As people receive money sent from relatives living in the US, cinderblock and concrete homes are becoming more normative. This type of income is the single largest in the country of Honduras, over and above any industry from within.. As has always been the case in countries where banks can fail easily, most people put any expendable cash into the construction of their home or in the purchase other things. A savings account is almost unheard of for the majority of the population. So, one sees many unfinished new houses, with people often “camping out” inside as they await a time when they can move the work to the next step. Yes, the face of our neighborhood is changing. It is beginning to look more prosperous, relatively speaking, though the houses are usually still small, with multiple generations living in one big room just as in the mud and wood homes. I often wonder, what will really change this society and its cycle of poverty?

Houses like this one are all too common. Most of the folks on our food list live in homes that are comparable to this, some a bit better, some a bit worse. But the physical structure is less important if the foundation of the home is on Jesus.

Walking down the street behind our Friary one sees mostly the newer cinderblock homes. One of these houses in particular, however, stands out from all the rest, not for its exterior but for what it is from within. It is called Casa Milagro, (Miracle House). The house grew out of our consistent contact with the young people in our barrio. Time and time again we would get to know some of the dreadful living situations and histories of these very bright children. In projecting just a little toward the future, most often it appeared that they would be doomed to falling back into the same cycles of ill-education, broken family structure and poverty that have plagued this country for centuries. Even if one attains a cinder block home, it doesn’t mean the living situations within is any different than one with a mud floor. Some statisticians here say that sexual abuse strike 4 out of 5 young girls before they are of age. Even if it is half of that, it is still outrageous. At one point we became aware of several very serious situations in the lives of a few girls in our neighborhood. We realized we would be accountable to God if we did nothing. So with the help of a trained social worker, and a strongly Catholic woman who had been working as a house mom at an orphanage down the road for 14 years, we decided to rent a multi-room cinder block house to try and change the odds in the futures of a few girls in the neighborhood.

The goal of Casa Milagro, first and foremost, is to form these at risk girls in a family environment built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. They are formed in prayer and work, and they receive an education. If they persevere then they may be given the opportunity to receive a University education. The hope is that they are able to become professional women who can choose whatever vocation God calls them to in life. Sadly, most women don’t get that chance here. Casa Milagro is a home that fills a gap in the society for girls who are too old to enter any of the orphanages around the country and yet too young to be on their own. Each of the girls had no recourse other than to live on the streets, or in physically and psychologically dangerous situations at the homes in which they were raised. The house quickly grew from 3 girls to 6 girls, and it has the capacity for eight. We have no doubts that it will be filled. It is a place of hope for the future.

The house mom is tasked with running the place. She sets the prayer schedule. They eat meals together for a set minimum time. Family meal time is invaluable in forming community, and shaping individuals. The girls share responsibilities around the house. They go to school together and to Mass. They are encouraged to dress modestly. They are required to participate in the faith formation programs run by our lay missioner friends, ‘The Missioners of Christ’. They also have to give a few hours a week of service work. Currently they are all serving at the home for handicapped children and are happily learning sign language. The girls are required to meet regularly with the guidance counselor and a psychologist to help them deal with some of their past and to set them on a good footing for the future. Each of the girls takes the opportunity at Casa Milagro very seriously. They know that they have been given a chance that most will never get. They also know that they can leave at any time freely. I must say, it really is marvelous to see these young ladies brighten up as they begin to have the hope of a real future, often for the first time.

From the outside, this little house doesn’t look much different than the other finished cinder block homes on the street. But what is happening within is very different. A few young lives are being transformed and given a chance to grow in healthy soil. They are coming to know the Lord, being given human formation and getting through school. Looking at the lives of the poor in Honduras, in the States, or anywhere, it is easy to think that throwing money at the situation will change things. Certainly there is a need to cover basic necessities such as putting a roof over someone’s head. But the quickest way to change lives and the society is conversion to Christ, human formation built on Him and education. Please pray for the young ladies at Casa Milagro, and for the beautiful people here in Honduras.

Thanks to the work of an Eagle Scout named William, the boys in our barrio are well suited out with soccer equipment. Here Brother Youssef Hannah, Leonardo Hermandez, Andrew Pocta, and Minor Ballesteros, pose with one of the teams in a recent match.	Our monthly food handout to over 100 families requires some organization. Br. Matteo Dengler and Br. Damiano Vaissade check off this lady as she goes to receive her month’s provisions.

 

The dedication of our evangelization center, Casa Guadalupe, was a joyous event. Here Bishop Roberto Camilleri, OFM, addresses the guests in the chapel. In the background are Fr. Herald Brock, Fr. Bernard Murphy, Fr. John Boughton, Fr. Christopher Metzger, and Fr. Brian Eilers of the diocese of Austin, Texas.

The Commander of the U.S. base in Comayagua, Col. Christopher Hughes, has made a goal of using his resources to build better infrastructures for the Honduran people. Ever generous, our troops have gone to the mountains with our medical teams, tested our wells for purity, and donated goods for the poor. Here Fr. John Boughton, Chaplain Capt. Brad Kimbel, and Col. Christopher Hughes pose after the National Prayer breakfast held on base.

 

Jesus is center stage as always at the first Pan de Vida retreat being held at our new Casa Guadalupe. We are able to house, feed, and evangelize over 220 guests on such a weekend.	One of our regular, but unofficial apostolates is to visit the local orphanages, two of which are just down the road. Here Fr. Bernard Murphy gets to know some of the girls we visit on Sundays.

 

It is always a joy to have our Sisters from New York come down to visit. Here Sr. Lucille and Sr. Francis visit with some of the boys in Companeros de Cristo. The sisters will help us this summer with one of the US. Mission teams that will come down. The presence of the sisters always makes a difference. Two young ladies who served down here in Honduras joined the community in NY. Katie Wallyn is a postulant and Sr. Maria Teresa Hellberg is a novice. A Honduran woman, Etel … is going to join in the fall of 2007.

Our monthly food handout really can be the help that makes or breaks a family’s diet. Here Fr. Herald Brock carries a sack of provisions for Suyapa and her child. When we first met the baby she was horribly under weight and in danger of death. Here she shows a healthy level of baby fat after regular supplies given by us.

 

What do you see in those eyes? It must be Jesus to create such communion. While on a recent visit, Sr. Clare makes deep eye contact with one of our neighbors.	Laundry day in our neighborhood has always looked like this. Washing clothes and bathing in often filthy water has been all too normative until recently. Casa Guadalupe features a well with clean water, dug by our friends at Living Waters. Now we offer a facility to wash clothes, take showers, and carry water home for the people in the barrio.

Housemother Doña Luz with the young ladies from Casa Milagro (Miracle House).	Without real prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, we would just be social workers in funny suits. The four hours a day spent together in prayer in this chapel fuels all of our work and will be what bears any eternal fruit we may one day harvest.

Addendum: A year ago, I published an article
The Last Will and Testament of Martita Diaz, written in her own hand and discovered on the 1st anniversary of her death.

 

To my children Oscar R. Myriam Patricia, Marta Eugenia y Hector Fernando, to my husband Oscar Diaz to my grandchildren, (Elsa, Alex, Aaron, Julia, Alex, Matt, Paul, Katie, Danny, Patty and Oscarito,) to my dearest daughters-in-law and to all the people that have touched my life and made me such a wealthy woman; To my wonderful dearest friends and their families, and my beloved cousins-my sisters, and each of their children.  All of you are my dearest, dearest family. 

 

The purpose of a will is to designate people who are to receive the property own(ed) by the person who has died.  It is time for me to decide what I want to leave you.  I have little material worth but to each of you, my dearest family, and godchildren and friends I leave gifts of infinite more value.  I had to pay a high price for some of these gifts so keep them with care.  I bequeath the following to each of you. 

