San Isidro labrador - Saint Isidore the farmer

Last year, on our way to Rome for the canonization of Monseñor Óscar Romero and five others, Padre German and I had a long stop-over in Madrid.

Knowing of his devotion to Saint Isidore, San Isidro Labrador, the patron of his home town, I found a way for us to get to the church of San Isidro.

We got there before the church opened and so we stopped for breakfast at a nearby coffee shop. That was a great experience since it was very clearly a neighborhood café. People came in who obviously knew each other and the employees. Some even returned their plates to the bar after they had visited their breakfast. The meal and the coffee were good, but even better was the experience of real life in a big city.

But the experience in the church was amazing. We got there and had a chance to look around and to pray. We attended Mass which just happened to be the feast of the Virgin of El Pilar, an important Spanish feast.

After Mass, we went to great the priest.

When he heard we were from afar and that Padre had a devotion to San Isidro, he arranged for a woman from the association of San Isidro to lead us to the tomb.

The tomb is above the high altar, but you can get close to the tomb and venerate it by a stairway behind the altar. There we had time to pray.

The woman shared with us any number of tales about the tomb – and how the last time the tomb was opened, about 1922, the body was found to be still incorrupt – decades after his death in 1130.

San Isidro Labrador and his wife, Santa María de la Cabeza, are venerated in Madrid and are also recognized throughout the world as patrons of farm laborers. They are also the patrons of the US National Catholic RuralLife Conference.

They show us the beauty and the worth of married life on the land, combing family, prayer, and hard work in the pursuit of holiness.

There are many tales about Saint Isidore, but there are several that celebrate his great generosity and the providence of God.

Once he was on his way to get some grain milled and saw some hungry birds. He shared part of his grain with them. When he arrived at the mill, his sack was full.

Another time, he brought home a large group of hungry people. His wife shared the stew she had prepared but was afraid that there would not be enough. Sure enough, God provided enough for all.

So today, mindful of the hard work of people on the land, I pray for all farm laborers, many of them my neighbors, as well as the many farmers throughout the world who, by the sweat of their brow, provide us with food.

Thank you, God, for them; provide them with what they need and give them a profound sense of the marvelous dignity of their labor.

--> Saint Isidore and Saint María, pray for us, and for all who work the land.

Sad, yet hopeful

Monday I served as a deacon at a funeral Mass for a woman from a remote hamlet, Pasquingalón. I had visited there once for a Mass and the family there had sent me home with some grapefruit and plantains. They also had a beautiful garden, looking out on a beautiful valley.

Last week at the celebration of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in La Colonia San José Obrero I had seen Saúl from there – and he had played and sang at the Mass.

It was his mother who had died.

The Mass was in Dulce Nombre, because the burial would be in the Dulce Nombre cemetery. After they brought the body into the church and placed it before the altar, I saw Saúl and asked him how he was feeling. “Triste, pero con esperanza”, he told me.

I was floored. He grasped the meaning of death and resurrection and put it in these four words.

He is for me a living witness to the words of St. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13:

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

In some ways, these words of a campesino help me reflect on my reaction to events in the last few weeks.

This has been a difficult time here in Honduras.

Migration is increasing. Last Sunday at Mass in Plan Grande we prayed for fourteen persons who had left in the past week in the hopes of reaching the US, finding some work to improve the lives of their families. We also prayed for a man and his son who had reached the US.

Then, one night, I saw a note on a friend’s Facebook page, asking help for a relative’s seven-year-old son who had died, crossing the Rio Grande, in hope of getting to his parents. (Story here in Spanish,) They had recently fled to the US to earn some money to pay off a debt they had incurred trying to pay for the medical expenses of another child.

Meanwhile, this past week there were demonstrations, led mostly by organizations of teachers and medical professionals, in the face of a law that would, in their understanding, lead to the privatization of health and educational services.

As someone explained it to me, the money for these services would be provided to the municipalities who would be responsible for providing the services and, if they couldn’t, they could contract it out to private persons or businesses. In addition, this would mean that there would be a reduction of people with steady jobs and an increase of contracted jobs, with no guarantee of stability. As the person told me, this seems a sure way to provoke more emigration.

