Holy Week

As you may have noticed, I have been writing a lot on this blog since last Friday. I have had a lot more time to write and there has been a lot more happening that has moved me to write. Also, it's Holy Week, which for me began in earnest last Friday, often called the Friday of Our Lady of Sorrows.

In Honduras and other Latin American countries, many people have Holy Week off. Some go to the beaches, some just lounge at home. But there are many church activities all week, especially from Holy Thursday to the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening. In cities like Santa Rosa de Copán there are many processions where the faithful carry images from the church throughout the streets.

This year I'll be spending Wednesday through Sunday morning in the parish of Dulce Nombre de María, where I've been helping out. From Wednesday to Saturday I'll be in the town of San Agustín, accompanying the people for the first two days of the Triduum. I am looking forward to this chance to be with the people during these days. On Saturday I'll go to Dulce Nombre de Copán for the Easter Vigil.

Sister Nancy and Sister Brenda, two Dubuque Franciscans in Gracias, Lempira, have invited me to come for Easter Sunday to celebrate with them. If all goes well I'll probably take up their offer. It's always great to be with these good sisters.

In the meantime, today is a day for some quiet (after helping at the comedor de niños, the munch program for kids). It's a cool day and there was a brief rain this morning, which is quite a relief from the hot and dusty days we've been experiencing.

It's been up into the high 80s and low 90s for about a week and it's been so dry that dust covers everything in the house and I felt as if I was forever eating dust. And so the cool is a welcome change, though we should be back into the upper 80s the end of the week.

But I shouldn't complain. I hear that there was a snow storm in the Midwest in April!

Palm Sunday alfombras

Early Palm Sunday morning I got up at 4:15, showered, drank a large cup of coffee, and sat and read before going out to help prepare the alfombras, the carpets of colored saw dust, for the Palm Sunday procession which starts a few blocks up the hill from where I live.

Base community members and others were there, carting the bags of sawdust, spreading them with brooms, smoothing the carpets by hand, or preparing the special colored designs.

People from all walks of life where there – well off and poor, children and adults, and in the block we did people from Honduras, the US (me), and Spain (Sor Inez, a Franciscan sister).

In a few hours the Palm Sunday procession will go down the street and the donkey with “Jesús” will walk over it and scatter the sawdust. A little work of art for a few moments, to give glory to God.

After helping with the carpets I went home to get ready for Mass. I read a reflection on Holy Week by Timothy Radcliffe, OP, from his book Just One Year: A Global Treasury of Prayer and Worship (Orbis, 2006).

“Faced with the powers of his time, Jesus made signs that spoke of the ultimate triumph of meaning, Often what we are able to do may look little more than signs, but they speak of the coming of the Kingdom, and help to bring it about. Small signs are the signature of God. Jesus says that whatever we do to the least of his brothers and sisters we do to him. No sign is too small. Every small act for justice is a little window for God’s grace, with consequences that exceed all that we can imagine or ever know.”

Way of the Cross,
Way of Justice
Diocesan Stations
of the Cross

For several years on the Friday before Holy Week people from all over the diocese of Santa Rosa have gathered in Santa Rosa de Copán for a stations of the cross through the streets of Santa Rosa.

Most of those who come are from the widely scattered rural parishes, arriving in buses or pick up trucks. For some it is a long ride, four hours or more. But this year 3000 or more came.

The stations are decidedly oriented toward the justice demands of the Gospel and the stages on Christ’s road from Pilate’s condemnation to Calvary – and to the resurrection – are prayed with an eye on the challenges the people of God face here in western Honduras.

This year they used the challenges discussed at the diocesan assembly last November which included institutionalized corruption, organized crime, lack of authentic leaders, political sectarianism and fanaticism, political participation, migration, cultural invasion, abandonment of the land, secularization, squandering of money on political campaigns, selling out by the means of communication.

The day was sunny and very hot as we moved through the streets, starting at the base of a hill in town and ending at the cathedral. But the people followed the statues of Christ carrying the Cross and Mary, the sorrowful mother, with devotion. At each station a different meditation was led by priests and people from different parishes in the diocese. Twice there were skits to explain the challenges to living as faithful people.

Almost all of the priests of the diocese were there and during the stations people approached the priests and made their confessions on the street.

The stations ended with a Mass at the cathedral. Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos gave a strong – and long - sermon on the 15th station – the Resurrection – related to the sell out of the means of communication. He spoke of how the press has often sold out to the powers of empire – the Spanish, the American, the “international empire of money” (words of Pope Paul VI). He noted how the mining interests have often paid off journalists but the diocesan radio station has sought to speak the truth. For this the lawyer for the local mining company, Yamana Gold, recently sent a letter to the Apostolic Nuncio to Honduras (the Vatican’s ambassador) with accusations against Fr. Roel Mejia, the director of the radio and an outspoken opponent of the mining’s activities.

