Christmas Eve

Horacio Darynel, Esther and I celebrated in El Mirador along with Padre Horacio and the members of El Mirador.

During the worship service we had to struggle to hear over the party that was in full swing next door. The neighbors actually played there music louder when we started the service and shot off firecrackers at the church as well. We have gotten used to the competition and continued.

Afterwards, Don Ismael invited us to his home. He has been fighting hard to stop drinking and the church has been a source of support for him. He is a carpenter and lives in a humble home across from the church. We entered hoping that it could be a brief visit… it was already late and our family was waiting for us to hopefully arrive before midnight. Don Ismael’s wife had prepared dinner! They wanted to share their Christmas and the little they had to celebrate with us. As we left, much later than we had originally hoped, I was struck for the carpenter’s workshop… Joseph too was a carpenter.

I have come to believe that in many ways our brothers and sisters in the margins of the Guatemalan culture either perched on cliffs in Guatemala City or resettled in land no one else wants in the middle of no where… these brothers and sisters understand the incarnation more profoundly than we can. They understand the humble conditions, the stable into which the Christ child was born, for they live there everyday… it was into there reality that Christ entered to bring light and life.