation can get to the United States.

I am also trying to do a bit of study as part of the formation process of the diaconate. I am taking a course on line on canon law and I am reading a lot on varied topics, including Joseph Martos’ book on the sacraments,  Doors to the Sacred.

I also met once with a spiritual director, but have to fond another one since he is being called back to the US by his order.

There have also been mundane pursuits – getting a Honduran driver’s license which took half a day; medical appointments with an eye doctor and with my regular doctor; weekly visits to Santa Rosa de Copán to buy groceries and other needs; leaving my car with the mechanic for repairs; getting soil to fill in the garden area around the house; washing clothes (by hand). Right now I have a huge pile of clothes to wash – including two sets of sheets. I hope the weather is good next Monday and Tuesday.

I did have a chance last week to have a long lunch over pizza at Weekend’s in Santa Rosa with Sister Nancy Meyerhofer, a Dubuque Franciscan in nearby Gracias. These are great ways to catch up on our lives and share our experiences.

July promises to be a bit less busy; I may have to try to take a few days for retreat or vacation.

Nancy, in her general letter, wrote something that really resonates with me:

One of my mentors in Chile, a wise older Jesuit, once told me that pastoral work is like playing an accordion: there are times when the whole thing is squeezed together (or “crunch time,” I guess we could say) and other times when the music box is relaxed and open. 

June has been crunch time for me; July may be more relaxed, hopefully opening me to the continuing call of God.