Sunday, November 30, 2014

Dear Friends,

  Sunday evening here, 8:30 PM, eight hours ahead of Michigan time, EST.  We received a great, soaking type rain for over an hour this afternoon and it was truly needed.  I just finished these lst two days with the last parts of the rose garden:weeding, pruning, loosening of soil and loading up the root system with cow manure and bone meal .  Now the entire plot of flowers has been "jazzed up" to put out lots and lots of blossoms, a wonderful sight to behold.  Our visitors are noticing and commenting most favorably!  Sometimes I take a walk over to that area just to get my "beauty fix" for the day and to take note of anything out of place or needing close attention.  Pure fun!

  The big concern around here since a week ago yesterday has been the horrific massacre that took place a week ago yesterday in a far northeastern Kenyan town called Mandera; it is close to the Somali border where terrible tensions exist between Christians and jihadist, Al Shabaab Muslims.   Maybe you know already that on Saturday, the 22nd, early in the morning, a bus with over 40 people on it was leaving  Mandera and traveling westward to bring people, many of them teachers in their 20s, to their home towns.  School is out in mid-November through Christmas week.  These people were returning to visit relatives and for rest over this vacation time.  Once out of town and in the bush area they were pulled over by about 15 gun-totting men with scarfs wrapped round them to hide their faces.  These men went on the bus and demanded at gun-point that people recite a sentence from the Quran; if you could not do that, then you were to get out of the bus and you were ushered over to a place and made to lie face down on the ground.  28 people "flunked" that test, so here were 28 people lying face down, all next to one another.  With that two or more of these armed Somalis moved down the row and shot these people in the back of their head.  The wailing and screaming was something else, survivors later testified.  After these men finished murdering these people, they raised their rifles in the air and starting firing them a number of times while shouting in triumph.  They disappeared across the border into the bush and a few hours later were pursued by the Kenyan army and were killed.  A Kenyan jet flew in and bombed their training camp and make-shift hospital with wounded, hurting Al Shabaab militants, and killed, it is said, some 200 people in the process. Some of these 200 were women and children most likely.   The Kenyan military provided no photographic proof of this raid.

   There is so much anger in this nation toward the government  and its fumblings, its incompetence and failures to protect its citizenry.  The present governmental party is in power till 2017.  That is a long time into the future.  The president is someone who has been indicted by the World Court in the Hague for criminal actions during the 2008 national elections.  He is the son of the first president of Kenya, a very rich man but without much foresight.  This nation is so divided along tribal lines;  tribes put up their man regardless of his credentials or lack thereof.  And then you thought politics in the USA was awful!!

  Tomorrow evening I begin my annual 8-day retreat.  I finish on the morning of the 10th.  I think I am quite ready for a time to be alone and extra quiet with God.  Lately, prayer has been for many days very, very rich.  If I can get quiet in body and focused in mind and will, then I sense I am "looking right at" God, yet with no image as such.  But the sense of His presence and closeness is very, very real and profoundly rich in beauty and goodness.    I am straining for words adequate to the experience, but that is the nature of the encounter.

   Tomorrow is the feast day of some English Jesuits who underwent terrible torture in the 1580s for being Catholic but especially for being Jesuit.  Queen Elizabeth I had him hanged, drawn and quartered, after being stretched and stretched on a rack--really a vicious way to execute anyone!  One is a man called Robert Southwell (pronounced Suth-ull, with the accent on the first of the two syllables.)  He wrote an extraordinary poem I would like to quote to you and with this say 'goodnight."  The poem could be one meaningful way to prepare for the coming of Christmas--

                                                                     The Nativity

                                             Gift better than Himself God doth not know.
                                               Gift better than His God no man can see.
                                             This gift doth here the Giver given bestow.
                                               Gift to this Gift let each receiver be
                                            God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me,
                                               God's gift am I, and none but God shall have me.

   A blessed and happy Advent to all.

Bernie Owens



 


 

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Good Afternoon, Friends,

  I am writing on a Sunday afternoon, November 16.  It is finally sunny here after much overcast and rain.  We are into spring here, with farmers planting and lots of new growth--pollen also that makes me itch and sneeze!  Our weather this week has been generally cool and rainy.  Lots of rain during the nighttime, mud everywhere!  Mud here becomes so slippery and unless you have stones sticking above the surface to step on, you can easily do a pratfall when on an inclined surface.  There are almost no sidewalks around--those are for rich people, and affluent societies!!  Most people here when walking to work carry two pairs of shoes, one to endure the mud along side the heavily traveled roads they have to walk, another pair to look nice in when walking around their office work space.

