A Reflection: May 7, 2000 Teleconference
There is an old Kreole Proverb that says, "Se je pa wè, kè pa tourien." "What the eye doesn’t see doesn’t move the heart."
I have seen the suffering Christ of Good Friday and the Risen Christ of
Easter— both in the same moment—in the Haitian people. And my heart has
been moved.
Those of you who have had the opportunity to talk with Virginia
McMonagle or Anita Von Wellsheim, with Kitty Costello or Marg Miller,
with Betty Shearman, Elena Sampedro, Marina Hernandez—with Judy
Vollbrecht who has made Haiti her home—already must know through their
eyes the reality they have contemplated there; the reality they have
experienced with their hearts.
The facts are well known:
- the deforestation and ravage of a land that must once have been a lush tropical garden—set in a green coral sea;
- one
extreme poverty of more than 85% of the people who can neither read nor
write and whose city dwellers live on top of one another among open
sewers, while the wealthy few live in elegant, walled mansions on the
green mountains;
- the pain that is Haiti—a country so close to us—whose people risk their lives to flee from political viiolence;
- a country that is a scandal in the Western Hemisphere, where one in four children die before the age of five;
- a country that is almost forgotten by everybody.
I
had to recognize that the sentiments of Jesus’ Heart toward this
reality must include anger at the exploitation of this people so close
to His Heart and at the indifference of those who would stand by and do
nothing to help.
And yet these suffering people
are not a sad people. They are proud of themselves and have a
tremendous capacity to struggle and to resist. In the midst of
overwhelming odds, they know how to dance and to sing.
Jean Francique, the young Haitian Pastor with whom our sisters will
minister, says it’s a choice his people have made: Not resignation, but
LIFE.
We went to a little restaurant in Port au Prince when I first arrived
and there, on a blackboard was a quotation from Victor Hugo:
"Ceux qui vivent
sont ceux qui luttent."
"Those who live are those
who struggle."
And
no one sings like the Haitians. All our Holy Week services were
punctuated with the full-throated, passionate voices of parishioners
accompanied by the rhythmic beat of the drum.
Another statistic – 85% unemployment is belied by the industry of 70%
of the people who live on tiny plots of land, trying to survive through
subsistence farming. Some of them walk for hours down the mountains to
sell their meager wares in open markets.
Chickens and little goats are everywhere and the silence with which
they surrender their lives seems a fitting tribute to those who have
such need of them. Women, the center of family and economic life, walk
with heavy burdens on their heads but with the erect posture and fluid
grace of dancers.
Somehow, I cannot think that sorrow is Jesus’ sentiment in the face of
this people’s struggle. It seems it must be pride in their courage and
in their dignity; Joy in their faith and in their love.
Because they are, above all, a heart people. Little children frown and
stare at "blancs" – the white one’s – but in response to a wave or a
smile their little faces break into a delighted grin.
Carmen Margarit Fagot, Puerto Rico’s Provincial says:
"We
feel drawn to a project where our greatest asset may be to be open to
love. We will strive to learn from the people…By answering this call we
feel we have taken the first steps along a pathway already walked, to
discover a space to announce and hear the love of the Heart of Jesus."
There is a rhythm of life here that we can learn from—
People profoundly know how to be—especially in relation to others—
- how to savor the moment;
- how to experience strength in weakness;
- how to find life through death.
The
Jesus of today’s Gospel reading must prove to his friends that He’s not
a ghost, but "I myself." And if not a ghost, how powerful must be the
sentiments of His Heart. Can we embrace them? Can we truly contemplate
reality and experience it with this passionate Heart? Can we hand over
our capacity to relate to persons and things to be transformed for the
service of Mission?
Knowing that where one of us is,
we all are, let us pray for Ines, Josefa and Judy for Virginia and Von
and our sisters at Kenwood who have adopted Haiti.
Let us ask Regina Griffin, lover of the Haitian people, to be with them.
Let us open our hearts to this tiny country.
Let us join their struggle knowing that as we give them something to
eat, they will reveal to us Jesus, risen from the dead.
I invite you, for a few moments now to hear, in your hearts, what the Risen One would say to you.
Joan Gannon,rscj
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