Dulce Nombre parish stations 2016

Again this year, on the Friday before Holy Week – which used to be the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows – the Dulce Nombre de María parish celebrated the Vía Crucis , the Way of the Cross, in the streets of Dulce Nombre de Copán.

In February the Parish Pastoral Council had chosen a number of themes for the stations, naming places where we need God’s mercy.

Padre German asked me to write the stations. I included a quote from Pope Francis for every station, related to the theme of the station and the concern that we recalled.

 

First Station

We started at the edge of town, several hundred people. El Nazareno, Jesus carrying the Cross, and a statue of the sorrowful mother were carried in the procession which went for almost three hours.

Procession with the images of El Nazareno and the Sorrowful Mother

At each station on the way to the church there was a decorated altar. Most sectors had also prepared a cross with the theme. We had a scripture reading, a reflection, prayers, and a quote from Pope Francis

Here are the stations and the themes – some accompanied by photos and with some commentary.

1. Jesus is condemned to death: impunity

2. Jesus takes up his Cross: the imprisoned

We listened to Pope Francis's remarks to the prisoners in Ciudad Juárez:

• Jesus’ concern for the care of the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless and prisoners … sought to express the core of the Father’s mercy. This becomes a moral imperative for the whole of society that wishes to maintain the necessary conditions for a better common life. It is within a society’s capacity to include the poor, infirm and imprisoned, that we see its ability to heal their wounds and make them builders of a good life together.

3. Jesus falls the first time: vices and drug-trafficking

An older man carried the cross of this station throughout the way of the cross - walking barefoot all the way.

4. Jesus meets his mother: challenges of families

5. Simon of Simon helps Jesus carry the Cross: the elderly and sick.

 

We listened to the words of Pope Francis in The Joy of the Gospel, #76:

• The pain and the shame we feel at the sins of some members of the Church, and at our own, must never make us forget how many Christians are giving their lives in love. They help so many people to be healed or to die in peace in makeshift hospitals. They are present to those enslaved by different addictions in the poorest places on earth. They devote themselves to the education of children and young people. They take care of the elderly who have been forgotten by everyone else. They look for ways to communicate values in hostile environments. They are dedicated in many other ways to showing an immense love for humanity inspired by the God who became human.

6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus: children

The sector had prepared a moving image of a child best by problems: malnutrition, lack of housing, discrimination, extreme poverty, lack of medicine, abandoned children.

7. Jesus falls the second time: youth

The altar for this station was designed by a kindergarten. The teachers and the children had arranged an altar and prepared a drawing. Note the Winnie-the-Pooh pillow in front of the picture of Christ.

8. Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem: domestic violence and violence against women

Women had prepared this altar where we remembered domestic violence and the large number of killings of women in Honduras.

We read these remarks from Pope Francis, in The Joy of the Gospel, #212:

• Doubly poor are those women who endure situations of exclusion, mistreatment and violence, since they are frequently less able to defend their rights. Even so, we constantly witness among them impressive examples of daily heroism in defending and protecting their vulnerable families.

9. Jesus falls the third time: lack of work, poor wages, exploitation of workers

10. Jesus is stripped of his clothes: lack of care for creation

11. Jesus is nailed to the Cross: migrants.

12. Jesus dies on the Cross: murders

At this station, as we have in the past, we prayed for all those murdered in the parish during the past year. We asked people to come forward to mention the names after each of which we prayed, "Jesus Christ, have mercy on us." I was overwhelmed by the number of names of persons killed. 

13. Jesus is taken down from the Cross: injustice

14. Jesus is laid in the tomb

We read part of the remarks of Pope Francis at the end of the Stations of the Cross at World Youth Day in Brazil:

• But the Cross of Christ invites us also to allow ourselves to be smitten by his love, teaching us always to look upon others with mercy and tenderness, especially those who suffer, who are in need of help, who need a word or a concrete action which requires us to step outside ourselves to meet them and to extend a hand to them. How many people were with Jesus on the way to Calvary: Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, Mary, the women… Sometimes we can be like Pilate, who did not have the courage to go against the tide to save Jesus’ life, and instead washed his hands. Dear friends, the Cross of Christ teaches us to be like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus to carry that heavy wood; it teaches us to be like Mary and the other women, who were not afraid to accompany Jesus all the way to the end, with love and tenderness. And you? Who are you like? Like Pilate? Like Simon? Like Mary? 

• Dear friends, let us bring to Christ’s Cross our joys, our sufferings and our failures. There we will find a Heart that is open to us and understands us, forgives us, loves us, and calls us to bear this love in our lives, to love each person, each brother and sister, with the same love. Amen! 

