Clinging to Hope in the Midst of Pain

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

Ellie was excited because she was going to read a verse at her church on Sunday. Now, instead, her father is trying to find the right words to explain to Ellie’s four sisters that Ellie is never coming home. How on earth do you explain to four little girls that their ten year-old sister has gone to heaven?

Ellie was one of the nineteen children killed in the horrible Uvalde tragedy this week. “The sweetest girl you’ve ever had the chance to meet. And I had the honor of being her father,” said Steven Garcia while in tears on a Today show interview. “Ellie loved basketball, TikTok and the colors pink and purple. She hoped to be a cheerleader and had already begun planning her quinceañera.” The family said she had already picked out her dress, even though it was five years away, and her father said they will buy it and hang it in her room.

Amerie Jo enjoyed drawing, performing science experiments and making people laugh. She wanted to become a YouTube star. “She was a real good student. Very playful, very silly,” dad Alfred Garza III said. “She was a perfect daughter.”

Garza went to the school when he heard about the shootings. He waited six hours for ten-year-old Amerie Jo, who was his only child. While he waited, he offered solace to kids who got out of the building. “They were just overwhelmed and crying, so as many as I could, I said to them: ‘Hey, do you know your mom, dad’s phone number? Let’s call them. Let’s have them know you’re OK,’” he said in the Today show interview. 

While he was waiting to hear news about his own little girl, he helped to ease other parents’ pain by letting them know that their child was alive. He pushed his own fears aside to offer those scared children a tiny glimmer of hope. 

No child should endure that sort of anguish, especially at such a tender age. It is hard enough for an adult to come to terms with such a gaping loss, let alone little ones, who are far too young and innocent to make any sense of how cruel life can be. 

The thought of these families’ suffering in the most agonizing of manners is just heartbreaking. How can we cling to hope in the midst of so much pain? The only way I can think of is by grabbing onto God. 

I have met many parents on my earthly journey that have lost a child. God-incidentally, I just met two of those parents at the beach today. I was in the water talking to my hubby in Spanish. A couple nearby said to us: “Que rica está el agua hoy.” (The water is great today). We spent the next few minutes talking to them, and as we were leaving we introduced ourselves. When they told us their names, something clicked in my memory. I asked them if they were associated with “Hermanos al Rescate” (Brothers to the Rescue). Sure enough, their son Mario was one of the four pilots killed back in 1996 when their plane was shot down by the Castro regime in international airspace. He was only 24-years-old, the youngest of the four. How do you recover from losing a child so tragically? You don’t. But you can keep going with God’s help. Otherwise you would just crumble. 

I pray to God for the people of Uvalde, especially those families that lost a loved one. I pray for a hope that brings them healing. 

Please Lord, take their grief, fear and suffering in your capable hands. Place them near your heart; care for them, transform them—and us—while you’re at it, because we just don’t understand. How long, O Lord? How long will this last? When will you put an end to the suffering in our world?

Copyright © 2022 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.

Happy Easter

 “The fifty days from the Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday are celebrated in joy and exultation as one feast day, indeed as one ‘great Sunday.’ These are the days above all others in which the Alleluia is sung.” US Conference of Catholic Bishops 

If I were to wish you a happy Easter today, you would probably think that I was a little cuckoo. This is exactly what happened to our priest. He went to Publix and he told the cashier “Happy Easter.” He was dressed in regular clothes so she had no idea that he was a priest. She told him that he was a bit late in wishing her a happy Easter, to which he replied: “I’m not late. I’m Catholic.” She told him that it didn’t matter, Easter had already passed whether he was Catholic or Protestant. He took this as an opportunity for a teaching moment. He explained to her that we Catholics don’t celebrate Easter for just one day, we celebrate it for 50 days. Lent lasts 40 days, Easter lasts 50 days. How awesome is that. We have an entire Easter season that concludes on Pentecost, which happens to be derived from the Greek word “pentecoste” meaning fiftieth.