 

First, I want you to have a sense of curiosity and a love of knowledge.  The world around us is so rich.  Read, learn, and stretch your mind.  Never stop asking “why?” 

 

I leave you the ability to put love into action.  Make an effort to comfort the suffering to bring a sense of purpose and worth to old ones (the elderly,) to help mend those who are broken.  The purpose of life is to leave your blessings on the lives of the people who share your world.  Wed your hands and your heart and spend a lifetime renewing this wedding vow. 

 

I want each of you to have hunger for truth and goodness and justice.  Be enraged by evil.  Shout a loud, “No!” in the face of racism, bigotry, and prejudice.  Do not just passively pray “Thy Kingdom come.”  Get out there and build the Kingdom.  Someone wiser than me once observed, “The only thing necessary for evil to win is for good people to be silent and do nothing.”  Please I ask you to be strong, honorable, be honest, and be good.  Do not just curse the darkness of evil- light the candle.  

 

I ask each of you to have a discerning heart.  Listen closely and you will learn to discern the pain behind someone’s cursing or crying or anger or sarcasm.  Love, truly love those who have nothing and give them your heart, fight for them, and help them through their darkness. 

I ask you to acquire the ability to belong to the people you love.  Love relationships are like gardens.  They enrich your life with beauty; they nurture and feed you, and give you life.  However, like gardens, love relationships require much work; weeding and mulching and watering and care.  If you want to be enchanted in your 40’s by the friends and spouse you met in your 20’s you must be certain that your garden gets the right kind of nourishment along the way. 

 

True humility, truly humble people value themselves.  Each one of you is a gift from God therefore you are truly glorious, yes you can always be more;  more loving, more gentle, more honest, and more giving.  But always remember you are indeed truly wonderful just as you are right now.  Be sorry for your failings but at the same time give thanks for the goodness that you have now. Give thanks for the blessings you receive, every day thank God, talk to him!  Treasure your growth rather than focusing on your mistakes or inadequacies.  Rejoice in the miracle of you as I have. 

 

I leave with you the knowledge that loving is its “own reward.”  Do not say “I love you” just to hear “I love you too” back.  Say, “I love you” to someone that has offended you, or that has not cared about you, but make it come from the depth of your heart.  At the end of the day, it does not matter.  What matters is only that you love.  Do not just say it as an expression of your needs, and certainly not to expect a reciprocal statement.  Concentrate on being a lover not on being loved. My dearest family, please become great lovers and I promise you that you will be loved.   

 

I want you to know that the time may come when you may feel guilty thinking perhaps that you should have told me that you loved me more often.  Maybe you think that you might have hurt me when we have argued. Please reject that silly guilt I know that you love me and you have no idea of the pleasure each one of you have brought me, the laughter and joy.  I love you I will never forget you!!! 

 

 

 

Your wife

Your Mother

Your Grandmother
Your Mother-in-law

Your cousin

Your friend

Martita

Marta Julia C. de Díaz

 

 

 

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The door is where we often meet Christ in the poor, and where hopefully the poor see Christ in us. Br. Damiano handles both spiritual and physical hunger, with food and teaching this family the beginnings of prayer.

 

Winter 2006

AN UPHILL CLIMB
By Fr. Herald Brock, CFR

Life in Honduras is painfully beautiful. The beauty at times is really almost overwhelming. There are mountains that tower more than a mile above sea level and which are almost always shrouded by clouds. The Caribbean coastline stretches for hundreds of miles. For an American from the Northeast, it’s almost like living in a greenhouse. Lush tropical foliage blankets the landscape: bananas, coconuts, citrus trees, mangos, papayas, bamboo, philodendron, orchids and impatiens all grow wild. There are coral reefs and rain forests, inland lakes, rivers and waterfalls. It is an amazingly fertile and ecologically rich and varied country. Honduras’ history stretches back through the Spanish colonial era, as evidenced by the countless colonial churches scattered across the countryside, into the impressive pre-Columbian empire of the Mayas and their massive city state at Copan.

But by far the greatest beauty of Honduras lies in its people. Bronze faces dotted with beads of sweat from heavy labor and framed with jet black streaks of straight hair, even those etched with suffering, erupt into radiant smiles when greeted by a friend. Women turning tortillas all day over the heat of a wood fire feel privileged by the visit of a neighbor. Their weapons of utter humility and unmitigated meekness have the capacity to conquer even the hard of heart. But it is a painful beauty

In the hearts of Hondurans, at least those we know well and interact with on a regular basis, there is so much hope and possibility that is impeded by poverty and all of its coconspirators (illness, ignorance, vulnerability, insecurity), so much faith that falters because of inadequate formation, so much love that limps for lack of a solid foundation in a healthy home. All of these factors are so interconnected and interdependent that any real progress can only occur in small incremental steps.

We have recently experienced a series of disappointing setbacks in our attempts to work with a number of very poor families. These are families that we have known and supported for years and which came to the brink of a crisis that threatened to push them over the edge of survival into the abyss of crippling destitution and despair.

At 10:00 pm on Holy Saturday night, just after we had finished our celebration of the Easter Vigil, a mother showed up at our door dragging along her two eldest daughters (seventeen and fifteen years old) who were dressed like prostitutes. Both girls had fled their home and were on the verge of entering into extremely dangerous and destructive behaviors – one at a local dance hall, and the other in the streets. As the story unfolded it became clear that both young women had gotten to the point of no longer being able to tolerate the alcoholism and abuse of their father, the passivity and mental confusion of their mother, the complete disorder of their household and the physical danger of the neighborhood in which they lived. It became evident that if there wasn’t some kind of immediate intervention the future of particularly the two oldest girls would be predictably hopeless. We made the decision to rent, at significant expense, a beautifully built nearby home the yard of which was completely surrounded by a security wall. It was by far the nicest home in which the family had ever lived. The rules were simple: the companion was not allowed on the property; the house and the children had to be kept neat and clean; and the older girls had to behave. Everyone readily agreed. Things went well for the first two months. Then we began to hear reports that the mother was seen with her former companion. She was confronted about this and denied it. Then one night, after finding the rental house empty, we paid a surprise visit to their former home only to find the woman cooking dinner for her drunk companion and all the children with her. They had to move out the next day. There is nothing more we can do to help them except pray.

A joyful priest like Fr. Juniper Mary Sistare can shape the vocation of boys like Raphael who senses his call already. In such as these lies the future of the priesthood in Honduras. Please pray for Honduran Vocations!	A hermitage is a necessary oasis of solitude with the Lord. Here Jesus is placed in the tabernacle for the first time in the chapel of our new hermitage. The land was given by our friends the Ruiz family of Comayagua, and the construction was made possible by benefactors from the U.S.A.

One day in March, a few weeks prior to Easter, we received the tragic news that a baby girl of a family on our food list had suddenly died. Neither of the parents were home when the death occurred. The baby was being cared for by her eldest sister, only eleven years old. Apparently both parents went out early each morning to sell honey on the highway to earn money in order to survive. The older sister was profoundly traumatized by the baby girl’s death. Since she had cared for her, she almost felt like it was her own child and was afflicted by guilt that she was somehow responsible for the baby’s death. I celebrated the funeral Mass in our friary chapel and can still see in my minds eye the baby’s father carrying the casket out of the chapel on his shoulder. There was an investigation by the local child welfare office, and it was agreed that if the parents could find better housing and arrange for the proper supervision of their other children, the family could stay together. Br. Matteo helped the family find a nice home with a relatively low monthly rent, and they were doing better.