But what concerns me is that this seems to be a part of the Honduran government’s response to the International Monetary Fund’s policies of cut backs of funding in public services.

Massive marches resulted and streets were blocked – with some violence by some protestors, but there was massive military and police response, including the use of undercover agents, one of whom shot into a crowd of protestors. Various public leaders, including a church leader and, of course, the government, castigated the protestors. Though I am completely against violence, from any side, this seems like a way of blaming those who protest, ignoring their concerns.

The demonstrations were, surprisingly, somewhat effective. At least for a short time, the law will not go into force. But who knows.

But in the midst of this, there is a report that Israel is sending 1000 soldiers to train Honduran military and police. This is in addition to the arms that Honduras is buying from Israel.

I fear that Honduras is become even more militarized than ever. With increasing concentration of power in the executive, this is a dangerous situation.

But in the midst of this, I note that people are continuing to go forward.

I had two workshops for catechists recently. Even though the turnout was discouragingly poor, those in attendance were enthusiastic.

This past weekend I took twelve young people in my pickup to the diocesan youth encounter in Copán Ruinas. It was an all-night vigil that began with a procession from the main plaza. About 80 young people came from our parish.

The procession began in heat but soon encountered a torrential downpour – with hail! Many of us got soaked. And when we got to the place for the major events, we found a muddy field.

The rain stopped and some music groups played before the crowd of several thousand.

Mass began about two hours late. I served as deacon and helped with communion. I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of young people coming forward to receive. There is hope for the church in Honduras.

After Mass, there was a meal for the clergy and the groups that performed. (I feel bad that there was no food provided for the youth.)

I tried to get some sleep in the car – but to no avail. I was, therefore, awake to hear a great song written by one of the priests of the diocese – which resounded with “no” to corruption, to poverty, and even to a church that keeps silence (una iglesia callada).

When I got home I slept a bit – but there was an afternoon Mass for the ninth day after the death of Don Raúl, a good man whose son had been baptized at the Easter Vigil a few years ago and who had gone to the Youth Encounter.

There is more – both of sadness and hope.

I am reminded of the first words of Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes:

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the [people] of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of [human beings].

More and more I feel blessed to be here. These words of Henri Nouwen speak to me:

"Here we see what compassion means. It is not a bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there."

And so I try to live in my home – sad at times, but sustained by hope.

Bilingual kids in Plan Grande

I have a Honduran friend whom I met in my first years here, when I was trying to do campus ministry at the Catholic University of Honduras in Santa Rosa. Erlin Johnny really wanted to learn English and we talked a bit in English. I did kid him that, when we first talked, his accent made my ears bleed.

Through the years, when St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames was sending groups to visit, I invited him to speak with the students over a meal, as a way for them to meet someone their age as well as a chance for him to practice English.

His English improved over the years and, because of his intuition that learning English is a useful skill, not only for those who have the money to send kids to bilingual schools or language institutes, he began an institute to teach English at a price that was more affordable for lower middle class Hondurans. He also provides scholarships, now with the help of the local Rotary Club, for girls at a home for those without a home.

We have talked over the years and I find his vision appealing. I also once mentioned that a dream I have is that one day there would be a bilingual school for the poor, perhaps in a community in our parish. But I have not had the time or the expertise to do that.

However, I did float the idea of a bilingual class in Plan Grande. Finally, this has come to pass. Today, Sunday, April 28, he came for the first class for 18 kids from Plan Grande and the neighboring village of Candelaria. The class is not free, but is being offered at a reduced rate. Also, to facilitate this initial effort, a sort of pilot project, I asked St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames to help by subsidizing the cost of poorer students and, for the first year, providing funding for the books and for the transportation of the teachers from Santa Rosa.

So today, 18 kids showed up, most with their parents. I sat in on the class and noted their enthusiasm. It helps that Johnny’s teaching style is very participative, helping the kids learn English with songs, practice, and more.

I won’t be attending every week, but I am glad that this is starting. Maybe, one day, Plan Grande will be a bilingual village.

Here are a few photos.