ajar

one of my colleagues has been traveling in El Salvador lately. he is a member of a parish committee that is called to maintain the organizational structure of our parish sistering relationship with a small community in northern El Salvador. the community is called Teosinte. my peer has been to El Salvador dozens of times, stemming first from his own participation, in a different parish sistering committee, and now his involvement in our cluster parish partner. he is fluent in spanish, has a passion for El Salvador, has some excellent ideas about sistering, and has, in some ways, his own mission in sistering. my peer was recently in Teosinte, amongst his various travels in the country. he delivered a letter to a family friend I have in Teosinte. he brought back news of a young man from Teosinte who was recently killed...the young man worked for the national police and was killed in a skirmish with a San Salvadoran gang. he shared a few updates about the general life in Teosinte. and his most recent update was all about the extremely difficult challenge that families have in Teosinte, due to young people...mostly boys and young men, who are leaving the community, and the country, to emigrate to the u.s.a. it costs $7000 alone to be trafficked to the u.s., and that does not count the cost of failed attempts, theft, brutality, etc. and to remain in El Salvador means to deal with gangs, who both lure young folk away, and steal from those not part of the gangs. my peers recent account was seriously difficult to read, created a great deal of sadness and despondency, and mostly left me wondering about many things, not the least of which includes - how some of the families in Teosinte have leveraged their own sons' success in getting to the u.s. and now having not only the best of homes in Teosinte, but the financial means to continue to increase their position and influence; and the poverty and social injustice of the overall country is repeated in the community - how the u.s. has taken this attitude that we cannot let people from certain foreign countries into our country; for an individual from El Salvador to get a visa is nearly impossible, let alone costly just for the attempt. yet, we allow people from India, Chinga, Japan, western European countries. latin america is banished..."we don't want them" is the chant from the u.s. and why? - those who survive the trafficking to get into the u.s. are left to live lives of secrecy, yet they send an incredible amount of money back to their families in El Salvador; their sense of community and family puts modern u.s. family to shame our great country was built upon the risks of those europeans...in general, who sacrificed all to emigrate to north america and take a chance to build a life. though there were those here, prior to the immigrants, who did not necessarily want new arrivals, power and influence and intelligence and whatever were used to force entry and new life begin. and while i am personally grateful for that outcome, i am shamed when i consider we won't enable our own past fortunes to continue to others in same situations and circumstances. the result is that the people in what is called the 'third world' countries to continue to repeat the very patterns that have been in existence in this world since the dawn of man...struggling to get in, and then closing the door on those following us. what would it take to leave the door open, even a bit?

called

most of us, for sure Christians, talk about the mission we have in our lives. Never is that discussed without some statement or rendition about how we are to suffer anything to feed the poor, tend to the sick, shelter the homeless. Mostly, we talk about these aspects of mission as if we know we are to live lives of pain and suffering, facing even torture, ridicule, loss of worldly possessions, bearing our own cross...all in the pattern of Jesus. And we assert that this is God's calling and, because it is God's calling, we are to do it. Yet, God commanded us to be happy, and to Know God. Do we find people in that pursuit? Am I living that life? Will I pursue a life of fullness and complete happiness in God?