Our last day here in Haiti. We just go home for meetings and Christmas — and then come back with 50 missionaries to start the year 2014 in Haiti.
It is almost four years since we started coming to Haiti and so much has changed. Thanks be to God there is no more rubble on the streets, no more bodies under buildings, no more tents everywhere, no more of that strong smell of decomposition.
And much has changed for Mission Youth. There were only two missions the first year, but we’ll have 11 next year with almost 200 missionaries participating.
God has blessed us.
But I think that the more important change, at least for me, is the change that Haiti has caused in all 350 or so missionaries who have been here — and the change Haiti has carved in my own heart. I truly can say that I’ve had a heart transplant in Haiti. My faith became much more alive.
Here we learn the real meaning of love, of self giving. Here we encounter the Crucified Christ who needs our care and tenderness. Here our hope is fortified. Here heaven becomes a concrete reality and something to long for. Here in Haiti everything inside us — sentiments, emotions, feelings, desires, longings, aspirations – all aim for heave.
Today in the homily, Fr. Tom, an American missionary of the Oblates of St, Francis DeSales, gave a beautiful homily saying that we have to “go deep and root ourselves in Christ, and not to be so flaky”. That really make me think, because is so true. All that I wrote in the paragraph above, is true, is real, but it can all vanish away, because of our flakiness — if we are not rooted in Christ. Pope Francis told us in Rio, if you want to persevere it is easy, just live the SOS: Sacrifice, Sacrament and Prayer (oracion in Spanish).
Thanks for all the prayers and support for Missions Youth. Thanks to all the friends who have accompanied us through the years. Thanks to all the Mission Youth missionaries who have made Haiti Missions a beautiful reality. Thanks to God for all the blessings He has bestowed on us. Thanks to Our Blessed Mother who has never left us alone. THANKS to ALL. Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS.
