On June 14th Pope Francis met with comedians from all over the world. He started saying that instead of reading a lengthy speech it would be better for him just to make a funny face. He told them that in the midst of so much gloomy news, you have the power to spread peace and smiles, that comedy has a sacredness to it. Since I last wrote, my friend Fr. Ned Brockaus of San Diego diocese died at 87 famous for his short homilies which contained a story and a joke. He wrote with his own drawings four books of Sunday homilies. So much of the life of a priest is taken up in masses and talks. I have tried to follow Ned’s example. Last Sunday on reading from the book of Job: sometimes you are the dog, other times you are the hydrant. On Elias after promising a drought and hiding in the desert to be fed by the crows: I dislike crows, ugly, craw rather than sing, and eat the tiny song birds, but God uses the uncomly, the unruly, the wretched of this world to feed his people. On Elijah leaving his tunic for Elisha and telling him to remember how the Lord had been for him while letting him go to make carne asada for his family: a local drunk claimed to be Elisha after the old Pastor Padre Lorenzo left him his jacket.
Project report: We have cancelled the migrant camp. The house for migrants that we support, Pro Amore Dei, used to have over three hundred residents not including those sleeping outside in the patio. Now they have 130 who can be easily accommodated. This number will decline with Biden’s hold on asylum petitions, an antihumanitarian response to political pressure.
Instead we are building two houses at Carita de Dios, our sister organization for children of other capabilities. To perfect our system of building with discarded styrofoam sheets, we built a bathroom for a house at Canoa and an office for catechism at the chapel. Both structures are super economical, sturdy, and thermally superior. I reason that if we can teach a significant number of people how to use the material properly, the idea will spread. My architect friend, Armando, claims that construction with concrete and steel contributes exceedingly to environmental degradation. Steel is made by melting iron ore, and cement by disintegrating rock with fire.
We have finally completed the perimeter wall around Campesino Urbano. The gates need repair and installation. My friend took one gate to his shop two months ago and has not yet said when he will finish. Eventually….
When we built the Sagrada Familia orphanage for kids of other capabilities 1999-2000, they had abandoned a program working with the mothers of the children. But the program had valor. We are trying to train the mothers by offering classes that will lead to financial independence. So far we are making nutritional bars and will start next week cutting hair. David will be the first victim as he never complains about anything. We have so much to learn from our kids about detachment. So many fathers of families with children of special needs abandon them to live by charity and whatever means possible. Every step forward enhances hope and the desire to continue ahead.
Last week we buried a 3 year old girl. Three months ago we buried her mother. They were walking calmly along the sidewalk when a pickup approached followed by a car that was firing bullets into the pickup killing the driver. The pickup, uncontrolled, swerved onto the sidewalk killing the mother and critically injuring the little girl. She spent three months in the hospital valiantly struggling but finally succumbed. Imagine the grief of the father losing his wife and going every day to the hospital for three months only to have to bury his daughter. How does a God of mercy and infinite goodness permit such suffering? Another mother took her eight year old son to the doctor. They diagnosed cancer. She told the doctor that if he could cure her son, go ahead and treat hm. The doctor prescribed quimotherapy. Six months later the doctor called to take her son away that they could not do anything more for him. She took him home. Two days later he died in her arms. Her friends called to console her saying that he was better off going to God. She answered that was of no consolation as she could do a better job with him at her side, and that she would go on living only to be reunited with him one day in heaven. St. Paul wrote that we see only through a dark lens. The shadow of Jung and the overwhelming darkness of Elliot join forces to leave us in dismay sharing a glimmer of faith.
