This letter was sent to Jane Lichtenberg:
A few days ago I was looking around a normal village as I sat under a thorn tree hearing confessions. All of the houses are made of mud walls and grass for the thatched rooms; many in poor condition. It is the dry season, nothing green is growing except for an exceptional mango tree. Around the chapel is sand mixed with cow, sheep and goat dung.
The young people coming to confessions are all dressed but what I see except for the clothes and a passing bicycle, is very little development. Poverty, disease and underdevelopment are evident everywhere. It can be very discouraging. After confessions, Holy Mass and infant Baptisms, we invited the youth to remain in the chapel for the Lenten devotion and the Way of the Cross.
The Way of the Cross is very powerful for anyone but my guess is especially to the poor. Suffering can produce great things.
That evening we rode our bikes to the next chapel and got there after two punctures. We had the rosary, litany and evening prayer there. Then I came across the story in Father Link's Mission 2000, which affected me powerfully.
"This note was found on a dead child's body in Ravensbruck concentration camp.
'O Lord, remember not only the men and women of goodwill, but also those of ill will. Do not remember all the suffering they inflicted on us; remember the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering -- our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all of this. And when they come to judgment let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.'"
The dead child and her note is a paradigm for Jesus' dead body and the cross and yet we find a message of forgiveness for one and all.
Now maybe the African Sudanese acute lack of development has the same hidden, powerful message. I think it can bring salvation too.
Happy Easter!
Michael
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