  This reminds me:  the traffic congestion in this urban area is mind-boggling, beyond anything we in the States experience!  Maybe Los Angeles would be an exception.  The roads here are utterly inadequate for handling the number of cars of those trying to get to work and get home.  On Wednesday mornings, when I teach at the local Jesuit seminary, I must allot  one hour and ten minutes to go about 8 miles from here to the school.  One often simply sits on the road and waits for the flow to resume crawling along.  I wish I could bring you all here and have you see what it is like and especially to see what is on the sides of the road:  the businesses of selling shrubs, flower plants,  small trees, grass sod, clay urns (some really big!) tables, clothing closets, chairs (wood or iron), beds, sofas, clean water, roasted maze cobs and chunks of sugar cane to chew on--so much life, so much commerce.   With all the rains we have been having, you can imagine what it is like stepping around in these areas!!  MUD!! I love to see the young mothers walking along with their small baby, papoose style on their back and with a knitted cap often times on the head of their baby, and then their carrying some object they need for their family on the top of their head--this is so, so African!
Do you know that in 25 years  four out of every 10 babies born into the world will be born here in Africa??!!  Get ready, world!!  Nigeria will be the most powerful economy in Africa, followed by South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya.

  Our cool, wet, breezy weather has led to my getting my first major cold since coming to Africa.  (Now that is a pretty good record, I think, for having been here almost 15 months.)  For days I thought I was having an allergy reaction, since there is so much pollen right now with the new spring growth.  But, no, on Friday, two days ago, I was hit with a terrible fever, swollen sinuses, and a lot of coughing.  I have slept and slept these last two days--about 11-12 hours each day-- in order to beat it and not let it become pneumonia.  I am still going to have to make time for extra sleep.  I am not yet over this! I have gone through probably 20 handkerchiefs in the last two days!

   Our neighbor, the monkey, has been back and making a pest of himself (of it is a she?)  About a week ago it went near our dining room area and found a window to the food prep area partly opened.  It reached in and stole two eggs that were sitting on a counter and near the window; one egg broke on it.  Then one morning it came up on our veranda where we throw bread pieces broken up for the many birds who visit us and was stealing the bread.  One of our guys challenged the monkey and the monkey growled back.  Yesterday the monkey was back and took an orange from one of our trees.  It bit into the orange and threw it down; maybe it was not sweet enough.  One of our guys picked up the orange and threw it at the pest and it chased after the orange.  In general it comes around in the afternoon and tries to open the sliding glass door that separates our dining room and veranda or sun deck so that it can get into all our food, bananas and bread especially.  We learn to be vigilant for this crafty, deceptive snitch.

   The other interesting quirk of nature here is the snoring of birds in the early part of their nighttime. One bird has the sound like that of a creaking wooden screw, as if you were turning it and turning it while it makes  a sound of wood rubbing against wood, followed by a regular rhythm of exhaling some odd, breathy sound.  So funny!  

   I have weighed myself on three separate scales and they all agree:  I have dropped about 15 pounds since I left the States more than a year ago.  I think this weight-loss has also affected my energy level at times, with my having to sleep more, to rest more.  Much less meat in our diet and no pies and frosting covered cakes, no munching in the middle of the day on chocolate covered raisins or cashew nuts.  Also, the ice cream they buy here is often frozen skim milk--just awful!  All of these factors I think explain the weight loss.    Frankly, I think I am eating a better diet than I was eating in the States.  All the veggies are fresh, always!  Then all the fruit we get is great.  We get the greatest soups every day.  I always start midday meal with a  big bowl of some kind of vegetable soup (yesterday was butternut squash soup) and I like to put lots of rice in it to give it some solid body.  The homemade pizza is only so,so, the fish is sometimes terribly deep fried or, better to my liking, broiled and so the sweet white meat is very tasty.  Lots of chicken.  Pork is much too fat for me.  I won't touch it!!  So too, the beef is largely riddled with grissle.  I find it inedible.  But Kenyans like it that way.  I will wait till I return to the States to enjoy a great hamburger, also a rich, creamy ice cream.

   I have finished for the first semester the course I was teaching at the local Jesuit seminary.  It was a course on St. Teresa of Avila's greatest book "The Interior Castle." It addresses the growth stages in oour life and in prayer for those who seek God and let God lead them.  The Castle is her image for the soul of a human being.  She conceives of the soul/castle having seven sets of rooms, each progressively closer to the center where Christ waits to give Himself fully to the person who takes seriously the journey within. She says most people, unfortunately, stagnate at the 3rd of the seven circles or sets of rooms; they do good things she says, keep the commandments largely, but don't let God really lead them to a much richer, deeper life that what could happen if they learned to surrender and let God lead; they are too invested in staying in control of their life.  I had eleven students.  All but one did very well, One person got a low C grade.  Some of his problem might be that his English writing skills are lacking!  He is from southern India, Kerala province where there is much less insistence on English than in the more northern cities of India.  Four 'As' and six 'Bs' for the rest.  I don't resume teaching until January 14 when I start a weekly course for seminarians on the poem of St. John of the Cross: "The Living Flame of Love."  It is one of the greatest poems ever written; it is about the Holy Spirit of God and is so, so beautiful.  I thoroughly enjoy leading discussions on matters like this.  The discussions I have with these young men/future priests make my day!