Then one Saturday evening this past July we received a phone call at about 8:00 pm telling us that the father of this family had been shot and killed while visiting his brother nearby, and that his young nephew had likewise been shot and was in critical condition. Fr. John and Br. Matteo went out right away and to comfort the family and arrange for the burial. The next day Br. Paul and I went to the large public hospital in Tegucigalpa, where the nephew had been rushed the previous night, to bring some supplies to his mother and baptize the boy. Thankfully he survived and is doing well. The father was waked with his coffin on top of an old chest freezer that had been left in the house, with a single candle burning on a can of chili that we had previously given the family; in the meantime his brother evacuated his family to his mother’s home in a nearby village. Shortly after the funeral the widow of the man and her three small children suddenly left to go and live with their grandmother and we lost track of them for a bit. By a twist of Divine Providence we happened to come upon them selling honey on the highway shortly after. Through the generosity of a benefactor who had met the family, we were able to offer them a rented room very close to our friary.

Great and small short and tall everyone has a hand in helping the poor. Here Ambassador Charles Ford and Fr. John Anthony Boughton sack beans which neighborhood children tie and stack for the monthly food handout.

Things had started to look up when the mother, who is very simple and intellectually limited, began toneglect the children and leave them alone for long periods, at times overnight. Again the situation intensified to the crisis point, and the children had to be removed and placed under the authority of the child protection agency. We helped to transport them, along with three children from another family with whom we were involved in a similar way, to the most physically beautiful orphanage I have seen in Honduras, located several hours away from Comayagua. It was beautifully constructed and landscaped, with playgrounds and grass and magnificent facilities. We thought that these children who had already suffered so much had finally found a safe and dignified home. The next day, however, when one of the lay missionaries went to visit, the oldest sister in the family related that one of the other children in the orphanage had told her that she was going to go to hell because she had a Rosary, the one thing she was clinging on to for security in the midst of so much turmoil. While the staff of the home said that they did not encourage that kind of behavior, one can only wonder where a small child would get an idea like that. The staff also refused to allow a priest to visit the children and prepare them for their First Communion. As I write we are in the process of working and praying to have the children transferred to a Catholic orphanage.

On a weekend with Jesus everyone dances with joy. Here Br. Paul Donnelly is leading his first Pan de Vida retreat in Spanish along with Dina, one of the rising Youth Leaders from our neighborhood.	Br. Matteo Marie Dengler and Kathy Weyant, a benefactor from the States, pose with one of the many families we've tried to help over the years.

These experiences, and other similar ones, have reinforced to us some basic realities. The effects of poverty, suffering, abuse and dysfunction are deep and long-lasting. Traumatic and disordered childhood experiences produce deeply engrained patterns of behavior that are related to emotional and physical survival and from which one does not easily break free. There are no quick-fix solutions to these kinds of situations. The effects produced by long-term failures in relationships can only be repaired by long-term faithfulness in relationships. Solidarity, presence, constancy in friendship and love – these are the stepping stones out of the vicious circle of despair. The one thing that really gives and sustains hope, however, is grace: the subtle but powerful working of God’s love and mercy in the cracks and crevices of human life, making it possible for us to take small but real steps forward.As much as possible, within the context of God-given family structure, the laws of the state, our vocational commitments and available resources, we do as much as we can to extend the handclasp of human solidarity to those whom we serve – especially children – to keep them from falling off the edge. Perhaps this explains why our greatest need in Honduras is for long term missionary collaborators. Where is the couple whom God may be calling to establish a physically beautiful, fully Catholic orphanage? Where are the counselors, social workers, physical therapists that are so desperately needed here? Send them to us, Lord! I sometimes feel like St. Francis Xavier, wanting to cry out in public: Where are the Catholic missionaries to work in the Lord’s vineyard in Honduras? To be brothers and sisters and mothers to the Lord in the poor? (cf. Mt 12:48-50).In none of the cases I describe above do we regret trying to give a fighting chance to the families in need. Nor do we condemn them if they were not able to take advantage of what we offered, even if that means having to withdraw the opportunity. In the circumstances with which we were presented, our consciences would allow no other option. We’re in this for the long haul that requires lots of little steps, even and especially if it’s an uphill climb.

Tom Esposito and Jenny Perone of the Missioners of Christ (www.missioners.org), along with Br. Albert Maria Osewski and Br. Honorat Maria Grifka team up to lead music at the parish missions and retreats we give.	Br. Nathanael Mary Lysinger and his three amigos show off the latest in hospital headwear as they wait for their turn to talk to the doctor.

Br. Giuseppe Siniscalchi and some of the boys from the “Compañeros del Corazón de Cristo” enjoy a day at the pool. We regularly take the boys on field trips to broaden their horizons, and give them a chance to just have some healthy fun outside of the barrio. It must be working, for you can’t fake ear to ear grins like the ones above!	For the celebration of St. Francis ’ Feast, it was decided to follow a  long held Franciscan wisdom…. if you want people to listen, put on a play .  Here Br. Youssef Mariam Hanna plays a young St. Francis being consoled by his mother Pica, played by Carol Restaine of the MOC’s.

Br. Matteo Marie Dengler teaches one of his three weekly classes in the after school discipleship program, called “Compañeros delCorazónde Cristo” (Companions of the Heart of Christ), along with the Missioners of Christ.  There has been a marked increase in the of boys and girls seeking the sacraments from the local parish since this program began.	Fr. Herald Joseph Brock and Fr. David Dye celebrate Mass at the parish of Sagrado Corazon in Comayagua during a mission given by the Friars, the Missioners of Christ, and Mary Our Queen Parish from Atlanta, Georgia.

It’s great when good people gather to work for the Lord. Ambassador Charles Ford & his wife, the US military, our neighbors, and we pose after sacking beans and rice for our monthly food handout.  Thanks to the Embassy and  the military, we have been able to help the poor in various ways that otherwise would be impossible.

 

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Summer 2006

Proof of a Life Lived for Christ
By Fr. John Anthony Boughton. CFR

Recently, in Antigua, Guatemala, I witnessed the most amazing funeral I have ever seen. We processed to the old Spanish Colonial Church of St. Francis, after having waked the body of the woman, Martita, for several days in the family home. Amongst the black clad mourners were a former president of Guatemala, several mayors and other officials, businessmen and professionals from the U.S., and of course family from around the continent who had all come to pay their last respects. All of these one would have expected from a woman of some social status. But the file of people before the casket was led by the most remarkable vanguard of about sixty bedraggled, filthy, foul smelling, limping and shuffling group of hung-over or partially drunken homeless people one might ever see. As this odd band guided the body of Martita to the Church, they carried the many flower arrangements honoring her. And they wept like children, everyone, as they walked.

Oh, that I might have such a group to lead my corpse into my funeral Mass and to the cemetery. Oh, that I might have but a few of the poor and homeless mourn my loss so. It should be the wish of every Christian. To have such as these lead us home would mean that we had taken Jesus seriously when He told us that we would meet Him in the poor. And there to lead Martita “home” was this marvelous band of people, each a ‘Jesus’ in one of His most distressing disguises. This was a funeral that Cecil B. De Mill might have cast. It actually included a stray dog that followed the casket from the house, sat under it during the entire Mass, and then followed it all the way to the cemetery where Martita was put to rest.

Carrying on a hundred year old family tradition, here Martita Diaz passes out food to her “guests from the street” at her home in Antigua. In a town filled with tourists and wealth, she chose to serve the most neglected, seeing in each, Jesus in His most distressing disguise.

Why? What had this woman done to rate all this attention? In Martita’s mind, she had done nothing special. She had but carried on that which her mother and grand-mother had done before her. For almost a hundred years, from the same house on a corner in Antigua, this family had been moved by the plight of the homeless and decided to do something simple. They gave food out at the door to Jesus, whenever He knocked. Thus, by the example of her parents Martita developed a heart ready to love. And by such action, Martita became the woman God intended her to be. The proof was in her funeral.

