Over the past three years I have celebrated Easter in three different churches and three different countries. In 2009 I was in Rome at the Vatican and 2010 I was at the Basilica on campus at Notre Dame. This year I celebrated this most blessed of holidays here in Trujillo, Honduras. I can say with great honesty that all three experiences were truly beautiful in their own unique sense. All three places were filled with beautiful services and equally beautiful people taking part in them. Here in Honduras I discovered two elements of holy week which I had never encountered before, a true solidarity between the people and the passion and a raw excitement for the resurrection.
The first element, the true solidarity of the people and the passion, was present in the faces and raw emotions of the many participants in the events of the week. On Thursday morning, the tias (house aunts) led a special rosary (Rosario de la Aurora) here on the farm at 3 AM. We all wandered out onto the soccer field and with only the light of the stars and a few candles prayed this special rosary. The pure devotion and faith present in the faces and voices of our tias as they prayed is something I will never forget. That afternoon our Franciscan Sisters did not only get bread to recreate the last supper, they found grapes and church wine and set up a small recreation of the table at the last supper in our chapel. They would have nothing less. The next day the youth group in town acted out every station of the cross under a beating sun.
At first I was taken aback by the amount of true devotion and solidarity the people demonstrated with the passion. Then I realized that while all humans carry their own cross at some point, our neighbors and children get very little relief from their crosses at any point. In a literal sense, they carry wood to start fires to cook; but this does not begin to describe their troubles. Many of our neighbors struggle finding enough food on a daily basis. Our children at the farm live with the knowledge every day that for some reason their own family cannot care for them. Back in the states struggles are paired with resources of all forms to aid people. Here in Honduras struggles are paired with more struggles. This was a truly humbling realization.
The second element which transformed my humbling realization into an inspirational joy in my heart was the raw excitement for the resurrection. When we arrived at the packed Cathedral in Trujillo for the Easter vigil there was a tangible energy in the air. As soon as the procession arrived and the Bishop sat down, it was announced that Jesus was resurrected. The people literally started a victory chant of sorts in excitement. The cantor yelled “Jesus is risen”, and the entire comgregation replied “Jesus really is risen.” The facial expressions and pure joy in the faces of so many there warmed my heart. They not only came to church, but literally yelled and danced in excitement for the resurrection. When we returned to the finca our nuns and teens along with a few volunteers started a bonfire and sang into the night in ecstasy for the resurrection. There faces continued to glow with joy through our adorable easter egg hunt the next afternoon.
Easter is a celebration of many things, especially hope. This easter I learned that while this hope is inspirational on many levels, it is also infectious and transformative. The raw excitement and joy of the kids, nuns, and everyone present infected my heart with joy and taught me that Easter is not about a symbolic message of hope, but rather the grand celebration of the real entrance of hope into our troubled world.
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