The Stations were followed by Mass in a full church.

The Stations were made available for the people to use in their communities on Good Friday morning.

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The text of the Stations in Spanish can be found here.

More photos can be found in this set of photos on Flickr.

Mercy: principle and works

Last week the clergy of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán had a retreat with the theme of mercy, preach by Father Antonio Rivero, LC. There was a lot of information and I felt overwhelmed by the torrent of words on mercy. Thanks be to God I had the chance one night to visit the sick.

At the instigation of Padre German Navarro, whom I work with, I began reading Jon Sobrino’s El Principio – Misericordia, which I had read in English in 1994.

It is slow reading but I also came across an essay of Jon Sobrino, SJ, (in Christine Bochen’s  The Way of Mercy, p..65-66 )where he notes:

Mercy is a basic attitude toward the suffering of another, whereby one reacts to eradicate that suffering for the sole reason that it exists, and in the conviction that, in this reaction to the ought-not-be of another’s suffering, one’s own being, without any possibility of subterfuge, hangs in the balance. 

But mercy is more than the works of mercy. Note again the words of Jon Sobrino (p, 74): 

When mercy is taken seriously as the first and the last, it becomes conflictive. No one is thrown in prison or persecuted simply for having practiced works of mercy. Not even Jesus would have been persecuted and put to death, had his mercy been mere mercy— without being mercy as the first and the last. But when mercy becomes the first and the last, then it subverts society’s ultimate values, and society reacts.

I think of this as I recall the death of two indigenous activists this month in Intibucá - Berta Cáceres and Nelson García. 

But the past few days I have had two occasions to practice the corporal works of mercy.

When I got back from the retreat on Friday, I was approached by the mayor of Concepción to see if I could house the leaders of the medical brigade which was seeing people in our municipality, Concepción.

The two leaders stayed with me. I helped translate on Saturday and Monday when the brigade was in the nearby Candelaria clinic.

The lines early on Monday at the Candelaria clinic

This was an amazing experience – hearing the people explain their ills and watching the doctors respond carefully and respectfully to their needs. I noted a deep concern for the doctors for several seriously ill persons. But mostly I heard a lot of concern for gastritis and blood-pressure (low and high) and saw a number of people being nebulized for asthma. The brigade examined more than 200 in Quebraditas on Friday, more than 300 in Candelaria on Friday, and probably between 400 and 500 on Monday. (I had to leave before they were finished.)

I also was called on to speak with a man who was in deep anguish – or was it trauma? A son had been brutally murdered a few months ago and he is still grieving. We talked for a while and I promised to visit him during Holy Week.

On Monday, after translating for most of the day, I headed to Gracias where I assisted Sister Pat Farrell in working with several persons in the Gracias jail to prepare for a May workshop on Alternatives to Violence. These people had participated in two previous training sessions; we are helping them prepare to be co-leaders of future workshops in prison.

What impressed me this time was the sense of initiative of the two men in prison as well as the sharing of one of them on his former life. I feel blessed to have been a part of this process.

I returned to Plan Grande on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday I spent almost the whole day preparing the parish Stations of the Cross which we celebrated on Friday. I had to finish them so that I could get photocopies in Santa Rosa on Thursday.

And so I have been blessed with the chance to shelter the two leaders of the medical brigade, visit the sick and listen to the sick visiting the doctors, comfort the afflicted, and more.

But more than anything else I feel myself sheltered in mercy – by all the people who surround me and help me try to be merciful.

Berta Cáceres and the response of the church

Berta Cáceres was a Lenca woman who stood up for the Lenca people and advocated for the care of our common home, this earth which is God’s gift.

Her killing on March 3 in La Esperanza leaves Honduras without the gift of her love and struggle for the earth and for the Lenca people.

The world has responded in protest of her killing and demanding a just and prompt judicial process – something which is rare in Honduras.

I have not written until this moment but I have been deeply affected by this example of the persecution of another person committed to the poor and to our common home.

A question some may ask is, “Where has the Catholic Church been in this time?”

There has not been the outpouring of concern I had hoped – but there are small efforts.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the major role that the Jesuit-supported Radio Progeso has played in responding to the killing of Berta Cáceres. Padre Melo (Ismael Moreno, S.J.) was at the front of the crowd on the day of her burial, together with Padre Fausto Milla of our diocese and two Claretian priests. A friend who was there told me how Padre Melo’s talk was interrupted by the mourning rites of the Garifuna. Rather than being distraught, he invited them to come forward and pray the Our Father in Garifuna.  He invited representatives of other indigenous groups from Honduras and Guatemala to come forward and pray the Lord’s Prayer in their languages. The prayer was also offered in Spanish and English. A US clergywoman who works with refugees was among those at the front.