Now, please understand dear reader, it is not my contention that everyone should open a soup kitchen out of their home. And yet, every Christian is obliged to seek ways to serve the less fortunate. It can be done very practically and simply, but we have to have the eyes and hearts of faith that seek to find Jesus disguised around us. For example, do we in fact look at the poor, the homebound elderly, the sick, and the incarcer­ated as opportunities to grow in our own virtue and love? If I’m to be fully honest I must say, that too often I have looked at these people as ‘things’ to be avoided. I’m distracted by supposedly better uses of my time, by the desire to avoid the smell of an old folks’ home, by not wanting to get “involved,” or by thinking I just don’t have enough money right now to buy someone a hamburger. How many heavenly and earthly treasures have I lost with thoughts like these?

I would suggest, and I have it on the highest authority - Jesus Himself - that when we begin to look at these people as opportunities to serve, we will we find quickly that we can’t out-give God. He promised a hundred-fold return on all that we sacrificed for His kingdom, did He not? This return is given in greatest measure to the growth of our hearts. In fact, it is only by positively seeking such opportunities that we will ever begin to grow and become the men and women we are supposed to be. This message is of preeminent importance in this day and age. The greatest threat to our souls and those of our children, right now, is materialism. How sad it would be if we provide all the material goods, and much more, that our kids could need or want, and yet never teach them the necessity of having a heart that looks to give itself away by serving others. “Unless you give yourself away, you will not find yourself.” “If you try to save your life, you will lose it.” These words we have so often heard have real practical value. For instance, the best advice one can give to a depressed, mourning or bored person is to encourage them to do something for someone else on a regular basis for which they will get “nothing” in return. They will begin to find their own problems pale in comparison. As the focus is taken off of themselves and placed onto others, they will become lighter in spirit. Do nice things for others, especially the poor, the lonely and the sick, and you will quickly find how full your heart will become.

It is keenly important to train our children to have this vision that looks for a ‘Jesus’ to serve. And the best way is by example. I know, for instance, of a couple that has brought their child to the Bronx to cook at our homeless shelter each week since she was seven. She is a happier, healthier, holier child because of it. Offering a young person such an opport-unity is almost immediately beneficial. If you want to see a transformation in a teenager’s behavior, get them to work with you serving the poor at a homeless shelter, or a soup kitchen. Bring them for vacation on a mission trip to Appalachia or the third world where they will meet the really poor and serve them. I have seen countless young people changed for life by such experiences. They leave home as a child, and return home as a blossoming young man or woman who has begun to grow from the heart into the person they are meant to be.

At Martita’s wake a barefoot shoeshine boy with hands blackened by polish and ill fitting, pinned-on clothes approached the casket. He knelt, prayed and then placed a necklace of seeds he had bought with his own money on the coffin. As he turned to leave he began to cry hard, and one of Martita’s daughters approached him to thank him for his gift and to comfort him. Through his tears he told how Martita had looked for him and fed him every day. He sobbed aloud, “Who is going to feed me now. Who is going to take care of me?” Martita’s daughter said simply, “Well…, I will.” How beautiful!!! Jesus presented Himself, and despite her grief, she chose to respond in love, following her mother’s example.

A proof of who we have made ourselves to be in this life by our choices will be the type of mourners we have at our funerals. I pray that you and I might have at least a smattering of those well-disguised manifestations of Jesus in the crowd. He is out there, waiting to knock at the door of our heart. Let us begin today to search for the opportunity to meet Him.

 

Br. Matteo Marie Dengler and the youth groups of the Friars and the Missioners of Christ lead the way on the first Pro-Life March in Comayagua. The Congress of Honduras made March 25th, the feast of the Annunciation, the national day of the unborn. To date, abortion is still illegal in Honduras.	Fr. Herald Joseph Brock presents a crucifix to the police chief at the blessing of the new Police Station in our neighborhood. The Friars raised funds to help with the construction of the station with the hope that it may become a safer area for those whom we serve.

 

Here Br. Damiano Maria Vaissade is helping distribute some much needed supplies to one of the families we help in our neighborhood. It is only by your help that we are able to provide extra food, and school supplies for these families.	Gloria suffers from severe brain damage from a birth defect. She has lived in a fallen down shack in the mountains all her life. But here you can see the joy on her face as Fr. Herald shows her, her new home with a real bed. She can now receive daily therapy to help her develop the skills she needs.

 

The power of Christ’s presence can be felt in the silence of the Eucharist. At the Pan de Vida retreat, Br. Youssef Mariam Hanna tells his conversion story, and how Jesus changed his life.	It looks like everyone wants to dance with joy when people give from the heart. Here Katy, of the Missioners of Christ, helps Saitel walk in the new home he and his family just moved into. He is one of three children in the family with cerebral palsy. Their new home was built with the generosity of benefactors from the States.

 

Carol Restaine (above) who leads the Missioners of Christ here in Comayagua, and Fr. Juniper Mary Sistare rejoice with a family that received much needed school supplies, backpacks, and books. Some of the supplies were shipped down from the U.S. by container, and others were purchased locally with the aid of benefactors. Such donations make the difference between a child going to school or not.

Shortly after this picture was taken, Baby Junior and his mother Sylvia, were flown to the U.S. for a vital heart operation that will allow him to grow normally. Br. Matteo helped arrange the trip with Ronald Rolls of “Helping Hands Honduras” which specializes in heart patients. The whole process is nothing short of a miracle, and it took almost a year. Please keep him in your prayers as he recovers from a brain surgery he received here in Honduras to remove parasites.

 

Fr. John Anthony Boughton is a thorn amongst a wonderful bunch of roses. The girls in this group, taught by the Missioners of Christ, just consecrated themselves to Our Lady at a Mass in order to become disciples of Jesus, like Mary. Now they form a living bouquet for Our Lady. The Friars and MOC’s regularly work with the boys and girls of the neighborhood to help raise up faithful Christian men and women as leaders within the Church and the city of Comayagua. For more information, please visit: missioners.org.

Br. Honorat Maria Grifka talks with a family at one of the weekly mountain medical brigades operated by our San Benito clinic. Each Saturday the doctors go to the mountains to educate the people on basic hygiene and disease control. They also treat the poor. The Friars go along to pray, teach and just be present to the people. Contributions to the medical center may be made directly to: Franciscan Mission Outreach, Inc., PO Box 1073, Secaucus, NJ 07096 (please note in the memo line of your check: St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center).

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Winter 2005

THE FIRST LADY
By Fr. Herald J. Brock. CFR

On Monday, December 6th of last year I received a phone call. Javier from the Office of the First Lady of Honduras, Aguas Ocaña de Maduro, left a message on our answering machine saying that Nersy Funez had been invited to have lunch at the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa on Wednesday, and could I please arrange to have her come. This was a wonderful opportunity for a poor girl from our neighborhood. At the same time it was a challenge for us, since that Wednesday was the patronal feast of the Diocese of Comayagua, and there would be a solemn celebration in the Cathedral in the morning at which we should be present. I decided to call Marcela Alfaro, the administrator of the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center, to see if she could accompany the family.

I have to back up for a moment to give a little history that leads up to that phone call. Some of you might recognize the name of NersyFunez. She has appeared from time to time in our newsletters. Nersy was born with a congenital hip deformity, complicated later by a bout of spinal meningitis. As a small child she had been able to walk with braces. But she outgrew the braces, and her family couldn’t afford to get new ones, nor keep up with the expense of sending her to therapy. So Nersy lost the ability to walk.