Why is Easter so important for us? A few reasons:

First, without Easter we wouldn’t have Catholicism. If Jesus had died but had not resurrected, we probably wouldn’t have even heard about Him. We would be Jewish or Muslims or Buddhists, but definitely not Catholics. Christianity would not exist because it began with Christ. He would have been just another prophet but not as popular as He is. The reason why we worship Him is not because He died. The reason why we follow Him and still talk about Him 2000 years later is because He resurrected. 

Second, without Easter we wouldn’t have Christmas. Yes, that’s right. Christmas is not about the gifts or shopping. It’s not about the tree or the decorations. It’s not about Santa or the reindeers. The reason why we celebrate Christmas is because Jesus was born and resurrected. If He had only been born but had not resurrected, we wouldn’t have Christmas. 

Third, Easter gives us hope in the promise of the victory. If Jesus had not resurrected, we all would be terrified of dying. I know many people that are still very much scared of dying, even though they are Catholics. If you are one of them, I ask you: “Why? What are you afraid of?” Jesus conquered death for all of us. By resurrecting and ascending to heaven fourty days later, He left us the promise of the victory over death. Death is not the end, it’s only the beginning. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience here on earth for just a few years. We are on a journey and our destination is heaven. We have no reason to fear death. We have to look at death as the door that will allow us entrance into eternal life.

Sometimes I ask myself: “What will Heaven be like?” I picture it as a beautiful garden, full of flowers and all types of animals. The animals are not dangerous, they are all friendly, even the lions and the tigers. If Heaven has a scent, I hope it smells like chocolate, since in my imaginary Heaven there will not be any food. We will be nourished by love, not by physical food. I have often dreamt of my arrival to Heaven. All the people I have known in this lifetime who have left before me will be standing at the gates of Heaven to welcome me and hug me. At the end of this very long receiving line, the King and the Queen of Heaven will be ready to greet me. What will I do when I’m in their presence? I think that I will fall on my knees and bow before them. But the Queen will grab me, hug me and tell me: “I am not your queen, I am your Mother. Welcome Home my dear child.” Then, she will introduce me to her Son: “This is my beloved Son who gave His life for you.” And I will hug the King of Heaven, and ask for His forgiveness. And in the most loving voice that I have ever heard, He will say to me: “Welcome Home dear Christy. I have known you and loved you since before you were born. Your sins have been forgiven. Come with me and I will show you the place I have prepared for you. It is called ‘Eternal Paradise.’ Here, you will never feel pain or anguish again. Here, you will only rejoice. Your tears will not be of sadness but of joy.” He will take me by the hand and lead me to my forever dwelling place, where angels and saints will be my neighbors. 

Whenever I feel anxious or sad, all I have to do is close my eyes and dream of this Heaven that lives in my imagination. I have no doubt that my dream does not even come close to the reality because I know that it will be infinitely better than my limited imagination. There is not the slightest wonder in my mind that Heaven exceeds the most amazing place that we have ever visited.

I am not afraid of death because of Easter. This does not mean that I want to die tomorrow. I hope I don’t. I hope I still have another 20, 30 or 40 years left on this journey so that I can enjoy time with my hubby, children and grandchildren. I hope I even get to meet my great-grandchildren. I am looking forward to traveling extensively once I retire. I have many plans and I hope to enjoy every single day that I have left here on earth to the fullest. But when my expiration date arrives, I will not be afraid. And I hope that you will not live with fear of dying. Hold onto the very real hope that Jesus left us with Easter: we are not alone, He loves us, and there is a future with Him that goes beyond death. We are an Easter people and Aleluya is our song.

We still have one week left before Pentecost Sunday, therefore we can still say outloud: “Happy Easter!!!”

Our Traditions: A Sense of Hope

“You shall build this altar of the Lord… and shall offer on it burnt offerings to your Lord, your God.” Deuteronomy 27:5 

When we gather together as a family to celebrate holidays or birthdays, I feel a sense of hope that the traditions that were passed down to us by our ancestors will live on through our descendants. For example, the tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve (or Nochebuena as we Cubans refer to it) was started by my ancestors long ago. Today, we still continue what they started… a traditional meal of pork, black beans, rice and yuca. Since our kids were born, we’ve added our own touch of fried sweet plantains to the meal. And because our youngest, Alex, was born on that day in 1994, we’ve added a birthday cake to the traditional dessert of “turrones.” When Alex was little, he thought that the whole Christmas Eve celebration was for him, until he realized that all his friends also celebrated Christmas Eve.

