Those of us living in the
Northern Hemisphere are in springtime…yet, it doesn’t feel like it here in
Nicaragua. People from up north write
to us about the temperature mellowing out and flowers popping up; while here it is dry as a bone and hot, hot, hot.
Semana Santa (Holy Week) is renown here to be the
hottest week of the year.
We have not had rain, except for some spitting, since November. Dust blows and the floors have to be mopped
three times a day. Nicaraguans have started complaining
about the heat…when that happens, we know it is hot.
Growing up
in North Carolina with some of the prettiest springs anywhere, it was easy to
believe in the resurrection, in new life…Easter was a natural event. The land was fertile, newly plowed fields had
the rich earthly smell, blooming azaleas surrounded our 
house, grey winter
skies were replaced with warmer sunny days, and as a kid…the promise of another
tedious school year ending was always hopeful for me.
Here it is
different…so different. Easter is dry,
barren, oppressive, and harsh. Students are about halfway through their first
semester. Easter is not easy to hold
onto and most of the religious people here celebrate the 12-stages of the cross…the
jailing, the whipping, the execution of Jesus… instead of the resurrection.
But hope is needed most in the
poorest neighborhoods. Amidst poverty people need to cling most dearly to the promise of new life.
The
oppressed peoples of the world can identify with the suffering of Jesus. They can identify well with state executions like the crucifixion. Those of whom are Christian understand more
clearly that in the crucifixion, the Divine identified with the suffering, not caused it...they understand this more deeply than those of us who more comfortable lives. They know it was people who cause the suffering.
I’ve had a
full life…full of love. If I die and
there is no resurrection then so be it, but if the hosts of people that I know
and care about who have lived their lives in poverty,
pain, and hopelessness die with no better future for them, then this is too hard for me to bear…can you imagine what it is
like for all of them?
Easter may
be hard to grasp in this oppressively hot, arid climate, but for me, hope is
the only thing that keeps me going. I recognize that I, Kathleen,
need Easter here more than ever.
After all
the suffering we bear witness to day-in and day-out, after trying to do the little we can do to help lift the burden of pain and hardships for Nicaraguans a tiny bit,
after the daily deaths of the hopes and dreams the poor hold onto…I have
to have Easter to go on…it is my crutch.
It is my salvation. It is my only
way to keep working.
So to all of
you, I say,this season:
Live life like there is no
resurrection.
Work to make this existing life filled with goodness
for all our brothers and sisters around the world.
And especially for the poor, hope and pray that there is more...so much more
Happy New Life!
