Faultless Fidelity

Fidelity.  I’ve been thinking about fidelity lately.  We often think about marriage when we hear that word.  But do we ever think about our fidelity to the Lord?  Or what about His faithfulness to us?  The entire story of salvation is about a God who FAITHFULLY PURSUES an UNfaithful people.  Deuteronomy 7:9 says:

“Understand, then, that the LORD, your God, is God indeed, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant down to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments.”

We are faithful not to an empty promise, but a God who promises faultless fidelity in return.  We cannot get that anywhere else.  What brought this on you might ask? Please read on to find out.

Exactly a week after saying goodbye to our friends from Philadelphia, we received a group of seminarians and priests who had been studying español in Querétaro, Mexico for the past two months.  Also, our friends Padre Gama, a priest, and Paz Perez Garcia, a beautiful woman of God, from Spain joined us here at the Casa de Misiones.  Paz and Padre Gama are both discerning a call to missions, so during their visit to Family Missions Company in Louisiana, they wanted to come live in missions with us for the week.

4 priests + 14 seminarians + 1 university professor (Cinthia) + 1 Paz from Spain + 8 full-time missionaries = a whole lot of God's kingdom building!!

Because this group was unique – we have never had four priests in one group before! – and so many of them were at least learning Spanish, we had a different schedule than normal.  In the mornings instead of going off to manual work projects, we went to four ejidos/ranchos (desert communities).  Each group went to the same ejido for four mornings.  My group went to an ejido called Por Venir.

The view on our ride out to Por Venir each day.

The Catholic chapel in Por Venir, a predominantly Jehovah's Witness rancho.

This ejido has been proselytized by Jehovah’s Witnesses.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses came into Por Venir and built an air conditioned capilla (chapel) and promised the people many material goods that caused the people to leave the Catholic Church.

We began our week by going door-to-door inviting the people to come to our prayer meetings, Masses, and talks through our the week.  One thing Jehovah’s Witnesses believe is that religion is not of God, but actually an evil.  They are content to read the Bible in their homes, but not to join themselves to the community of believers.  For example, when we offered to pray with Jehovah’s Witness families, they thanked us but informed us that they were perfectly fine.  While talking with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they told us that they didn’t believe in Jesus as the Son of God.  They believe that Jesus is actually created by God, so really he’s just a human being.  We did not argue with them, we would just smile and simply respond that we believed that Jesus was the Son of God sent to Redeem us and only God can redeem us.  As Fr. Brett stated,

“I can’t imagine living without Jesus; He’s my everything.”

There are, however, about 12 or 13 Catholic families in this ejido.  We realized that even if we do not have the means to reach all of the Jehovah’s Witnesses with our limited time there, we could fed the Catholic families thirsting and hungering for more of their faith in the hopes that their witness of living for the Lord would touch other lives.  So, we decided to give them what we at FMC call “The 5 Point Catechism: Prayer, God’s Word, Sacraments, Community and Service.”  These are five areas in our lives that are crucial for our lives as Catholic Christians.  How often are we praying?  Are we reading God’s Word? Are we going to the Sacraments each time they’re available to us? Are we living in community? How am I serving my fellow humanity?

Fr. Brett talking with Mariana's husband.

Mariana (in the purple) takes care of the chapel.

Mariana's home.

Singing and praising the Lord with our friends of Por Venir.

Me translating Eric's talk on prayer.

Jacob's shares his testimony on his call to the priesthood.

After each talk in the morning we would celebrate Mass and then return home for our midday meal.  Our last day there we had a short talk while I colored outside with some of the children.  Fr. Brett had decided he wanted to process up and down the street with the Eucharist on our last day in order to really make the Lord’s presence known and visible for the Catholic faithful there.  Afterwards, we broke out some candy and soda and had a small party.

Processing with our Eucharistic Lord down the main street.

"Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, when I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God, amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival." Psalm 42:5

At the end of our time there, after all the candies had been passed out, Jesus had been adored, the Coke had been drunk, I was filled with an overwhelming thanks to the Lord for allowing me to spend this week with these people.  Despite the  adversity, these few families had decided to remain faithful to the Lord and His Church even though many of them have not been catechized to explain the deep meanings of the creed they profess.  There are even some families where one parent is Catholic and the other is Jehovah’s Witness.  I thanked them for being faithful to our Lord and prayed for a greater sense of fidelity in my own relationship with the Lord.