By Sr. Megan Thérèse
Marian Sisters
“Don’t be afraid to break during this week.”
That was how Father Allan Phan set the tone for our October mission trip to Mexico City with Hope of the Poor. Hope of the Poor is a ministry that strives to serve the homeless in Mexico by caring for their needs, both bodily and spiritual. They provide housing, food, and clothing to the people, and they teach them about God and prepare them to receive the sacraments. They also give people a community to turn to for support when times are tough.
For the last several years, the Diocese of Lincoln has sponsored several trips to Mexico City to help with Hope of the Poor, and I had the opportunity to participate in the most recent trip. Accompanied by 12 other pilgrims from around Nebraska —and from a variety of ages and vocations—we traveled to Mexico City Oct. 3-8 for a five-day mixture of a mission trip, a pilgrimage, and a retreat.
From what I had heard from Sisters who had gone on previous such trips, I had some idea of what the experience might hold. So when Father Phan told us during his first homily to not be afraid to break, I thought I knew what he meant: ‘You are going to encounter a radical level of poverty this week, and it will cause a major shift in your worldview.’
But what I experienced during that week didn’t seem to match the message. I went into the week with very high expectations for what God was going to do in my heart, and I have to be honest and say that on one level, I was disappointed with my experience. I found myself continually getting frustrated with the changes in schedules, the language barrier, the uncertainties about what was going on, my own fatigue, and many other things that made me think I wasn’t receiving the graces I had hoped for.
I experienced many beautiful things during the week, from spending time with disabled people in an orphanage, to hearing the stories of the people served by Hope of the Poor, and visiting the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but something seemed to be missing. And by the end of the week, I was starting to wonder why I had even come on the trip in the first place.
That desolation finally started to break on the last night we were in Mexico. I’d just had the opportunity to pray with some of the people who are served by Hope of the Poor, and as I reflected on that experience—as well as my experiences from the whole week—God showed me something truly humbling. He revealed to me that while I thought I was going to Mexico to encounter the poor, it was really my own poverty that God was calling me to encounter.
As I replayed the week in my mind, I saw so many situations when I had been faced with the reality that I couldn’t do it: I couldn’t understand the people. I couldn’t enjoy the food because I knew it would make me feel sick. I couldn’t prepare for the next event because I didn’t know where we were going. But as I reflected, I saw that it was in those moments when I had learned to trust God in a deeper way and allow Him to work through me.
God showed me that despite my own frustrations and inabilities, He had still worked powerfully throughout the week. It was in the places of my poverty where I received many riches from God’s heart.
Sunday, Nov. 17, is the World Day of the Poor. In his message for that day, Pope Francis says, “the poor hold a privileged place in God’s heart.” The truth is that we are all poor in God’s eyes, and we all have our own forms of poverty. It could be the poverty of money, the poverty of mental illness, the poverty of skills, or the poverty of time. No matter what your poverty is, that place is a privileged place. It is the place where you can encounter God and His graces in a special way, and that is what I experienced during my time in Mexico. It was precisely in the places where I felt most poor where God was giving the most riches.
And so I encourage you this week to think about the privileged places in your own life. Where do you feel most poor? Where are you faced with the reality that you can’t do it? Where are you being called to step outside your comfort zone so God can fill your poverty with His riches? That truly is a privileged place, and it just might be the place where God is drawing you closer to Himself.