That’s how the Friars found her five years ago when we first arrived in Honduras. Her family lived in a very poor, one-room, rented bajereque (constructed with planks or boughs nailed alternately inside and outside of corner posts, filled in with rocks and covered with mud and lime) house not far from the friary. There were among the first families to be appointed to our monthly food distribution program. They were also one of the families visited by the first Light of the World surgical team to come to Honduras in 2001. Theresa Banks, cofounder and president of Light of the World Charities, was so moved by Nersy’s condition that she personally coordinated an effort to have her brought to the United States for free surgery and therapy. We took care of the passport and visa and travel arrangements on the Honduran side. Theresa took care of all the medical arrangements on the US side. Nersy’s ankles were fused; she received new braces and physical therapy and returned to Honduras able to walk. And she’s been walking ever since. It is one of the beautiful fruits of the collaboration between Light of the World Charities and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

And so, when Doña Aguas de Maduro was scheduled to visit the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center on June 18 th of last year, and as it is customary on such visits that a little girl present her with a bouquet of flowers, who else would we choose but Nersy? Nersy showed up in her First Communion dress, with white gloves and hair all done up, and pink crutches that happened to match the dress that Mrs. Maduro wore that day. Well, Nersy so completely charmed the First Lady that she was given an open invitation to visit her at the Presidential Palace in the capital.

 

AguasOcañade Maduro is a beautiful, elegant former Spanish diplomat. She is the second wife of President Ricardo Maduro, for which reason their marriage has not been able to be blessed by the Church. Although that makes things a bit awkward in dealing with Church-related matters (especially in a traditionally Catholic country like Honduras), nonetheless Mrs.Maduro has been generous to Catholic works of mercy – not only to us, but also to the Missionaries of Charity and other Catholic schools and orphanages we know. Not only that, but Mrs. Maduro has gone far beyond her ‘duty’ as First Lady in having become an ambassador of good will throughout the country. She has a compassionate heart with a special concern for poor and suffering children. She has rescued a number of handicapped children from the streets and has legally adopted five or six of them as her own. She has helped to marshal support from her native country of Spain and directed it toward the needy of Honduras.

 

I followed up the First Lady’s visit to the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center with a letter of thanks and a request for a date when Nersy could visit. Apparently due to a very full calendar of official commitments we didn’t hear anything for months. Then the phone call from Javier came.

 

Nersy’s visit to the Presidential Palace on December 8 th was like Alice in Wonderland. A beautiful lunch was prepared. Santa Claus showed up. Nersy and all of her family received gifts. The President, who was in the US on official business, called Nersy on his wife’s cell phone to greet her. Nersy got to sit at the president’s desk. And to top it all off, at the end of the visit the First Lady announced that she wanted to buy Nersy a house! (And could we please take care of arranging the details.)

Shortly after the first of the year, Marcela and I got to work on looking for a house. We scoured the surrounding neighborhoods looking for dwellings for sale. We spoke to the owners, took photos, got preliminary prices – all according to the instructions we had received from the First Lady’s office. Marcela prepared a report of the various options and sent it off to the Presidential Palace.

 

On February 3 rd of this year, Likza Salazar, a lawyer who works for Mrs. Maduro came to examine first hand the properties that were for sale. In the course of her visit she happened to mention that she was also coordinating on behalf of the First Lady a scholarship program to send poor Honduran students to an exclusive boarding school in Spain. After making our rounds, Likza wanted to stop and visit Nersy and her family, whom she had met on their visit to Tegucigalpa in December. While we were at the Funez home, Marcela happened to notice a copy of the most recent report card of Nersy’s older sister, Dina, sitting on the table. It just so happened that her mother had it there in the hopes of being able to enroll Dina in middle school. Marcela nudged me and whispered, “Did you see those grades? Likza is coordinating a scholarship program for DoñaAguas!” My eyes widened when I saw the report card; the grades were excellent. “Take it and show it to her!” I whispered back. Likza was so impressed when she saw how well Dina had done in school that she called Mrs. Maduro on her cell phone then and there, and Dina was offered a scholarship to Spain on the spot. The only requirement was that we make sure that all the paperwork and documents necessary be completed, compiled and submitted in time.

 

I will not go into the details of the considerable time and effort it took to get all of the documents and paperwork in order for the purchase of the property for Nersy, and the scholarship for Dina. Things never turn out exactly as one had planned, and endeavors like this always require more work than thought at first. What sustained me throughout the entire drawn out process was the thought of how these opportunities would permanently alter the lives of these two girls. Their futures would be different, more secure and filled with greater light and hope and opportunity. In the end, on August 18 th Dina left to study in Spain, and on September 14 th the government of Honduras purchased a lot for Nersy and her family right in front of Most Holy Trinity parish church.

 

Some of you may have noticed that the day on which Nersy was promised a house by the First Lady, December 8 th, is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patroness of the Diocese of Comayagua. What you may not realize is that February 3 rd, the day that Dina was offered her scholarship, is the Solemnity of Our Lady of Suyapa, Patroness of Honduras. This is not a coincidence.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is in a very special way the Mother of the Poor. It is she who proclaims that the Lord has “cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and has sent the rich away empty,” (Lk 1:52-53). I believe that the impulse behind the kindness and compassion of the First Lady toward these poor girls was the personal and maternal love of Mary for Nersy and Dina. And I believe that behind the generous heart of Aguas Ocaña de Maduro was beating the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Mother of Jesus. Which is why I believe it’s true to say that it was the Virgin Mary, acting through and with Doña Aguas, who gave Nersy the property and Dina the scholarship. As residents of Comayagua and citizens of Honduras she wanted to give her daughters each a special gift on her respective solemnities.

 

Aguas Ocaña de Maduro is the First Lady of Honduras, and has transformed that role from a merely social one into a tremendous power for good. But the Blessed Virgin Mary, as – I believe – Bishop Fulton Sheen first called her, is the First Lady of the World. Mother of the Poor, Patroness of Honduras, Patroness of Comayagua, Mother of Dina and Nersy, Immaculate Virgn Mary, First Lady of the World...pray for us! ›

 

 

 

Aguas Ocana de Maduro, First Lady of Honduras, with Dina Roxana Hernadez Lopez.

Br. Honorat Maria Grifka is shown here with lay missionary, Daniel Hinckley, and CFR Sisters Clare and Francesca Maria in front of the newly constructed home for the Lopez family. The project was initiated by Br. Felix Mary Desilets and completed by Br. Nathanael and Br. Honorat, with the assistance of other friars and volunteers. The CFR sisters made their first trip to Honduras in August of this year.

 

Br. Damiano Maria Vaissade visits with a young, handicapped patient at the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center. Br. Damiano visits the center weekly to offer spiritual encouragement to the patients and staff, and along with all the other friars, pitches in to help during the surgical missions that take place there several times a year.	Fr. Juniper Mary Sistare gestures during his homily at a Mass for a visiting mission team at the nearby residence of the lay community, Missioners of Christ.

 

Br. Youssef Mariam Hanna shares his faith with some men and children he met on the street. Even though the friars engage in specific efforts of evangelization, it is not an activity limited to those particular times and place. Rather, it is something that we try to do constantly and respectfully whenever an opportunity presents itself.	The Recarte family poses proudly around their Christmas tree and creche, placed in one corner of their humble cement block home, built by the friars. Like many Honduran families, they surround the Holy Family with any colorful object they can find (matchbox cars, dolls, stuffed animals, etc.) to make the setting as festive as possible.

 

The Texas contingent grows as Casa Guadalupe opens! Daniel & Michelle Hinckley, who are expecting their second child in December, are very glad to welcome fellow Texan Fr. John Anthony Boughton to Honduras and show him the finished portion of Casa Guadalupe, ready to welcome medical mission patients in November.	Br. Nathanael Mary Lysinger presents a local family with a painting of the face of Christ. The friars encourage the use of religious images to foster prayer, faith, and Catholic identity.

 

Br. Matteo Marie Dengler leads a discussion group for young men participating in a Pan de Vida retreat in El Paraiso, Honduras in September.

