I'd like to read a chapter from the Book of Wisdom, which is about the darkness that we can really get tangled up in and how we even make it worse by our own blindness and how God breaks through it for children of light. It's a really fascinating reading, but since it's from the scripture and really a good image of of all these themes I thought I would read it. It's from the Book of Wisdom, Chapter 17. For great are your judgments and hardly to be described. Truly unruly souls were all wrong. For when the lawless thought to enslave the holy nation, they were shackled with darkness and fettered by a long night. They lay confined beneath their own roofs as exiles from Providence.

[01:03]

And they who supposed that their secret sins were hidden under the dark veil of oblivion, were scattered in fearful trembling, terrified by apparitions. For not even their innermost chambers kept them safe from their own fear. for crushing sounds on all sides terrified them, and mute phantoms with somber looks appeared. No force, not even fire, was able to give them light, nor did the flaming brilliance of the stars succeed in lightening up that gloomy night. But only intermittent, fearful fires flashed through upon them. And in their terror, they thought beholding these was worse than the times when in the night they were no longer to be seen.

[02:08]

For they who undertook to banish fear and terrors from their sick souls were sickened with ridiculous fear. For even though no monstrous thing frightened them, they shook at the passing of an insect, they shook at the hissing of a reptile, and perished trembling, reluctant to face even the air that they could nowhere escape. For wickedness of its nature is cowardly. It testifies to its own condemnation. And because of a distressed conscience, their misfortunes were magnified. Meanwhile, the whole world shone with the brilliant light, and the work of light continued its work without interruption. To make a little review,

[03:15]

of the week, which is where I would like to start. Your life as a monk is not for you. If your salvation can be wrought out of it, all the better. My life as a priest is not for me. If my own salvation can be wrought out of this, all the better. But we are at the service of the universal Church, and the universal Church is at the full service of the gospel of life. So our vocation is other-centered, it's not centered on us. Every day that we get up, we should say, Today is the beginning of the end of everything within me that is not of God. This is the commitment that we make by our profession, by our vows, by the evangelical councils.

[04:19]

Today is the beginning of the end of everything in me that is not of God. We're up against, God knows, a lot of difficulties in the world. Here are some modern difficulties that our forebears didn't have to face for the last 150 years, especially the power of the human being, which is enormous. has not coincided with an enormous spiritual sense, an enormous sense of values, an enormous sense of conscience, an enormous sense for good. So that very few people who are completely ill-informed or evil can do great destruction in the world. But the power through the size of our arms, the power through the swiftness and universality of the slightest communication, the power that human beings are capable has not been in pace with an incredible moral development.

[05:41]

Quite to the contrary. A gun in the hand of a trained security person, and I'm talking from experience, is a gun. A gun in the hand of a reckless, wild, resentful teenager is 10 guns or maybe 20 guns. It fully depends on whose finger is on the trigger. And here's another Here's another part. Our fears have not evolved in step with our dangers. This is completely to our disadvantage. Let me give you an example. People are still scared of snakes. But nobody is scared that the Amazon forest is practically gone and these are the lungs of the earth and very soon will be blue and gasping for air.

[06:47]

Nobody's afraid of that. And it's a much bigger danger to you and to the human race than a snake is. Maybe we're afraid to go down in the basement and be alone in the dark in the basement. And yet nobody's afraid of global warming. Nobody's afraid of the destruction in the last two centuries, especially of God's created world at an alarming rate, almost irretrievable. Nobody's afraid of it. Except Pope Francis, who's getting his head cut off for even suggesting that we should be afraid of what we're doing to the earth. We're afraid of spiders. But we're not afraid that Christians are being driven out of the Holy Land, left, right and center, are becoming refugees in other lands. We're not afraid of the expanding power of ISIS, which is cutting heads off of our brothers and sisters in the Coptic lands and in the Middle East.

[07:59]

We're still afraid of the small things that kept us alive until tomorrow. And the huge dangers that have surfaced and are right in front of our eyes, we're not afraid of them, because our fear would engage us in the combat against them. I said I wanted to give another example of the power of the countersign, and this is it. There was one day when I went down to work with Mother Teresa's sisters at a place they call Sanfille. It means in French, without wires. It was a part of the city where electricity had never arrived, but the truth is it doesn't matter where electricity arrives because there never is any. But this, I was going down to work with them at Sanfille on this particular day, and when we got there, on their gate, right on the post of their gate,

[09:06]

was the head of a beheaded person. Like I say, we never learned in the seminary what to do about things like that. I never even thought about something like that in my life. I never saw that in West Hartford, Connecticut. And just by instinct, We take some cloths and take the head down and wrap the head and then have a prayer to bring the head later when we're leaving to bury the head. But I remember being absolutely convinced as I went through that gate It is impossible for the power of God to be here in Sanfield. It is impossible.

