When Love

Is More Than Campaign Rhetoric It looks like what happened last night at Holy Trinity's Mass and dinner for their El Salvador twin sister parish, Maria Madre de Los Pobres. Father Evelio Menjivar, the Parochial Vicar of the Cathedral of Saint Matthews was the guest priest homilist who gave a talk on what kind of fasting the Lord really requires- it has something to do with justice, freeing oppressed people, and serving the poor. That's what Love looks like. He spoke about having to flee his village which turned into a ghost town where only one elderly couple was left after the civil war in the early 1980s and how he was raised then in a parish that now has a sister parish with one in Bangor, Maine. He came to this country in 1990 and subsequently entered Seminary. In his talk he stressed that Solidarity means something other than hand-outs. It is not charity dropped condescendingly from above, but a sense of compassion and empathy that says we are all one, we are one family in Christ through the sacrifice of Christ. Indeed, when people come back from experiences where they 'helped the poor' they often come back more blessed for having received more than they could monetarily give in the way of profound joy that comes from a taste of the simple living with gratitude. The dinner was a feast wherein everyone potluck style brought in dishes which included not only standard rice and black beans but papoosas, quesidillas and fresh corn salads in tribute to latin cuisine. At the dinner a short film on the great peace and development style work being done with the children was shown after which most everyone wanted to visit. Loving Mercy and doing Justice done right creates Love of an other worldly kind- and it's only a plane ride away. Special thanks to the Holy Trinity Social Justice Ministry for hosting such a wonderful event and of course to the E-Padre, Father Evelio.