Holy Week 2011

Holy Week approached with all of its grandeur. Almost every night there was a procession: Our Lady of Sorrows on Holy Monday, the Encounter on Holy Tuesday, the Transfer of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, the Passion play, and the Good Friday Procession. Teaching the Old Testament this year completely gave me a new outlook and perspective on these processions. At first I always thought they were a bit strange as they paraded a bunch of statues around town, but after I looked at them through the eyes of the Old Testament, they took on greater meaning. These processions gave the Catholics of Benque Viejo del Carmen an identity – it was a cultural manifestation of the Catholic Faith in Benque, it set them apart. What God was doing in the Old Testament might have seemed strange to an outsider – the spreading of blood to a doorpost, sprinkling blood on the people, circumcision, parading the ark of the covenant seven times around the walls of Jericho, the making of a bronze serpent, etc… but what God was doing was forming these people as His own. He was giving them their own culture, their own identity as the people of God. The other concept that comes into play is the concept of a “memorial.” A memorial to a Jewish person was much more than just having something that helps you remember what happened in the past, no, to a Jewish person a memorial was doing something similar or having something similar to an act that was done in the past but through that act those things of the past are made present. This I why every time Jews celebrate the Passover, they refer to it as happening “this night.” That memorial made that act of history present. This is why Jesus said at the Last Supper, “Do this in memory of me.” He was asking that the act of the Last Supper be done as a memorial so that every time you ate the bread or drank the cup you proclaimed and made present His death. So the Last Supper, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection are all made present at every single Mass. When the processions in Benque occur, and they parade a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows encountering Christ carrying His Cross in the middle of town, that act becomes present in the streets of Benque. Those graces of that moment are brought alive in our small little town. His saving acts are made present to us in that moment.

At Easter Vigil, four students were baptized and confirmed, and five received their First Holy Communion. This is testimony that Christ is still at work today. He is alive! He is Risen indeed! God continues to act and work in His people and make His presence known to His people. These students heard His call and they responded with grace to His invitation to enter into His family, into His Church. I had the privilege of becoming the padrino – or godfather – to two of the girls baptized. I was so blest and moved by what the Lord was doing in their lives. I felt instantly connected to them as they had living water poured over their heads to enter into Christ’s death and Resurrection. Tears ran down one of their eyes as sanctifying grace entered their soul. They wrote, “That night I was filled with joy and love!” He is Risen indeed!

March 2011

The week my family came into town was a week of refreshment. I was able to show off the beauty of the country that has become my second home. I was excited to hang out with my Dad, my brother, my sister, and my brother-in-law and to introduce them to my town, my fellow volunteers, but above all my students. We had a lot of much needed fun visiting Flores, Tikal, and San Pedro.

The following week was the yearly visit by the mission team from Franciscan University. It was great to have a week off from teaching and watch others reach out to my students in different ways. It was interesting to watch the students interact with these “strangers” who had come from the USA visit their classrooms. It’s funny to look at them and think of how I was one of them two years ago. I was amazed to see how my students had warmed up to me and formed a relationship with me and how they were still weary of these newcomers just as they were with me. The Friday Night Youth Night was a beautiful display of faith as the Lord began to work miracles in a lot of the kids’ lives. It’s so cool to have fresh and enthusiastic faces ready to serve and able to reach out to the kids I haven’t been able to reach out to. It is nice to be woken up from complacency which can often take place once you’ve become comfortable with your surroundings. The Lord surely worked through them in great ways. Not only uplifting the students, but also me.

The week after that was the week my good family friend came into town. It was cool to have someone more immersed into my life as a missionary rather than my life as a tourist. That week was a lot of fun showing her the ropes of Benque.

Somehow in the craziness of March I was still able to complete my distance learning master’s class even amidst all the hustle and bustle of three weeks of visitors. God truly performed a miracle in allowing me to complete this course.

After a semester of planning, the 4^th Form Retreat was underway. This retreat was an overnight co-ed retreat which was a risk but it proved to be well worth taking. The students all had so much fun and grew so much. During Adoration the students received letters from their classmates, their teachers, and their parents expressing their good qualities about them. Almost all of them were moved to tears. The Lord was doing awesome things in this 4^th Form Class. He was breaking down walls and uniting them together. It was beautiful to see how they all shared their experience of what happened on the retreat.

2nd Semester 2011, January and February

This semester has been filled with many ups and downs, twists and turns, yet it all continues to move forward in the same direction. Its hard to sum up everything that has happened over the past five months because so much has happened and yet it seems as if everything remains the same. Our lives are so hectic and busy, and yet so plain and ordinary. Yet in the midst of all the monotony and everything mundane, through the ordinary God has done the extraordinary. Amidst all the madness and confusion, God brought stability.

The beginning of this semester began with the tragic news that one of Mount Carmel’s former students had committed suicide. This sent out a big shockwave throughout the community of Benque. It especially affected my former homeroom, the class she was in. I will never forget the day that I and my former homeroom approached her house as we heard the wailing and moaning of her grieving mother. Everyone who heard it felt her pain. I didn’t want to go inside, I didn’t know what to do or say to a mother who had lost her child. I was terrified, but because I am called “teacher” I had to pretend to know what I was doing and that I was not afraid. We went in and paid our respects. To see the pain of a mother in so much grief twisted one’s heart into knots enough to wring tears out of one’s eyes. I’ve never understood Our Lady of Sorrows as much as I did at that point. I thought a lot of how Mary must have felt when she lost her only Son to such a horrible death. A dark cloud had descended upon Benque, over the next few weeks reports of more suicide and suicide attempts rolled in. It seemed as if crisis had taken over. Yet it was the community of faith that held everything together. Death and the Evil One had knocked on Benque’s door, but Benque with much grief responded with faith not by becoming focused on the evil surrounding it, but by ignoring it. There was a shift in thought that was necessary to happen in order to not give credit or attention to the Evil One. It is clear that those who were involved were longing for something more: they were longing for Love.

During the next month, my fourth form students were asked to apply everything that they had learned about that Love that everyone longs for in a chastity presentation that they would give to primary school students in the area. They were all so nervous and excited about how to make their presentation applicable to youngsters. It was beautiful to see because through learning how to teach it, they learned to believe what they taught and a transformation grew within them. Although they went to give presentations to help other students learn, it was really them who were learning and learning to Love. The excitement in their faces as they returned from their respective schools was contagious. It was clear that God was working in their hearts to teach them about the demands of true Love rather than the counterfeit form they are surrounded by.