January 23, 2012: Love of the Poor
~by Father Ron Camarda
Mission Honduras is supposed to go to Honduras this next Sunday for their annual pilgrimage to the poor. However, there is a catch. There has been a lot of “media” blitz about the violence in Honduras. The pilgrimage could be canceled. Trust in God is needed. Let us pray.
Unfortunately, I am not going this year. It was time for another priest to experience this particular journey into the heart of the poorest of the poor. Mission Honduras is a medical mission of about 20 to 30 doctors, nurses, dentists and helpers who travel to Yoro and then go to about five different villages. Usually, the local Hondurans who are medical staff travel along with us in a bus to the villages. These poor people haven’t seen a doctor for years. Some of the care is preventative. Mostly, the only dental care is to take out teeth that would normally just require a filling. That hit my heart.
For the past three years I was blessed to journey to Honduras. This year I was unable to go. However, I am supporting them with my love, prayers and stewardship. When we suffer in America from an economic downturn, the poor people throughout the world suffer even more. It is important for all of us to be grateful for the abundance of our blessings, and not to concentrate on our “inconveniences” or minor struggles.
Here are two of my pros writings from last year. I wrote them in Yoro, Honduras on February 17 & 18 respectively.
Here I am
The poor My language skills still broken O mio! Ayudame. .
I love you I struggle So many poor and so little medicine and doctors I must trust in you better Help me I trust in you. .
A Medical Mission is really a mission into my own heart Healing – Divine Takes place in me Joy fills my heart and flushes out my soul Only love and peace are left
.O Jesus, my Beloved, I love you All ways and always The poor are always here, Thank You for the poor I do not thank You for abject poverty But I thank you for the poor For they teach us so much Alleluia The food of the humble is so nourishing Even more so than the “muy rico” food we celebrated with last night Fiesta – thank God! .
May our last days in Honduras be filled with more wisdom And Love for the Poor…and Esperanza (Hope!) May we learn to cast our nets into the deep waters At your command .
I cry through Psalm 42:
“My soul is thirsting for God,
the God of my life;
when can I enter and see
the face of God?
.Deep is calling on deep, in the roar of waters: your torrents and all your waves swept over me .
By day the Lord will send his loving kindness: by night I will sing to him, praise the God of my life.”
Beloved. Let us pray for one another, especially our poor sisters and brothers of Honduras. Let us lift up our Mission Honduras Team. If you can send them a donation, please do.
Love, joy, peace,
Father Ron Moses +
Father Ron Camarda is a retired Naval Chaplain and author of “Tear in the Desert,” a powerful book containing his memoirs of life and death at the Battle for Fallujah. Father Ron appears on EWTN and recently won the Silver Medal from the Military Writers Society of America.