 

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Summer 2005

OVERLOADED
By Fr. Herald J. Brock, CFR

I’m writing this reflection now on the verge of Holy Week. If one stops for a moment to reflect on the true nature of the Passion of Jesus, certain aspects of the reality of His experience begin to emerge. A careful reading of the Gospel narratives yields the conclusion that Jesus did not simply glide through this ordeal, nor was it something that was merely difficult for Him. It was something beyond His strength. Jesus was overloaded with the sin of humanity during His Passion, it was too much for Him to bear, and in the end He collapsed and it crushed Him. As Isaiah’s oracle about the Suffering Servant describes it: “[H]e was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities” (Is 53:5, NIV).

There are certain moments in the Passion when the severe strain and extreme exertion that Jesus is experiencing become evident. The first occurs when He’s praying in distress on the Mount of Olives after the Last Supper. The anguish and force of His prayer is such that it causes the capillaries near the surface of his skin to rupture, and blood to fall like drops of sweat upon the ground (cf. Lk 22:44). The second moment, actually a group of moments, occurs during the walk from the Praetorium to Calvary. The Way of the Cross, preserved for us by Christian tradition, recounts Jesus falling not just once, or even twice; but three different times. Surely that is a sign of a man in extremis. The last of the indications of the overloadedness of Jesus takes place on the Cross. Just before He dies a loud, anguished cry explodes from His lungs, and He breathes His last (Mt 27:50; Mk15:37).

All of this is in my mind not only because we are about to relive these events in the life of Jesus, events which “participate in the divine eternity” (John Paul II, The Church of the Eucharist, n. 10, Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1085) and so are ever new, ever fresh, ever accessible. It’s also in my mind because two extreme cases have recently been brought to our attention in which people are overloaded to the point of collapse. They bear a burden that is really almost impossible to imagine.

The first family I’ve known for well over a year: a single mother with five children: two healthy adult children (a son and a daughter) and three other children severely handicapped by cerebral palsy: a son almost 20 and a twin boy and girl about 11. The family had been hit hard by Hurricane Mitch: they lost their father and their home. Eventually they relocated from La Libertad to Comayagua and were given a home in a little village called El Sitio, about a 20 minute’s drive outside of the city. When I went to see them the first time they were, of course, struggling to get by, but because of the evident love in the family - manifested in the mother’s selfless care of her three disabled children - they were making it. The greatest way I could help them, it seemed, was by returning to bring them the Blessed Sacrament. In particular, the girl twin – who has a radiant face and shining eyes and had made her First Communion – pleaded with me through groans and smiles (she’s not able to speak) to bring her Jesus. How could I refuse?

I returned about a month later, near Christmas, with Br. Matteo. I brought the Holy Eucharist, which the girl received with great love. We also brought a few household supplies for the family. The situation, however, had changed. Miraculously, the father of the family who was thought to have died in Hurricane Mitch, had reappeared. Apparently, in all the chaos caused by the flooding he had become separated from the family, and when he wasn’t found was given up for drowned. What actually happened was that due to trauma the man became disoriented and amnesiac. He eventually ended up in a shelter in another part of the country and, from the little he could remember, thought that he had lost his wife and handicapped children. One day the adult daughter of the family happened to overhear a woman, who had recently visited the shelter in which her father was being cared for, recount the tragic story she had heard from the man himself. When she heard the description of a family with three handicapped children and the name of her village mentioned in the account, she was certain that the man must be her father. The family traveled to site, brought the man to their new home, and the family was reunited. Unfortunately, the man had been so deeply scarred by the entire experience that he was now unable to care for himself. The mother, already overwhelmed with three handicapped children, was finally forced to send her husband back to his family to be taken care of.

Some months afterward a crime wave overtook the little village: several people were killed and homes were robbed. This family has been robbed three times by armed and masked assailants who’ve entered their home in broad daylight and taken tables, chairs, beds and supplies. The eldest daughter narrowly escaped an attempted rape. And, on top of it all, the home they thought had been given to them is now being taken away.

The other family I have known only since last November. They came seeking assistance during one of our surgical missions: a grandmother, her paralyzed daughter, and her daughter’s two children: an older girl and a little boy. The boy has a congenital condition which they thought one of the specialists could address. This particular grandmother lost eight adult children in Hurricane Mitch; the paralyzed daughter she brought with her (because there was no one else in whose care she could leave her) was her only surviving child. The daughter was not always paralyzed; she was completely healthy for many years. But when her son was born with this serious health condition, it afflicted her so much that she would weep, at times violently. It was apparently this violent sobbing that caused a major brain hemorrhage one night as she slept. She went to bed one evening healthy, and woke up the next day completely paralyzed. The medical team decided that genetic testing was needed to determine how best to help the boy, and so samples were taken to be analyzed in the US. Unfortunately, because the proper containers were not available, the samples were unfit for analysis by the time they reached the laboratory and will have to be taken again on the next surgical mission in May.

In the mean time the family returned last week (they live in a distant location a many hours’ bus-ride away) to see if anything had developed. This time, however, only the grandmother and the two children came. The paralyzed woman, the grandmother’s only surviving child, and the only remaining parent of this girl and little boy, had died nine days before and the family had only just completed the customary novena of mourning. We put them up for the night and were grateful at least to be able to celebrate Mass for the deceased woman with her few surviving relatives the next day in the friary chapel. We sent them off with some supplies and a little money: three people who have only each other in the whole world, huddled together in a little lifeboat of love, adrift on the stormy seas of life.

How does one even begin to make sense of and respond to situations as extreme as these? It is my firm conviction that there are certain aspects of human existence that can only be understood in the light of the Cross. There is a light that radiates from the Cross of Christ that illumines things that would otherwise be totally incomprehensible, and unbearable. But it’s also from the Cross, or rather from the Way of the Cross, that we can learn how to respond to human tragedy. We find this two-fold response in the fifth and the sixth stations: sympathy and solidarity. We start, like Veronica, by opening our hearts in compassion to another, in order to “weep with those who weep” (Rm 12:15), and - in anticipation of what God will do in the heavenly Jerusalem – to “wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev 21:4). But we must, though, in imitation of Simon of Cyrene, take the next step and make our compassion concrete and our sympathy effective by helping to bear the burden of our overloaded brothers and sisters: “Help to carry one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). Solidarity is sympathy in action.

And so we will continue to assist and accompany these two families as much as we can. Next Tuesday we will relocate the family with the disabled children from the house from which they are being evicted to a temporary rental dwelling near our friary. We will then begin to look for a permanent home to build or buy for them. We also hope to be able to provide the Grandmother of the other family with the gall bladder surgery she needs during our next medical mission.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who support our mission here in Honduras. Your support for our life here makes our sympathy present and possible. Your support for our ministries to the poor makes our solidarity practical and effective.

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Winter 2004

Tolkien was an eminently Catholic man and a deep lover of the Eucharist. Unlike his Anglican friend, C.S. Lewis, however, he eschewed allegory. While there are many Christian themes in the writings of Tolkien, there is never a point-to-point correspondence with the life of Christ or the history of salvation. Tolkien preferred to describe the relationship of his writings to the Christian life in terms of  “applicability” rather than allegory. That is to say that the spiritual lessons that one can elicit from Tolkien’s fiction have a reference in the Gospel and an application for our own lives. And so is the case with Gandalf’s moment of decision.

Repeatedly in the Gospel of St. John Jesus speaks of His “hour.” At Cana He tells His mother that His hour has not yet come (2:4). It arrives with appearance of some Greeks – pagans – who want to see Jesus, who responds by saying “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (Jn 12:23), and goes on to speak of his death cryptically in terms of a seed that falls to the ground, dies and bears much fruit. Jesus embraces this moment of decision during His anguished prayer at Gethsemane: “Father the hour has come. Glorify Your Son” (Jn 17:1), “not My will but Yours be done” (Lk 22:42). The hour of Jesus reaches it’s culmination the offering of His life on the Cross for the salvation of the world.