[10:08]

This is a waste of time. This is impossible for the light of God to come here to Sanfield. I was convinced. And that night before I went to bed, I said very simply, Would you show me the sense? During the night I had a dream. It was a very simple dream. I saw the head of John the Baptist on a platter. That was it. No words, nothing leading up to it, and nothing after it. I just saw in my dream the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And when I woke up in the morning and recalled that, this is what came to my mind immediately. Oh, really? You think God knows nothing about beheadings?

[11:10]

You think Jesus knows nothing about beheadings? You think that a beheading is the delineating line of where God can pass and God can't pass? And the more I thought about it, for example, that head wasn't any sign of threat to me. The beheaded John the Baptist was a sign of threat to Christ, and it would happen that he would be annihilated. That head on the pole was no relative of mine. This was the cousin of our Lord. It was his cousin. In all the funerals we have all the time, and I've told people this many times, I'm so glad I don't know any of these people, because it's hard enough to do it, but if you were actually mourning all these people because you knew them, it would be impossible.

[12:17]

This was, this was the cousin of our Lord, who was beheaded. As revulsed as we are to hear of the beheadings by ISIS, as revulsed was our Lord, as horrified was our Lord, as scared was our Lord, he sweat blood. It wasn't for nothing he sweat blood. All of these images were with him under the tree in Gethsemane. But the point was, the point to me was very simple. If Christ carried the light, even past a beheading, which was his cousin, and was aimed at him, are you really convinced that God cannot reach this place? Well, of course, there was nothing to say in the face of that.

[13:20]

So I went and re-read the story of the beheading of John the Baptist. And it wasn't the story of the beheading that really struck me. It's the story that follows it. Because after our Lord receives this terrible news that his cousin John is beheaded, He goes as usual to a quiet place where he squirms and prays as an anguished human being and where the angels who ministered to him ministered to him. And he comes out from his prayer and he sees 5,000 people who are hungry and he takes a few pieces of bread and a few fish and multiplies them out and gives these people something to eat. When the bad thing is bad, the reaction has to be magnificent.

[14:25]

I gave the example just in psychological terms of how stronger the bad goes in and how much we have to counter it by a countersign of goodness, but our Lord shows it by this example. The worse it is, the more miraculous what he does next to counterbalance with goodness this terrible thing that is so wrong and that has happened. When I first went to Haiti, the first person I met after going to the rectory of the cathedral and knocking and saying, I'm a priest and we would like to start a mission here and we'd like to explain it to you and see if you agree and if you'll give us permission. But the very next person I met after the rector of the cathedral in the early 1980s, who is now the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince,

[15:27]

And after meeting the archbishop of the time, Francois-Wolf Ligonde, the very next person that I met was an Anglican nun from Boston, Sister Joan Margaret. And she was a sister of the sisters of Saint Margaret. And Sister Joan had been in Haiti since, oof, I bet 1928. And this was the early 1980s, 50 years later. She was there about 55 years, so it would be late 20s to early 80s. And she had the only school for disabled kids in the country, St. Vincent School for the Disabled. And it was right near the palace, which meant it was in the heat of all the political violence and activities. Anyway, She was a big help to us because she knew good lawyers, and she knew good benefactors, and she knew good... And she was a really nice lady, but she was as old as God.

[16:38]

And she was running a school for the disabled from her wheelchair. She was all slumped over with osteoarthritis. You know, her wrists hardly moved anymore. People had to pick up her legs and put them on the, you know, on the footholders. But she was a powerhouse. And when we had 11 kudeta, the first two years that I was there, 11, and they were all marked by looting and rioting and destroying everything. And I was with her one day, and when there was another kudeta, I just happened to be with her at her school, and there was a kudeta, And you could hear all the screaming and yelling on the streets, and the smashing of glass, and the smashing of windows, and the people screaming, and the guns going off. And they were coming down the street, destroying everything that they passed, and they were near the school.

