Praying and Working for Peace

Hello again from hot and sunny Ceiba! I’ve been dreaming of snow lately!! Ah, what I wouldn’t give to put on a big winter coat and run outside to roll around in that white, fluffy stuff! I guess the grass is always greener… ;)

Anyway, we’ve been serving in tons

Roger and I during one of the radio shows with Father Herald

of different ways here in this beach town for the past 10 days. From leading retreats, to doing programs in schools; from doing radio shows, to spending time with the homeless….all over the place!

Before commenting a bit on some of the ways we’ve served here, I want to touch on Syria. How incredible. Not what’s happening there – although I guess that is incredible in another, much sadder sense. But how incredible, the way things have turned out. This time last week, no one knew what was going to happen, everything was up in the air and crazy. And then Pope Francis asked the whole world, all men and women of good will, to pray and fast for peace. There was a 4 hour prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square in Rome for peace. I don’t know what went on in other parts of the world, but I know that here in La Ceiba there was a large prayer vigil in the Cathedral, where many people came together to pray for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and the world, and all were encouraged to fast for the day. It was such an amazing feeling of being united to people around the whole world, all wishing for a peaceful solution to this insane problem. And now, only a few short days later, it looks like we might just receive that! The power of God! The power of prayer! Obviously things aren’t perfect, and there is a longggg way to go to achieve peace – but still, it’s an amazing start, one that looked impossible but a few days ago. God wants peace SO MUCH MORE than we do!!! We just have to be open to listening to Him, asking Him, and letting it come about in the way that HE wants, not the way that WE think is best. Let’s keep praying and working for peace!

Ok, now back to life here in La Ceiba. We are staying at the Cathedral here in the center of town. There are 5 or 6 homeless people that stay right outside, day and night. They’re all about 35 years old or so, and addicted to drugs.

So often, we are scared to even LOOK at a homeless person – we walk right be and try to pretend we don’t see them. We are afraid to acknowledge them, because……because…….because? Because we’re afraid of them? Because we don’t think we can help them? Because we don’t know what to say?

Trust me, I felt the same way!! In Rome, we would visit the homeless on the streets each Wednesday morning for about 3 years – just talking to them, offering them nothing more than a bit of coffee and our love. At first, I was SO SCARED! I remember getting to the train station the very first time, with my friend Natalia, and asking myself: “Uhhh…ok, so what do we do? What should we say? How do we start???” But, we just did it. And it was slightly awkward at first, but really not that bad. After doing this every week, I came to be friends with many of these people, and realized something pretty basic and profound – they’re just people! They’re not scary! Ya, they suffer a lot, but I think more from being treated as a non-person than from the conditions of being out on the street. Maybe if other people in their lives had treated them as people with dignity and value, they wouldn’t have ended up on the streets in the first place…

Anyway, now, when I see a homeless person, I just can’t help it – I have such a desire to go and talk to them, to try to bring them some joy!

So, each day, I’ve been visiting the homeless that live outside of the Cathedral. As always, the first time I went out, I was a little anxious. I only had 1 apple and a smile with me. But I felt such an urge to go – so I went. I went up to a man named Alex and introduced myself. I asked him if he was hungry, and he said yes, so I gave him the apple – and something amazing happened. He immediately turned and gave it to the woman who was lying down beside him on her little mat. Without even thinking – he just gave it away. Even though he was hungry; even though I’m sure he wanted to scarf it down, he gave it away. What is that?! We don’t see things like that too often in our culture. This unquestioning generosity. Putting someone else’s needs literally above and before my own.

He just looked at me and said: “She’s sick.” In other words – “Yes I’m hungry, but her needs are greater than mine. I’m going to care for her before myself.”

That is love. True love. Not love the emotion – butterflies and rainbows. But love, lived. Sacrifice. Putting someone else’s needs before my own. Love is giving. It is not a noun, it’s a verb.

I came across an awesome article about this exact topic this week, called “I Didn’t Love My Wife When We Got Married.” Here’s the link, check it out! It's super interesting and gaining a lot of popularity on Facebook:

http://popchassid.com/didnt-love-wife/

Yesterday, I went out for my daily visit with my new friends on the street. I started talking to a woman named Julia. For some reason she had a little stuffed Santa Claus, so I commented on it. She began to tell me all about how they celebrate Christmas here in La Ceiba and how beautiful it is. “Except, now it’s sad,” she said. “Because I don’t have a mom or a dad to celebrate with.” I asked her if she had any other family. She said she does, but that nobody wants her. They don’t want anything to do with her. She paused, and then she said: “But there’s Someone who wants me,” as she pointed up to the sky with a grin on her face. “Coincidentally,” right where she pointed, there was a small patch of blue in the otherwise grey and cloudy sky. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt. 5:3).

“It doesn’t matter what we do, but how much love we put in to doing.” – Blessed Mother Teresa

 “We can’t do great things. So let’s do small things, with great love.” - Blessed Mother Teresa

Let's keep working for peace, by loving those around us. Let’s be instruments of love, which is to be instruments of peace in the world! Only when people have peace in their hearts will there be peace in our world. Ok, just one more Mother Teresa quote...I can't resist!

“Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Blessed Mother Teresa

Peace,

Eric