But what about other sections of the church, especially the institution?

Perhaps the strongest institutional response to date has come from the Vatican. Yesterday I came across a strong letter from Cardinal PeterTurkson from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, dated March 15, lamenting the death and calling for an “independent and impartial investigation.”

On March 3, a letter was distributed which was signed by Caritas Honduras as well as several other diocesan offices of Caritas, together with various congregations of religious and parishes, mostly in the dioceses of San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba. I will translate this soon. I found it on the Caritas Honduras website but have not been able to access the site last night or today.

Caritas Honduras also had a statement on the killing of Berta Caceres dated March 11which I came across yesterday. 

The diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán had hoped that there would be a Mass for Berta Cáceres on the day of her burial and sent a priest with a special message. For various reasons they were unable to celebrate the Mass. This is my unofficial translation of the homily which was prepared for the funeral Mass.  (I will post the Spanish in my Spanish blog later since I only have the homily in printed version.)

Homily for the celebration of the funeral of Berta Cáceres
Parish of Our Lord of Intibucá
 Texts: Genesis 1, 1-31; Psalm 8; Luke 11: 21-27
 Brothers [and sisters]:
 We are gathered to entrust to the infinite and merciful love of God, our Father, Bertita Cáceres, whose death has filled with sorrow all of us citizens of Intibucá, of Honduras, and of the international community. At the same time we wish to console her family and her community with the tenderness of God, as the psalmist says.
 It is not our place to judge anyone; only God knows the depths of persons and only he knows that which is enclosed in the human heart. Therefore, his justice is always wrapped in mercy. In these moments, we turn our gaze to Christ who died for our sins and rose for our justification; be believe in him, we trust in him, and we hope in him.
 It is this Christian hope which we celebrate in a special manner in the holy Mass, since this sacrament is the memorial of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, his Passover, which gives all of us Christians a profound hope in the moments of grief and sorrow. It is a  certain faith that life continues for all those who believe and hope in Christ.
 We have heard the Word of God in the book of Genesis, which reveals to us God as Creator; he created the earth, water, trees, animals and everything that exists and as the summit of work that generates life, he create man and woman in his image and likeness. We are not the owners of the earth, nor of the [natural] resources, nor of life. We are simply administrators. Our obligation derives from this. To care, protect, and defend this common home. The goods which the Lord has created were destined for the common good, not for the good of a few. Thus we believe that our sister Berta understood this and struggled much for this.; she consecrated her life and sealed this struggle with her blood: to defend our natural resources and the rights of the indigenous.
 In this respect, our bishops in the Fifth Latin American Episcopal Conference in Aparecida declare the following:
 “The Church is grateful to all who devote themselves to defending life and the environment. Particular importance must be given to the most serious destruction under way in human ecology. She is close to small farmers who with generous love very laboriously work the land, sometimes under extremely difficult conditions, to draw out a livelihood for their families and to provide all with the fruits of the earth. She especially cherishes the indigenous for their respect for nature and love for mother earth as source of food, common home, and altar of human sharing.” (472)
 Analyzing the actions against the environment, such as the ominous consequences for the present and future of our Latin American continent, our bishops point out, continuing to point out that
 “Today the natural wealth of Latin America and the Caribbean is being subjected to an irrational exploitation that is leaving ruin and even death in its wake, throughout our region. A great deal responsibility in this entire process must be attributed to the current economic model which prizes unfettered pursuit of riches over the life of individual persons and peoples and rational respect for nature. The devastation of our forests and biodiversity through a selfish predatory attitude, involves the moral responsibility of those who promote it because they are jeopardizing the life of millions of people, and particularly the milieu of peasants and indigenous, who are pushed out toward hillside lands and into large cities where they live overcrowded in the encircling rings of poverty. Our region needs to advance in its agroindustrial development toward appreciating the wealth of its lands and its human talents at the service of the common good, but we must mention the problems caused by the savage uncontrolled industrialization of our cities and the countryside, which is polluting the environment with all kinds of organic and chemical wastes. A similar warning must be made about resource-extraction industries which, when they fail to control and offset their harmful effects on the surrounding environment, destroy forests and contaminate water, and turn the areas exploited into vast deserts.” (473)
 As the diocesan church we are grateful for the testimony and the struggle of Berta Cáceres in the defense of our natural resources, and we are in solidarity with our Lenca indigenous brothers [and sisters], making our own the words and sentiments which his holiness, Pope Francis directed to the indigenous in his recent visit to Mexico, by affirming to them:
 “In a systematic and structural way, your people have been misunderstood and excluded from society. Some have considered your values, cultures, and traditions as inferior. Others, dizzy with power, money, and the laws of the market, have stripped you of you lands and have implemented actions which contaminate them. How sad! Would that we all make an examination of conscience: forgive us, forgive us, brothers [and sisters]. Today’s world, despoiled by the throw-away culture, needs you.”
 With the words of Jesus which we have heard in the holy Gospel, we address the family of Berta: “your brother will rise; likewise we make clear our accompaniment, assuring you of our prayers.
 Brothers and sisters, let us renew the supreme act of handing oneself over to death which Jesus did to save us. Trusting also that the redemptive sacrifice reaches our sister Berta in so far as it is needed and that it be a source of forgiveness also for those who caused her death.
 The risen Lord strengthens our Christian hope: I am the Resurrection and the Life.