Recently, I was able to witness for the very first time another tradition: the blessing of a building “made by human hands for a sacred purpose,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski. The blessing of the Our Lady of Belen Chapel made me realize how blessed I am to be part of a tradition that is more than 2,000 years old, since many of our Catholic traditions were inherited from our Jewish ancestors.  

In Jewish tradition, a building is set aside for a sacred purpose by means of ritual and blessing. An altar becomes a divine instrument after consecration. During the dedication of the Belen Chapel, we began the celebration with a bare altar. The Archbishop anointed the altar with the same Chrism with which we were anointed at our baptisms and confirmations. In this way, he communicated to us, the faithful gathered there, that “as members of Christ’s Body, we too have been set aside for a sacred purpose.” The altar has always been mentioned in the Old Testament as a place reserved for offering sacrifice to God. By consecrating the altar, the Archbishop made a direct link between God and His people. 

Also, in a solemn way, four embers of incense were placed on the four corners of the the altar. These were lighted, and the altar was swaddled in the smoke of the incense. The smell of the incense permeated through the entire chapel, “reminding us that here God dwells with his people.” I could see the smoke drifting upwards, towards God, and I was reminded of a quote from Deuteronomy 27:5 “You shall build this altar of the Lord… and shall offer on it burnt offerings to your Lord, your God.” All the prayers that will be offered at the Belen Chapel, just like the incense, will rise up to God.

Another tradition that we inherited from our Jewish ancestors and which will now be offered as a sacrifice on this new sacred altar is the Eucharist. Yes, the Eucharist was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Passover meal with his disciples, a very Jewish tradition that the Jewish community still celebrates today. But this was prefigured many centuries earlier by the offering of bread and wine made by Melchizedek as a priest in thanksgiving for Abraham’s victory as mentioned in Genesis 14. As Archbishop Wenski said: “On this altar and in this chapel, the sacrifice of the New Covenant will be offered… When Christ was sacrificed on Calvary, sin was defeated. On this altar, that same sacrifice will be made present to us each day, so that his victory over sin, death, and the evil one, will also be ours.” This New Covenant comes to us directly out of the old Jewish covenant that God made with His people. We are His people, and it is through an understanding of that old covenant that we can appreciate Christ’s sacrifice and the privileges of our Catholic inheritance. 

I felt so proud of my Catholic heritage as I stood side by side with my mother celebrating the mass in that magnificent new chapel. In the words of Father Pedro Suarez: “This is beauty that makes the soul rise to God.” Yes, beauty made by very talented human hands. Like I told my friend Alina whose husband Jorge is the architect that designed the chapel, “he can retire now because this is his crowning project.” He definitely poured his heart and soul into it. As I stood there, I could definitely feel my soul, like the incense, rising up to God. 

As I looked around, I thought of my dad and how much he would have enjoyed standing inside this beautiful chapel of his Alma Mater. It reminded me of Father Willie’s words which were quoted by the archbishop in his homily: “Be assured, the chapel is not simply an echo of our past but a loud and crisp statement of an extraordinary future.” My dad attended Belen in Cuba, graduating in 1948. He must have prayed in the Belen chapel in Havana countless times. Now, his heirs, his grandsons who graduated from Belen in 2007 and 2013, will be able to enjoy a similar place of worship. The traditions that were started back in Cuba, where Belen alumni would get married in the chapel and return to baptize their children, will continue here in Miami. I hope one day I have the privilege of witnessing the baptism of one of my grandkids at the Belen Chapel, and who knows, maybe even a wedding. I can only hope. 

Our Lady of Belen, pray for us. 

Copyright © 2022 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.