One of the goals of the Christian life is to allow Jesus to live in us, to reproduce His life in ours, to be able to say, with St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). That retracing of the life of Christ in the life of another human being becomes most dramatic and pronounced in the martyrs. Each of them, like Jesus, faced their own hour, their moment of decision, and threw in their lot with Christ, witnessing to Him by their death (“they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” [Rev 12:11; NIV]) and offering their lives in sacrifice for others, even at times for their persecutors. How many countless men and women throughout history have stood before judges, tribunals and rulers and have in the face of death imitated “Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession” (1Tim 6:13; NIV) simply by saying: “I am a Christian; I believe in Jesus Christ... I am a Catholic; I will not renounce my faith.” and paid the price of their lives. Others, like St. Maximilian Kolbe, have offered their lives in exchange for the life of another.

But there is a danger for those of us who do not live in times and places of explicit persecution (and it is important for us to remember that there are in our own day Christians – for example in China, India and certain Islamic countries - who do pay a high price, even death, for professing their faith). The danger is that such dramatic examples from the Bible or Church history can seem remote and not applicable to our own lives. That’s why I would like to tell you the story of a woman we knew here in Honduras who faced her moment of decision. Her name is Carmen Zepeda and she shines with what is brightest and most noble in the heart of the Honduran people.

Carmen’s personal history is not perhaps what one would expect from a heroic Christian. She lived in a common-law marriage for many years with the same man with whom she had two daughters, ages 9 and 13. She came from a devout Catholic family and had wanted to marry in the Church, but her companion worked on the border far from home and only came back for brief intervals, and because getting married involves a lot of preparation and paperwork, she was never able to fulfill that desire. Carmen had been working as a social worker for the past several years at Hogar Nazareth (Nazareth Home), a residence for orphans and other children in need, located just about 500 meters from our friary. She was much loved and appreciated there because of her heartfelt concern for the children she served and her generous and selfless dedication to her work. The friars, who visit the home often, knew her well and had many exchanges with her. In fact, we were working with her on a project to build a home for one of the older girls about to leave the residence and for her younger siblings.

On Tuesday, July 27, Carmen was traveling by minibus with two other employees of Hogar Nazareth on the major highway that leads to the North Coast of Honduras, to Puerto Cortés, where land was to be purchased and the house built for this family. One of our friars was supposed to be traveling with her, but wasn’t able (his hour hadn’t come). Carmen was asleep by herself in the back seat of the vehicle; in the front between the driver and another passenger was seated a small child about five years old. As the vehicle rounded a bend in the road it attempted to pass a slow moving car in front of it. At the same time another vehicle was coming in the opposite direction. Neither driver had seen the other approaching. A collision was inevitable. At that moment Carmen woke up. Seeing what was about to happen, she cried out: “The baby! The baby!” In an instant, almost without time to think, she hurled herself over the seat and covered the child, the other passenger leaned over and did the same. The impact of the crash, which was almost head on, propelled Carmen’s body against the windshield, caused injuries that took her life a few hours later. The driver and other passenger had to be hospitalized; the child was safe and unhurt. Carmen died protecting the life of this little boy.

Carmen certainly did not expect the tragic accident that took her life. But she did unknowingly prepare for that split-second moment of decision by the way she lived, by many other moments of decision that preceded it. She prepared for it by a life of love, generosity, self-sacrifice and service. So that when her hour came she was ready and responded heroically. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13; NIV).

It is hidden in the inscrutable designs of God whether any of us will face such a dramatic moment of decision in our lives. But it is certainly not impossible. Perhaps we will be given the opportunity to give heroic witness to Christ and to our faith, or to offer our lives for the life of another. How would we respond? How can we prepare? What is certain is that we face moments of decision every day: to be generous or to be stingy, to be patient or to become angry, to serve or to be selfish, to forgive or to be resentful, to sacrifice or to indulge. The way we choose in such moments forms habits that become either virtues or vices, and prepare us one way or the other for a more extraordinary confrontation, what the Church’s liturgy calls “the ultimate struggle.” St. Therese of Lisieux’s sister said that Therese grew in grace by continually repeating “microscopic acts of virtue,” and so she was prepared to face the ultimate struggle of a terrifying spiritual darkness and an agonizing death from tuberculosis with the heart of a warrior.

Long before Jesus faced His own agonizing moment of decision He had made another decision, as the eternal Son dwelling in the heart of the Father. In fact it was exactly nine months before His birth, the memory of which we are preparing to celebrate. It was a choice that coincided with His mother’s own moment of decision and which was expressed in almost exactly the same language. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that, “when Christ came into the world, he said:… ‘I have come to do your will, O God’” (10:5,7; NIV). “‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said’” (Lk 1:38; NIV). This was a decision they both repeated many times daily throughout their entire lives, preparing them for the terrible moment of the Cross when Jesus offered the sacrifice of His death to the Father and Mary consented. Lets imitate them, and their closest friends - the martyrs and the saints, and Carmen, and make it a habit. That way when the moment of decision comes we will have nothing to fear and we’ll know what to do, even in an instant.

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Summer 2004

SNEAK PREVIEW
By Fr. Herald J. Brock, CFR

I think it was the man who was selling us the fire extinguishers, but I’m not sure. The scenario repeated itself so many times that after a while the details begin to blur. Dr. Wilmer Pérez, then the Director of the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center construction project and now the Director of the functioning of the facility as well as an attending physician, was as usual trying to get a discount on the purchase of equipment to save money for the project. To do so, he was explaining the nature and purpose of the St. Benedict Joseph Center. As in almost every other case, the curiosity of the businessman was peaked. A high-quality, private surgery center and clinic that will offer its services free of charge exclusively to the poor? This was something unheard of and almost inconceivable. So Dr. Wilmer invited the man to visit the facility, at that time nearing the completion of its construction. The man was dumbfounded. Usually, he said, when something is built for the poor, it’s built poorly. A few cement blocks are thrown together and are half-plastered and partially painted, and a cheap tin roof is slapped on top. But this was something completely different. A place of beauty, well-designed and well-built, with tile floors and a courtyard with a fountain and an arched walkway, a chapel with a mountain view and semi-private rooms, three operating rooms big enough to dance in and a shaded waiting area. What could it mean? Then it began to dawn on the man. There was a spirituality behind this place that proclaimed the dignity of the poor. It was a building and a place that exuded a sense of value and respect. Here the poor would be treated as kings and queens, as the rich are treated in the best hospitals and medical facilities. This has been the experience of almost everyone who’s visited the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center: they are stunned and stirred and inspired to be generous. And, by the way – as in almost every case – the man gave us a discount on the fire extinguishers.

Scripture scholars speak of a phenomenon in the writings of the Bible known as “the Great Reversal.” It’s found throughout the New Testament in places like the Letter of James: “Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom promised to those who love him?” (2:5, NIV). And in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1:27-29, NIV). The Great Reversal involves the overturning of the values and priorities of the world – kind of like what Jesus did with the moneychangers’ tables in the cleansing of the Temple – and the establishment of the values and priorities of the Kingdom of God. On the one hand it has an eschatological meaning in that it tells us what things will be like in heaven.But it also is a description of what the Kingdom of God is like when it takes root here through the preaching and living of the Gospel. There is, of course, a relationship between the two. When this reversal happens here, it’s kind of like a sneak preview, a little peak of what it will be like there.

The place in the New Testament where the Great Reversal is found most prominently, however, is on the lips of Jesus and Mary in the Gospel of Luke. As a kind of prelude and overture to the preaching of her Son, Mary in her Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55) intones many of the themes that Jesus will take up in His public ministry – especially regarding the Great Reversal: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty” (vv. 52-53). The Lord Jesus Himself states quite categorically that the poor are blessed and the rich “woe-d,” that the hungry will be satisfied and the well-fed hungry, those who weep will rejoice and those who laugh will weep (Lk 6:20-26). He goes on to say things like the last will be first and the first will be last (Lk 11:30) and that the exalted will be humbled and the humble exalted (Lk 14:11, 18:14). But perhaps the most dramatic example of the Great Reversal in the preaching of Jesus is the story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich Man (Lk 16:19-31) with its killer commentary placed on the lips of Abraham: "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted and you are in agony” (v. 25, NIV).