Turning mourning into hope-filled struggle

After midnight on Thursday, March 3, indigenous environmental advocate Berta Cáceres was killed in Esperanza, in the department of Intibucá, Honduras.

She has long been active with the struggles for justice of the Lenca people. She has been outspoken in her opposition to environmental projects and policies that affect the lands and lives of indigenous people. She was also outspoken against the US-back 2009 coup.

I never met her. I have read about her. My sense is that she was a radical, one going to the roots of the problems.

But I know that the political, social, and economic elites (and some religious elites) that supported the coup to keep their power were very much in opposition to her and her accompanying the struggles of the indigenous in one of the poorest departments of the country.

Her most recent struggle was against a proposed dam that would affect a river that many Lenca hold sacred.  Accompanying the people who were not consulted, she led them in their efforts to stop the project; it has not been stopped but one major investor withdrew.

The struggle for land, the struggle of the indigenous, the struggle for Mother Earth are sadly needed these days.

As Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’,  2:

This sister [Sister Earth] now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22).

He also rightly sees that the concern for the earth must include concern for the poor (Laudato Si’, 49):

Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a so­cial approach; it must integrate questions of jus­tice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. 

Though he was writing primarily about water for drinking and human use, what Pope Francis wrote about multinationals is, I believe, relevant to the killing of Berta Cáceres, who was fighting against the concession of the River Gualcarque to a corporation:

it is also conceivable that the control of water by large multinational business­es may become a major source of conflict in this century. (Laudato Si’, 31)

In the face of this, it is important to recall the words of Pope Francis in Bolivia at the World Meeting of Popular Movements, word which Berta Cáceres may have heard or read: 

In conclusion, I would like to repeat: the future of humanity does not lie solely in the hands of great leaders, the great powers and the elites. It is fundamentally in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organize. It is in their hands, which can guide with humility and conviction this process of change. I am with you. Let us together say from the heart: no family without lodging, no rural worker without land, no laborer without rights, no people without sovereignty, no individual without dignity, no child without childhood, no young person without a future, no elderly person without a venerable old age. Keep up your struggle and, please, take great care of Mother Earth. I pray for you and with you, and I ask God our Father to accompany you and to bless you, to fill you with his love and defend you on your way by granting you in abundance that strength which keeps us on our feet: that strength is hope, the hope which does not disappoint….

That’s what Berta Cáceres fought for. May our mourning for her be turned into a joyful and hope-filled solidarity, where we struggle together for the earth and for the poor.

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The photo from the wake of Berta Cáceres is from the Facebook page of Radio Progreso.

Gratefully bathed in prayer

Yesterday was stressful. I got up early and went to get lab tests, in preparation for a medical check-up. I also took my car to Santa Rosa to check the suspension system; these roads really wreck the shocks and other parts of the car. Not too much damage – a belt and two parts. Only about $20.

Then, since I had bought new tires on Friday, I took the car to a different shop to balance the wheels and get the car aligned. Well, there was more to be done, partly because of some worn out parts, partly because the alignment resulted in some damage. I dropped the truck off about 12:30; it was finished at 5:45 pm. Several parts had to be replaced, to the tune of about $185.

After I dropped the truck off, I went to the doctor’s office for my regular three month check up. I was there until about 4 PM, waiting. But that was not the worst. My chlorestol and triglycerides had gone through the roof! My doctor listened to my heart and had this worried look on her face. She recommended that I get up early and have an electrocardiogram the next morning. There was something goofy about my heart rhythm.