[17:43]

So she said very calmly, please put all the students in the dorms. Please have all the teachers go to the farthest recesses of the building. Please wheel me to the front gate. And when I tell you, open the gate. This was phenomenal. So as these bandits and hoodlums advanced and they came to her gate, ready to smash it and pillage it, all of a sudden the gates opened. And there in front of this throng, wild with destruction, sat this little frumpy nun in her gray habit of the sisters, and she sat there ready to take all of them on. And a silence fell over her. This was so astounding to them. The door opened, and there was this sister, and a silence fell over them.

[18:49]

I was there. And she said, I have a terrible headache today. And, and, uh, you know, they looked at her and she said, Oh no, you didn't give me the headache. It's not you that gave me the headache. I have a terrible headache because I have a lot of trouble with my vision. And because my vision gives me trouble, it paralyzes me with headaches. So she said, I'm really lucky because we have teams that come here that help these children to walk, that help these children that can't read because they can't see to learn Braille, that even teach these deaf children music with a bell choir, which they only feel by the vibrations, what is their note. And they produce beautiful music that none of them can even hear. And we have optometrists and ophthalmologists that come and help us with our vision.

[19:53]

And she said, just think of something. Maybe one day you're going to have a terrible headache because you can't see right. And maybe this place can help you. Maybe you'll have a child, unfortunately, born with cerebral palsy or a terrible difficulty. You can find help here if you have a child that's born that way. But you're not going to find any help here if you destroy it. So think about it. And if you are determined to destroy it, I tell you one thing, it'll be over my dead body and you better be ready for that. Well, it was the same as our Lord writing in the sand with his finger. They had no idea of what to say, they had no idea of what to do, and they just backed off. It's really, it's, it's, it's, once again, it's the, don't worry about what you're going to say, dabitur vobis.

[21:04]

If your heart is right, you'll, I'll find the words for you. Don't worry about what to do when you're dragged before tribunals and into courts and everything else. It will be given to you what to do and what to say. Don't worry about your weakness. Don't worry that you spent all of your strength, that there's nothing left to you. Don't worry about your weakness. God knows really well how to use weakness. It's all so there. It's all so true. It's all so real. I'm telling you this story in particular in order to thank you for the support that you have sent to us, which has been enormous, and to thank especially the chapter which has agreed to send the support because it's tied to this, and I want to tell you how. Sister Joan finally went back to Boston when she was 98, and she just absolutely couldn't anymore.

[22:11]

Absolutely couldn't. And I went a few times over the years, because she lived to be 102, but I went a few times over the years, quick jump up to Boston, to visit her a few times before she died, and every word out of her mouth constantly was, how are those children? How is it going? Is the school kept the same? Really, really hyper about how it is. I'm sure Father Demesis, before he died, worried about how Mount Savior would keep going. I'm sure you worry as you get older, how will Mount Savior keep going? The last priest in America worries about who will be the next priest in America. The last monk in America worries about who will carry on this beautiful tradition. It's normal. But this consumed her worry for how it was for those children. Well, the school was going on all right.

[23:13]

I mean, it's nothing like when she had it. Let's face it, not everybody has the same charisms, not everybody has the same gifts, not everybody goes way beyond nine to five in order to make something happen. It's just the way it is, but it was going along. But the trouble is, it completely collapsed in the earthquake in 2010. It completely collapsed. Sister Joan was already dead. And in her memory, I was determined to do something for those children. And we're five and a half years later, and that school is still not rebuilt. Because of all the committees that have to think, and all the people that have to approve, and all the, as usual, but it's still not rebuilt. Of the 400 children, about 60 were killed. And of the 350 that are left, We took a hundred of them.

[24:16]

We couldn't fit 101, but we have a hundred of them. And we made a little school for them that we call Sister Joan Margaret School, right in her memory. And we're trying to keep her work going parallel to what was there, waiting for the day that her order and all of those boards with all of their force can reconstruct this school. and again offer a really strong and sound thing for these children who are such at the wrong end of the stick. Like I told you yesterday, I almost choked when three of those kids were in that accident and I saw how terrible it was for them. Sister Joan had on her letterhead, the sign of the kingdom will be, the blind will see, the deaf will hear and the lame will dance with joy.

