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Two years ago, on my second brigade, our group worked in an area that had been in the center of conflict in the war. Though families were poor, I sensed a vigor and hope, perhaps because the communities had organized themselves during the war and rebuilding afterwards, and saw that they could make changes. However, one of the nuns who traveled with us and had worked in El Salvador during the war was disturbed by the lack of progress in making true changes in the economic conditions of the country—most of the wealth remained in the hands of few, while the majority lived in extreme poverty. I spoke with Hernán, our bus driver, about the nun’s sadness. Hernán had worked on the side of the impoverished during the conflict. Hernán’s face is creased with a constant smile, and he seems perpetually optimistic. He told me that the poor had won their dignity, and that nobody could take this away. His view gave me hope.
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When I returned to El Salvador a few weeks ago, I hoped to see some improvement in the living conditions of the poor. Instead, Sister Eleanor, the director of the mission, reported to me that life has become even more difficult for most Salvadorans. Inflation has made many products unattainable by the majority, who still earn low wages. The prices for coffee and sugar have fallen, making these crops much less profitable. The government has made large cuts in funding for health and education. Many families are able to survive only because they have family members that have emigrated to the United States and send money back. Father Rob, a priest who serves in Tamanique and the bordering municipality of Chiltiupan, said that looking out on his congregations, he sees few intact families. Most have been split apart in an attempt to survive. |
I asked Sister Eleanor what kept her going in such difficult times, and she answered, “the people.” The question in my mind during the week was “how does one find hope in the midst of despair?”
On the first Sunday, after setting up our clinic in a five-room school in Tamanique, we walked around town a bit, and then had lunch at the house of Sister Barbara, who works in the area. We heard of her struggles in trying to help improve the community, and of the great difficulties in accomplishing even small tasks.
After lunch, we attended mass in the church on the central square. For me, this mass and the mass the following Sunday framed the week of clinics, both in time and spirit. The church members had set aside a section for us, and another section for family members of four Salvadorans from neighboring communities that were joining the church that day. The church was full of people dressed in their best clothes.
The priest, Father Rob, is responsible not only for Tamanique, but also for sixteen different communities in the rugged hills of La Libertad. A parish in Akron, Ohio has sponsored his work in El Salvador for the last eight years. Father Rob also served for nine years during the war
His homily reflected on a letter from Paul to one of the first Christian communities, where one group was claiming to be superior to another. Paul wrote that one group or person is not better than another, that all are important, just as a hand is not better than a foot, and that an eye cannot function alone. In a family, the father is not better than the mother or the children; all are equally important. Father Rob said that in the past, the Catholic Church was hierarchical, with the Pope at the peak, the archbishops and then priests below him, and then the people on the bottom. He said that now the church had changed its thinking, and all are on the same level; in the eyes of God, each member of the congregation was equal to the Pope.
Father Rob also said that each person in a community is important, just as each body part is important to the whole body. He liked shrimp, he said, and if he saw a plate of shrimp, his eyes loved seeing the shrimp, his mouth watered, and stomach rumbled—his whole body was happy. So, as people, we can share in the joy of others. He gave as an example the congregation sharing in the joy of the four new members who joined the church that day. Father Rob then told a story of hitting his thumb with a hammer the week before. Not just his thumb suffered, but his whole body felt the pain. So as people, when one of us suffers, we can all share in the suffering.