We have had a great example of the Great Reversal in the medical mission we are conducting this very week. The star of the show, the undisputed celebrity of the week is not an actor or a singer or a model. It’s not a sports hero, politician or wealthy entrepreneur. It’s a 47-year-old single woman from a remote village in the south of Honduras. She was born with a severe cleft-lip facial deformity. A subsequent childhood disease crippled her left hand and arm, causing them to shrivel and become permanently contracted. Her left leg was also affected, leaving her with a limp and difficulty in walking. At some point both her parents died leaving her without siblings and totally alone. This tragic history has been transformed by the love of Christ. The different families in her village have adopted her as one of their own and she spends each week living in the home of a different family. When the community heard about this surgical mission they pooled their resources to be able to send her for treatment and chose one of their lay leaders to accompany her. He took a whole week off work to make the trip with her, which took twice as long as usual due to her difficulty in walking. Her surgery was delayed until the last day, by God’s providence I think. In the course of the week, in her own silent and humble way, she made friends with everyone. And on Friday her face was repaired and 47 years of stigma melted away. Her name is Genoveva and she won our hearts.

If there was anyone in the history of Christianity that imbibed the spirit of the Gospel, it was St. Francis of Assisi. He took long deep draughts of living water right from the source of the Gospel spring. Echoing the words and sentiments of our Lord Jesus Christ, he instructs his friars in his Earlier Rule that “they must rejoice when they live among people (who are considered to be) of little worth and who are looked down upon, among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the lepers, and the beggars by the wayside” (IX, 2). Paradoxically, St. Francis called poverty a “royal virtue” (cf. 2 Celano 200) that establishes those who embrace it as “heirs and kings of the kingdom of heaven” (Later Rule VI, 4; Bonaventure, Major Life VII, 7). And if there was anyone in the history of Christianity who embraced Gospel poverty – almost by accident – more deeply than St. Francis, it was one of his Third Order spiritual sons, St. Benedict Joseph Labre.

As an intensely spiritual young man, Benedict Joseph Labre – the eldest son of French peasants – deeply desired to be a Trappist monk. By some accounts he tried as many as seven times to enter different monasteries, always with the same disappointing result and for the same painful reason: his fragile emotional and physical health could not withstand the demands of monastic life. And so almost by accident Benedict Joseph became a perpetual pilgrim, a homeless beggar who wandered in almost complete solitude from shrine to shrine throughout Europe, and eventually from church to church in Rome. And yet in the midst of the most abject destitution Benedict found Christ and united himself to Him. Though he ate garbage, dressed in rags, was infested with lice and slept in the street, he became luminous and transparent, radiating the light and love of Christ. Among the miracles that are attributed to him, one reads of the multiplication of food for the poor, prophesy, healings and the ability to touch hardened hearts and resolve doubts. Even in his death Benedict was able to inspire the conversion of an American Puritan minister, John Thayer, not only to the Catholic Church, but even to become a priest. It’s hard to imagine someone who better represents the Gospel paradox of the Great Reversal better than St. Benedict Joseph Labre. That’s also why it’s also harder to imagine a better patron for our medical center. As an additional motive, to honor Fr. Benedict Joseph Groeschel, CFR on the occasion of his golden jubilee of religious life and to recognize his fifty years of selfless service to the Church and the poor, the name of his patron saint was chosen for the center.

And so what we’ve discovered – almost by accident – is that the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center has a two-fold evangelical purpose. The first is to care for the medical needs of the poor, impelled by the love of Christ (2 Cor 5:14) and in fulfillment of His command to do for the least what we would do for Him (Mt 25:40). The second is to evangelize others by the very existence of a facility as beautiful as this – dedicated exclusively to the service of the poor – to catch them off guard, capture their attention and cause them to wonder. A third dimension is to give those who serve there an opportunity to put into practice the teachings of Christ. It was part of the genius of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta to know that those who practice the Gospel even without knowing what they’re doing or why, will eventually come to a knowledge of Christ through contact with His presence in the poor.

So many people have worked so hard to make St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center a reality. Our own community, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, along with Light of the World Charities are the principal sponsors of this endeavor, which exists under the auspices of the Diocese of Comayagua. An extremely generous benefactor who matched donations made to the project through Light of the World enabled the organization to raise half of the construction funds. LOTW’s board member, architect Laurie Schwab, designed the facility in consultation with medical professionals from the US and Honduras. President Theresa Banks and her husband Dennis, along with other members of LOTW like Dick Kelly, Keith Ingram, Ron Ashley, Sandy Berch, Chris Ullman and Kathleen Ranne really spent themselves to beg, collect and pack valuable and important pieces of medical equipment for the center, donated by medical facilities in the Palm City area and shipped free of charge by Food for the Poor. The construction took place under the supervision of Dr. Wilmer and Margarita Pérez who worked closely with contractor Martín Medina and his team. We received assistance from many professionals and business people, as well as from numerous local and national governmental officials – in particular from Comayagua Mayor Carlos Miranda and the municipal government, and from representatives of the Ministry of Health, Medical College and the local public hospital.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still much to do and for this we need your help. It’s one thing to build a facility like this for the poor, its another to be able to continue to provide them with free medical care. Now that the center is open, we are trying to secure financial support to provide for its ongoing operation. We are in need of a steady supply of medicines and medical and surgical supplies; there are still some pieces of equipment and furniture we lack. A kind of urgent need right now is for a pickup truck to move equipment and supplies and a 15-seat van to transport patients and medical teams. (Our lay missionaries are also in desperate need of a four-wheel drive pickup, too!). We are also in the process of beginning to recruit volunteer medical professionals and teams for next year. Our eventual goal is to have one such visiting group or individual each month. Please contact us at the address and phone numbers on the cover if you are able to respond to any of these needs (phone calls are good but expensive, faxing is efficient and economical, mail is slow and a little unreliable). Donations to support the facility should be made payable and mailed to: St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center, P.O. Box 1073, Secaucus, New Jersey 07096. Please consider talking with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospital employees and pharmaceutical reps you may know about donating medicines, equipment and supplies to the Center. We are willing and able to follow up on initial contacts in this regard and to help arrange shipping of donated items. The center has a bilingual administrative assistant, Marcela Alfaro. And thanks to the generosity of the Norman and Bettina Roberts Foundation, as of June 1, the CFR Honduras Mission has a full-time, US-based liaison, lay missionary Terry Ferrer.

As I write this article, the St. Benedict Joseph Center is still taking its first steps. Just last Sunday, May 23, our retiring bishop, Monseñor Gerald Scarpone, OFM, blessed the facility in the presence of about 150 guests. The following day the Center opened to 600 or 700 people waiting and hoping to be healed of their infirmities. We’ve included a special insert with this newsletter – a kind of sneak preview – with different shots of the facility and photos from the blessing and first surgical mission. It’s been a bit of a bumpy take-off with some construction details still pending, a few pieces of damaged equipment, scheduling conflicts and delays, bilingual communication difficulties and minor misunderstandings (I’ve become convinced that a certain amount of chaos always accompanies any sincere attempt to live the Gospel), but the vessel is airborne and flying! The Light of the World surgical team is operating! The St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center staff is assisting! The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal are directing traffic, providing pastoral care and housing the poor who come from far away! The youth evangelization team and a kitchen-and-cleaning crew of neighborhood women – under the direction of lay missionary Carol Restaine - are serving and praying with our guests! And the poor are receiving free quality medical care in the name of Jesus Christ. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s here and it’s happening – this little sneak preview of what it will be like in the Kingdom of God.