Last night, after a long and rather stressful day, I wrote a short note on Facebook, asking for prayers.

More than 75 comments, most with a word of prayer and concern. More than 135 “liked” the post.

I feel myself bathed in prayer. Such love and care from others, even from as far away as Brazil and the Philippines. I feel the presence of God’s loving care from these people – and from many others.

A few weeks ago, Gloria Steinem is reported to have said:

“gratitude never radicalized anyone”

I beg to disagree.

Gratitude has opened my heart – not once, but innumerable times.

Gratitude is the recognition that all is gift and that God and others provide this.That doesn’t mean that gratitude is tied to good fortune, to money, to success.

I clearly remember my months in El Salvador in 1992, helping in the parish of Suchitoto. I spent much of the week in the farthest part of the parish, staying in the house of Esteban and Rosa Elbia, and the six or eight children still at home.

It was a poor house, fashioned out of the stalls of a former cattle shed. Esteban and other families had moved into this former hacienda a few months before the end of the Salvadoran civil war.

Yet almost every morning, when I woke up in my hammock in the house of the Clavel family, my first thought was “Gracias” – thanks!

Here I was in a poor community, without water, with minimal food (and with too much salt in the beans), with streams of rainwater entering the house and flowing under my hammock. But I felt gratitude.

Partly is was gratitude for being able to share in the lives of these people, to see their faith, their resilience, their commitment to God and to a new El Salvador. Most of the people were sympathetic to the Salvadoran guerrillas. Several were former guerillas and a few, like Esteban, had been catechists who had escaped death threats and death attempts.

But here I was among them, helping train catechists, visiting communities to see how the faith life was being nurtured, swimming in a nearby stream with the kids, occasionally helping with the work – including a few days helping build the trench for a water line.

Gratitude was my reaction.

And here too I find myself grateful. It’s central to my experience, visiting the communities, training catechists and working in other areas of faith formation, accompanying a new association of small coffee growers, assisting at Mass and at other sacraments, bringing Communion to the sick.

But it is also my reaction when I encounter people who care for the elderly and the sick – including a young man who cared for his aunt who just died and still cares for his grandmother; when I talk with one of the Communion ministers who walks hours to get to meetings and to share the Eucharist in other communities; when I listen to the struggles as well as the successes of people.

Gratitude is central for me as it was for Dorothy Day who wrote in From Union Square to Rome:

Gratitude brought me into the Church and that gratitude grows, and the first word my heart will utter when I face God is 'Thanks.'

It is central to the recent experience of Robert George. Though I do not hold many of his views, he reflected how he was flooded with so many messages of prayer and concern when he was hospitalized. 

“My reaction to all of those was pure, unadulterated, overwhelming gratitude – gratitude to God, not only for my survival, but for the good people, who, moved by their devotion to Him, offered their prayers for me. And gratitude to the, Boundless gratitude to them.”  

“Because of their prayers and God’s goodness, I now understand every day as a gift.”“So don’t tell me that gratitude never radicalized someone. Every morning when I brush my teeth and look at the guy in the mirror, I see someone who was radicalized by gratitude.”

All is gift.

As Gustavo Gutiérrez puts it in We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People  (p. 110):

The experience of gratuitousness is the space of encounter with the Lord. Unless we understand the meaning of gratuitousness, there will be no contemplative dimension in our life. Contemplation is not a state of paralysis but of radical self-giving… In the final analysis, to believe in God means to live out our life as a gift from God and to look upon everything that happens in it as a manifestation of this gift.

It is because of the centrality of gratefulness and the need to see how God continues to fill us with gifts, the first step of the Ignatian examen is asking for God’s grace. In gratitude, we recall the good things that God has done for us during the day.

In a world wrought with divisiveness, violence, suffering, and pain, perhaps gratitude is the most important lesson we can learn.

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Follow up on my health

I went to Santa Rosa this morning for an electrocardiogram in the Hospital. The results indicate an irregular heart beat - asymptomatic ventricular extrasystolis (or something like that.) The doctor gave me a medicine and told me to check my blood pressure and let her know in a week. If all is going well, I will go back to her office for a check up next month.

Follow up on the Clavel family

Saturday one of the little girls I knew in the family made her final profession as a Franciscan Sister in Guatemala. Earlier this month, the youngest son was married. Sadly, Esteban did not live to see these blessed events. He died a few years ago with complications from chagas.

Esteban and Rosa Elbia, December 2010