Second Sunday of Lent

Second Sunday of Lent

I was asked to write some homily thoughts for Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign.  I was happy to be asked and able to do this.  Just going to include here the piece for this weekend.

Hope all is going well.

V


If there is a specific word presenting itself to us in today’s readings, I think it is the word “promise”.

It is a wonderful word that gives hope and helps us to cope with difficult situations in life. If we can believe the promise will be fulfilled, we can work our way through moments not of our choosing and challenges that are difficult.

Broken promises are heart-breaking. Something as simple as a service provider saying he or she will call you back, but the call does not come or that a job will begin on a given day, but nobody turns up. This leads us to feel frustrated, left down and disappointed. At its worst, the broken promise leads to anger and maybe even some form of retaliation.

In Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign 2020, we are face to face with people who know the meaning of broken promises. Their set-backs are more serious and life threatening than a plumber turning up on Wednesday evening rather than Monday morning. Their very lives and the lives of their families are at risk.

When Jesus takes Peter, James and John to the mountain top, they experience something wonderful and beyond expectation. They encounter the one they had known as friend in a way they had never seen before and he is truly revealed to them as the Son of the Father. Though they could not take it all in, they knew their lives could never be the same again. Transfixed as he was transfigured, they ask “Lord, can we build three tents?” It was as if they wanted to stay in this moment forever.

Gently, he points them towards ground level again. It is here they must live their lives, not forgetting what they had witnessed. It is here, at ground level, they must make a difference. They and all who followed them in his name and because of this moment, share in the fulfilment of the promise.

There are so many people at ground level, living under daily threat and in constant fear, looking to us today, seeking our help today that they too may know the promise kept.

Ashes to ashes

Ashes to ashes

Another chance!

It’s Ash Wednesday 2018, Mass just celebrated and crosses traced on foreheads.  It always strikes me when I see people coming to Holy Communion a little later in the Mass, how the ashes, blessed and placed have settled and the shape of the Cross becomes so clear.  A short while earlier, the ashes mixed with some water and blessed with Holy Water are damp and find their shape beneath my thumb as I say again and again “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”  People willing to be “marked” with the sign of the cross and to carry that sign from the church, into their day and into Lent.  Later in the Mass, the sign – the dust – has settled and the Cross is clear.

To all who have begun this journey, peace and strength to you for its duration.  To all promises made and intentions renewed, blessing and encouragement.  For all falls and fails that may well beset us, strength to begin again.

The Trocaire Box slogan “Don’t give up on her” is apt.  We won’t.  God won’t give up on us either.

Opening the box

Opening the box

Maria, the girl featured on this year’s Trocaire Box, with Alexis – one of the Trocaire Team in Honduras

Last November, in the company of Trocaire, I visited Honduras with a group from Ireland.  I’ve written about this on the blog before (Check posts from November 2016).  I know that one of the reasons Trocaire asked us to come along was that we might help in promoting the message of the Lenten Campaign 2017.  I’ve been trying to do that over this weekend, with some thoughts in our Parish Bulletin and on www.achonrydiocese.org I also had the opportunity to have an interview on Mid West Radio’s “Faith Alive” programme with Monica Morley.  I’m grateful to Monica for that opportunity.

Meeting Maria – child featured in this years Lenten Campaign

I feel I want to make an effort to support Trocaire’s campaign this year and hope that you will join me in that.  Whatever support we can give, not least by “opening the TROCAIRE box” will, I have no doubt, make quite a difference.

There are many fine resources on www.trocaire.org and included among them are:

Resource Links:
The visit to Honduras brought me to a deepened awareness of global needs.  In going there, and I’ve said this before, I was well out of my “comfort zone”. Those who know me best, know that I like my comforts and so to be in a place where people live so frugally and exposed to such dangers – both from nature and society – is something I am not likely to forget.  That said, I had the luxury of flying to Honduras and the escape of flying away from it again.  For the people we met, this is not really an option.  It is their home and circumstances make it very difficult for them to leave that home.  Indeed I met one man after one of our meetings.  He lives close to where Miriam and Maria live and we had been told how dangerous this place is and how many in the village would like to move to an alternative location that would give them more protection against the elements and the sea.  I spoke to this man – just “hello” and a smile and he spoke back with a broad smile on his face and said something I did not understand.  One of the Trocaire team asked me did I know what he had just said and I replied “no”. The man had said “The only way I will ever leave here is dead” …. I knew what he meant.  It was his home, flawed and dangerous as it was, but always his home.  Trocaire, I concluded, is doing its best to make his home a better place.

