the mission

Holy Week was amazing. We did stations of the cross in the neighborhood. They have a tradition here of making these beautiful sawdust carpets which they work on all night long. Then in the morning they have a procession in the streets for the stations-which is in remembrance of the steps Jesus took during his passion. The procession begins and all of that beautiful and intricate artwork that people slaved over the night before is destroyed, by the mariachi band and children running through the sawdust. Holy Saturday we went into the mountains where I experienced the longest mass of my life--6 hours!!!! (not even exaggerating)It lasted from 7:00 to 12:30. They sang a song about a man and his horse (Caballo y Caballero) that lasted 30 minutes...very emotional. To this day it chokes me up a bit. I was especially impressed with the alter server boys who were only 7 to 10 years old and they were outlasting everyone in the pews! The night was complete with a fiesta that lasted until 3 in the morning.

The physical therapy team came the next week and I met all the beautiful kids I will be working with both in the school, where I will be in the mornings, and in the neighborhood, where I will spend the afternoons. There was one family that came to our door the night before the team left, with a child who had a leg lengthening surgery about 3 months ago and now cannot walk and has had fever and vomitting and excruciating pain since then. We came to the conclusion that most probably his hip joint was infected and he will need to go to the hospital to get an xray taken. The family had been waiting outside the clinic all day without even being seen by the doctor because soo many people are waiting to be seen and they come from far off moutain towns as this family did. You can imagine the mother was very worried by the time she got to us. I can´t imagine the feeling of a mother who knows there is nothing she can do to help her child who is suffering. This is why we call Mary our mother because she knows a mother´s suffering and is boundless in compassion and why we can ask her for anything because Jesus will do whatever she tells him, just as any son would do for his mother, as we know from the gospel of the wedding at Cana. We prayed with them and invited them to supper. Fr. Terry, visiting for a few weeks from the States, lightened all our worries with his brilliant knock knock jokes (which I´m not sure exactly translates in spanish which makes it that much more hilarious!) Among my favorites is the one about John the baptist. Toca Toca (knock knock) Quienes es? (who is it) Juan...Juan who? Juan el baptista as he splashes the kid with water. Fr. Terry drove the family home and took them the next day to get an xray. Sometimes all we can do for the family is to comfort them in their sorrows and show them the love of Christ. We help them with their temporal needs in whatever way we can and sometimes all we can provide for them is a decent meal and a renewed hope in the goodness of people.

When you doubt your authenticity of poverty of heart ask yourself "Do those who are poor, suffering, voiceless, unhappy, feel at ease with me as they did Jesus?" I don´t remember the guy who said this but I salute him.