Going Back to El Salvador...

     You’ve heard us talk about our Alternative Spring Break trip to El Salvador for weeks now.  A couple of times, people have asked me why I wanted to go back.  The answer is obvious: For the privilege.

     One of the things that make me tick is that I love to help someone grow in their faith.  I am overjoyed when I witness our students transform into the strong, fervent, faith-filled Catholic leaders of today.  To stand back as ‘coach’ (or sometimes as ‘father’) and watch the faith become alive, deeply relevant and earth-shaking...it’s a beautiful, unique and amazing site.  

     El Salvador is one of those sacred places where the faith becomes alive, becomes deeply relevant, and shakes the earth beneath the sometimes-stable lives of our students.  The following testimonies say it all.  One is from Peter Salazar, a member of both last year’s team and this year’s.  And the other is from Khristy Nicholas, a member of last year’s team.  We hope you enjoy.

~Fr. Isaiah Mary Molano, OP

     The news of war, wherever it may be, has a surreal effect on us. As a nation, we haven’t experienced armed conflict within our borders within the memory of many generations. Traveling to El Salvador, I witnessed everywhere the scars of war, physical and spiritual. The people there are still working to rebuild after a conflict that ended 19 years ago. Hearing about all of the atrocities that occurred there, whole villages massacred, torture, loved ones lost – was both horrifying and numbing. I marvel at how the people of El Salvador can carry these wounds and still live with such profound faith, hope, and charity.

     On one occasion, we visited a site where six Jesuit priests were rounded up in the dead of night and murdered by government forces. In the chapel where these priests were entombed, there were no stations of the cross. In their place hung illustrations of grisly scenes of torture and death that had been inflicted upon the poor during the war. When asked about them, our guide responded, “If you can’t see Christ in the suffering of the people, then what hope is there for peace?”

     The truth of those words struck me. I think that we have a tendency to distance ourselves from conflict, to write the suffering of those in war zones off as necessary for some greater end. I can only say that the whole experience has made me think differently about His words “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Christ is with us in those who suffer – and after witnessing firsthand the true human cost of war, I can’t say that I will ever be able to support it again.

~Peter Salazar, 2014

A People of One

“Who was the enemy?” they ask,

Identities hidden behind a vengeful mask.

What could a people so meek have done?

I see no way in which they could have possibly won.

A people who surrendered all fear to God,

They trusted him even when all hope was hidden

behind a thick fog.

Despair only encouraged love,

And the main source came from nowhere but above.

A baby being ripped from the desperate hands of his mother,

While she watches her children, her legacy...disappearing,

one after the other.

Though her own people tell her to search no more,

Her faith carries on despite the tears

that leave her heart sore.

A people drenched with war, violence, and upheaval,

One can only imagine their hearts’ deep recesses

of grudge and evil.

But no, still they smile,

They grin in the face of their world so hostile.

With love, hope, and faith, they look ahead.

Knowing that they will never be abandoned,

but to victory, always led.

They teach their children forgiveness, mercy, and love—

The very things they were so cruelly denied of.

It is divine to forgive,

It is what allows the departed, the murdered,

and the disappeared— to live.

A people previously tied together by the fight to survive,

Now connected, bonded, One, and spiritually thrive.

No more can their dreams of happiness be trampled upon,

For fear is no longer an issue; it is gone.

The brave people of El Salvador serve as a model for me,

Of what Catholic men and women should truly strive to be.

~Khristy Marie Nicholas, 2014