“The only way I will leave here”, he told me “is dead”

SO “open the TROCAIRE box” this year and let’s see what we can do …..
Make it part of the home – your home, school, workplace – and never under estimate the difference your contribution during Lent can and will make.
Boxes are available in all our Parishes as Lent begins and it’s also possible to support Trocaire directly via its website

www.trocaire.org 

Let the pictures speak

Let the pictures speak

Over the few days in Honduras I took photos.  I’ve already shared some of them in previous posts.  I’m going to include a good few of them here now, without words, since photos tell their own story.  I won’t mention Honduras or Trocaire again until Lent 2017.  So this is it!!

Meeting with a youth group and its leaders

A village visited

Short video clip of the only road allowing access to this village.  When the floods rise this road becomes totally impassible.

Shores and homes

Sharing Sunday Eucharist

Community Concerns

Should be Paradise

 

Farmers, farming, food and life


So that’s it!  Many others took photos too and chances are I am in a few of them.  These were from the other side of the lens.  They don’t tell the full story but I’d like to think give a flavour of the places we visited, the people we met and the stories we heard.  If there are sounds to accompany these photos, they might include, laughter, bits of music from time to time, an odd song, sadness in people’s voices as they related stories of fear, intimidation and uncertainty for their future, hope, solidarity, purpose, water and always welcomes with the sharing of food and kindness.

Someone jokingly asked if I’d be on next year’s Trocaire Box!  The answer is no.  The little girl who will be on it is found in these photos.  I’d like to think that come Lent 2017 my heart will be in the Trocaire Box and that I can encourage people to maintain that level of generosity that comes so naturally to the people of Ireland and that I now see the necessity for in a way, truth told, I had not fully grasped until this week.

Thanks for sharing these days with me and allowing me share them with you in the words written and the photos taken.

Thanks also to the group I was honoured to be part of: from Trocaire; Kevin and Anna, from the dioceses of Ireland, Rose, Claudine, Eddie, Damian, Dominic and Paul, from Trocaire in Central America; Harvé, Alexis, Santiago and Kristian, members of the “partner” NGO’s we met, our bus drivers and all who cared for and welcomed us.

God bless the work.  God bless the world.

Vincent

Specific at the Pacific

Specific at the Pacific

I am seriously tired tonight. We’ve been on the go for more than twelve hours – much of the travelling on roads that make some of my regulars feel safe and comfortable!

Our first stop was for breakfast and it was a welcome stop. The restaurant had a small zoo and behind our table were the most colourful and noisy birds!

img_0865

 

We travelled about 150km to the southern tip of the country and visited a lovely community.  The setting was incredible. We were taken out on a boat to view the coastline and visit a beautiful island.

img_0884

In another place I’m sure that would sound like holiday stuff, a boat trip along an incredible coastline with breathtaking views. Alas, as we’ve discovered more times than one would want this week, things are not as they seem.
img_0881 img_0891

The island we visited belongs to the people but has been taken over by wealthy interests who effectively banned the people from visiting the island. Likewise the coastline. The properties I photographed belong again to the wealthy and the poor people, our travellling companions, are forced backwards into ever decreasing circles where their homes and land are confined to the minimum. Even that, if the powers have their way,  will be taken.

img_0887

 

img_0889

The sea front properties are, to all extents and purposes, holiday homes for the wealthy who visit on occasions. According to our locals they also seek to move backwards into the property of local people.

After a lengthy boat trip we came ashore and walked a rough path to a house and generous welcome. The roughness of the path was more than compensated for by the welcome of the people, a number now swelled by women, children, teenagers and men.

img_0899

Some of the local women had prepared a banner to welcome us all. I can only imagine the time and effort that went into it. Later they presented it to Anna and Kevin the two Trocaire reps accompanying us from home.

img_0902

img_0904

We spent some hours with this group. They told us about harassment, intimidation and some had been imprisoned for “trespassing” on their own property. We met.some people who have been imprisoned for trying to develop a car park. People found guilty and had to sign on twice a month in a distant police station. They were not always able for the journey so their accuser had them thrown in prison. Out now but signing on in a farther away Police Station. If they fail to sign they must return immediately to prison.

A woman told us that about two months ago she was approached by a man who told her that her property had changed ownership. She did not accept this. A few weeks later another man arrived and began to take photographs  When she asked why he told her the property was his. She did not accept this but he said if she did not leave freely, others (authorities possibly) would move her. He said she can take the harvest but after that the property will not be her’s. The harvest is in December.  She told us she has no intention to leave her property and is ready for a fight.

The fight will be a legal one as, it seems to me, these are not violent or fighting people. They’re lucky to have legal assistance and are upskilling themselves in the area of human rights and their securing. Local radio helps them share this upskilling with others.

img_0912

Trocaire in partnership with another agency has offered much support and counsel to this community.

img_0935

As we prepared to leave two of the community sang for us. They sang two songs, the second celebrating one of the Community’s role as Minister of The Word.

We sang the Fields of Athenry for them and noted the similarity between the story they’d shared with us and the story behind the song.

It seems little has changed.

img_0926

RSS
Follow by Email
WhatsApp