At the end of Mass the bishop offered a prayer for the Chortis, an indigenous group who live around the Mayan Ruins near Copán Ruinas. They are sitting in at the ruins and not letting people enter because the government has delayed so long in giving them lands that were promised and only 35% has been distributed. So they felt driven to take the radical step of sitting in.

What strikes me most about this day is the way the people combine a deep, very traditional piety with a deep desire for justice. Although most of the meditations were probably written by the priests, the themes resonated in the hearts of the people, mostly campesinos, country farmers.

For me, though, the two images that most affected me – but I didn’t capture them on film – were the sacramental celebrations.

As I looked on, a man confessed his sins to a young priest. As he gave absolution, the priest placed his hands firmly on the man’s head. You are forgiven, embraced with God's love.

And during Mass the priests walked into the crowd to distribute the Body of Christ. Some received on the tongue, but the most poignant moment for me was seeing people reach out their hands to the priest – often between the bodies of people in front of them, longing to receive the Body of Christ.

God’s call for justice, God’s merciful forgiveness, and Jesus’ loving presence were there today for those who had eyes to see.

Obama and Notre Dame

Here in Honduras I’m far from the US, but news of the controversy over President Obama speaking at Notre Dame has reached me via cyberspace. I, at first, hadn’t even thought of commenting on the controversy.

In 2006 Boston College, my Ph.D. alma mater, invited Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice to speak at their commencement and receive an honorary degree. Faculty, students, alumni, and others protested this decision, because of her support for the Iraq war which many of us believed is immoral as well as her support for abortion. She described herself as “moderately pro-choice.” Two theologians on the BC faculty initiated a petition; I wrote my letter to BC’s president, Jesuit Father William Fahey, expressing my concerns.

I was not in Boston at the time and so I don’t know if the environment was extremely divisive. According to a report in the Boston College Magazine, which may or may not be “objective,” the protest was very civil. http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/summer_2006/linden_lane/a-civil-discourse.html

But the brouhaha surrounding Obama and Notre Dame is far from civil. As always, Fr. John Kavanaugh in America offers poignant commentary in his column subtitled “We Catholics are in danger of becoming known not by how we love but by how we hate.” I urge you to read it.
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11564

Should President Obama be disinvited? I am not sure, because it might create more harm than good at this point. But what should happen is that both proponents and opponents should not resort to name-calling and preposterous claims.

But what I would hope is that President Obama would take seriously how many of us oppose his decisions on abortion and embryonic stem cell research and begin a real dialogue about the issues. If he really wants to decrease the number of abortions, Notre Dame might be the place for him to make a serious proposal, not only for assisting pregnant women but also for a careful examination of US abortion laws.

Let us pray that the current controversy will not leave open wounds that might fester in the life of our Church and in the nation. Let’s purge the uncivil speech, seek serious debate, and above all support and defend pregnant women.


PS I recommend almost everything that Jesuit Father John Kavanaugh has written, especially Following Christ in a Consumer Society: The Spirituality of Cultural Resistance (Orbis Books, 2006).

Saint Benedict the Black

April 3 the Franciscans celebrate Saint Benedict the Black, also known as Benedict the Moor or Benedict Massarari, who lived in Sicily from 1526 to 1589.

For some reason or other – perhaps my concern for racial justice – I have had a devotion to him since the 1950s. But as I read more I find him a marvelous example for us, even today.

Born a slave of African parents he was freed when he was about 21 years old. After working a while he joined some Franciscan hermits. Their group was abolished – perhaps by papal decree – but Benedict joined a nearby Franciscan friary as a lay brother, where he served as cook.

After several years he was chosen guardian (leader) of the local friary where he served for several years, after which he returned to the kitchen.

What is remarkable is that though he was an illiterate black lay brother, and former slave, he became the guardian of the friary. As far as I know this could not happen today because the Vatican has decreed that lay brothers cannot be superiors of priests (though I know that there have been a few dispensations from this law.)

But the holiness and simplicity of Benedict helped dissolve any barriers of race, education, or class in that friary and enabled the friars to live as signs of the kingdom of God.

Maybe that’s why I have this devotion to Saint Benedict. He has been for me a sign of the Kingdom of God.

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Today, the Friday before Holy Week, the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán celebrates a diocesan Way of the Cross in the streets of Santa Rosa. The stations will be very much oriented to the reality of injustice here in Honduras.