[25:21]

The sign of the kingdom. When I said the other day, one of the real signs of the kingdom is that when we walk through the bitter valley, we make it a place of springs and that we walk with ever growing strength. This is the sign that the kingdom is present. And it doesn't matter if it's the blind seeing through eye dogs and through braille, they're seeing and they're becoming capacitated and they're learning. It doesn't matter if the deaf are hearing vibrations and making beautiful music. It doesn't matter. It's the sign of the kingdom. It doesn't matter if it takes 14 years to finally get this child to walk. It's the sign of the kingdom. In all the flail and fray of it, but over 14 years. But the point is, we have 100 of those children now. And this is also our motto for the school.

[26:24]

And it's tons of challenges, as you can imagine. And the donations that you've sent down, I want to tell you how we've used them. 10% I've used to bury the dead. We dig 50 graves a week. With the children, we have to put 15 or 20 in one grave because there's no way to dig so many graves. So to bury 80 people a week, we dig 50 graves a week. The grave diggers do it by hand in this semi-arid place that's full of rocks and not a tree to sit under. I pay $30 per grave. So 30 times 50, it's $1,500. You can see in a week it's $6,000 that have gone to digging holes for the dead. But it's a corporal work of mercy to bury the dead.

[27:28]

It's right respect to bury the dead. And at least it makes jobs for 15 people with picks and shovels that have to work three days to dig all the holes. At least it's generating some kind of economy. Another 60% of that money I use for the children of St. Joan Margaret School, trying to get the right teachers for them, trying to buy instruments for them, sewing machines for the ones that can sew. I'm saving up to get bells to renew the bell choir. We're introducing computers for them with braille keyboards, and for those who can't see, programs that speak to you. We're far from it, but one thing is for sure today, if you know your A, B's and C's and D's, and can read and write, and don't know the internet, you are completely isolated from the world community.

[28:30]

You are completely illiterate. And our goal is even for these children, for as far as they can get and as much as they can learn, to connect them to the world the same way that we all have the privilege. A part of it I put into farming. And I put into farming for a lot of reasons. to break the cycle of imported food, imported food, imported food, and the dependence of Haiti on food from outside, which is a humiliation and which the United States would not put up for one second, that we're dependent on another nation for food. For purposes of ecology and not wanting the land to sit fallow, for purposes of trying to make food there and break this dependence on outside food, to reintroduce skills that have atrophied because of the dependence on food, and to create work, most of which we give to disabled people, in the fish, in the chickens, in the laying hens, and in the gardens, to invest in the agriculture

[29:48]

is an investment towards ecology, towards independence, creating jobs, and give some subsidy for the mission. Some subsidy for the mission. It's the right direction to go into, is this goal of self-subsistence. That's how it is. And like I said, the rest I go into this goal. That's why I wanted to tell you the story of Sister Joan Margaret and how long she was there. and her vision, and her heart, and what happened to those children, and how we're still fighting to provide good opportunities for their children, thanks to you. So I want to thank you again for your generosity in supporting the mission and helping you see how clearly it goes towards making real a sign of the kingdom. The blind shall see, the deaf will hear, And the lame will more than walk, they'll dance with joy. So, in any case, with those words, I hope I shared some of my faith and my experiences that might enliven yours, and I hope not confuse yours or burden yours.

[31:01]

But I hope that this sharing of faith has been somewhat helpful to you. And like I said, I sure wanted to leave a little bit of time for any questions, if you have any last questions. It's hard not to be hopeful. It's very descriptive in the author of this book. It's hard not to be hopeful. I think we're quite into that, aren't we?

[32:15]

Thank you. The particles of the Higgs field are called bosons, if you want to go even further. Bosons, B-O-Z-O-N. It's even more, it's just even more ethereal. Thank you.

[35:22]

Well, we're going to head off to Buffalo, and then I'll fly as far as Miami tonight. I'll get there at 10.15, and then I'll be on the first flight at 7 over to Port-au-Prince, so I'll be back in the saddle tomorrow. But I've enjoyed very much the quiet here, which is something I never have, and I've enjoyed extra sleep in between. here and there. And I usually get up at 4.30 anyway, but I took the luxury of not doing it this week, just to get a little bit of rest. And I've certainly enjoyed your liturgies, and I've enjoyed the readings at the meals, and being upheld by the rhythm here, and by this living out of the Benedictine charism, I've enjoyed it very much and I feel strength in leaving. And I thank you for your kindnesses to me, making sure I had this and that and the other thing.

[36:42]

So we're off, but I want to thank you also for your hospitality. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Maybe before Gabriel goes, he could tell you some of his stories, because he lived through a bunch of these things, too. Anyway, well, thank you.

[37:19]

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