   The publisher of my book contacted me within the last two weeks to ask that I modify one sentence in the whole book. Everything else was fine.  I was amazed.  I was expecting more changes would be asked of me.  Now they are laying out the pages as they will appear on the pages of the final form, then they will send it all to me for one final reading and approval.  March is the due date for publication and beginning of sales.  I am told things are still on schedule.  I hope so!  I have a book-signing evening scheduled at Manresa on Tuesday, May 26, also at the Master Gardener's Day the following Saturday, May 30.

  Last Sunday another Jesuit and I went to the Natural Museum of Kenya in downtown Nairobi.  It was so worthwhile.  We spent three hours there.  Sunday morning was a great time to go--much less traffic and almost no one in the museum when we first got there.  Anyway, I enjoyed more than anything else the exhibit on human fossils discovered by the world famous archeologist, Dr Leakey.  Here were fossils I had often read about but never realized I am now living almost in the center of where all of these human remains once lived-- with such moving finds about the beginnings of the human race more than two million years ago only 250 miles or so north of here.  I read it all with much, much interest!  Then they had on display stuffed versions of some huge animals, elephant especially, found in that area.  Finally, they had a display on Kenya's move to independence, the breaking away from British rule, and how painful, violent it all was, especially in the 1940s and 50s. (Independence was granted in 1963,)

  Last, today is a day of great importance to me.  For two reasons.  One is that the last of the students I lead through the two-year Internship program at Manresa in Michigan are graduating in a few hours from now.  This is the last of my involvement at a place that was so good to me and fruitful in my efforts.  Over 18 years some 375-380 students went through this program and about 250 graduated.  I am proud of this and most thankful to God that I had such a opportunity to lead this.

  The other reason for today being so meaningful to me is that 25 years ago this morning, in the city of San Salvador of the nation called El Salvador, six of my Jesuit companions along with their cook and her 15 year old daughter were assassinated by a death squad of the El Salvadoran army.  Five of the six Jesuits were pulled out of their bed rooms and made to lie face down on the lawn of their backyard and were executed.  The sixth Jesuit was killed in his bedroom.  The cook and her daughter had been told on the phone the night before by her husband not to come home that night since the tension was so high and made walking home too dangerous.  The cook and daughter were in one wing of the housing complex; the daughter began to cry out loud with fear and a soldier heard her cry He went down the hallway and killed them both.  In that last moment the mother threw her body over  her daughter in a motherly attempt to protect her child.

  What was going on at that time to lead to something so awful, so vicious?  There was a de facto civil war going on in that nation for much of the 1970s and 1980s.  The ARENA party with a strong military grip on the nation was in control and resisted economic and political changes that the much more numerous farmers and workers in rural El Salvador wanted.  The Jesuits, who were all part of the University of Central America in the capital city, tried to mediate a truce and negotiate a way of meeting some of these great needs of the people.  There were charges of outside interference. Cuba and the USA under Presidents Carter and Reagan got involved and supplied many arms to the government, all in the name of fighting communism.  The farmers were pawns in the middle and thousands were murdered by the government, with impunity.  Justices were threatened with death or bought off.  No one was being prosecuted for these crimes.  The Jesuit president of the university, Ignacio Ellacuria, was the chief negotiator, trying to defuse the situation. Three weeks before he and the other Jesuits were murdered, there were listeners to talk shows calling in and saying, "Be a patriot, kill a Jesuit." And so they were all murdered 25year ago this morning.

   In March of 1998, nine yearslater, I had the opportunity to join 12 others on a 10day trip to ElSalvador.  And I had the opportunity to see some of the photographs of those who had just been assassinated.  I was so shaken on that day.  I began to hyperventilate, never had I seen such gore.  I later thought that all the crime on TV never really shows the ugliness and revolting results of murders and killings. Everything" is so sanitized, falsely presented.

  One of the Jesuits who was murdered, Juan Ramon Moreno Pardo, had exactly the same job/ministry I had at that time.  this so, so struck me.  He was doing exactly the same I was doing in 1989:  part time teacher of theology at the university and assistant director of what was called the Romero Center( named after the soon to be saint Oscar Romero) on campus. I pray to that man often.  He is like a brother, certainly a soul-brother.  He was shot in his bedroom and when he fell forward his right arm knocked to the floor a book on his stack of books at the head of his bed.  Its title was "The Crucified God."  I saw it on camera as it soaked up the blood from the pool of blood coming from his body. I will never forget that picture! Something deep happened inside me that day. I have not been the same since.  Here was a man doing what I was doing-teaching and helping to run a spirituality center in a troubled city.  Yes, Detroit was very much at that time a troubled city.  This man was dead, I was still alive.  But his choice to be where God had sent him gave rise in me to a desire to give my life, in a bloody way should that give greater glory to God, for God.  I am so taken by how we all get only one life and we are given the enormous opportunity to choose to do wonderful things with such a unique gift.  God is so very real and so worthy, so deserving to receive all we are and the best we have.  On that day I was given the strong desire to give myself completely to this most deserving Giver of all gifts, whetherin a short life or a long one, in many years of service or in a quick death that would witness to Him who laid down His life for me (and all of us.)  It really does not matter whether I live a short life or long one.  What does matter is this precious friendship with the greatest discovery of my life.  Because of Him it really doesn't matter whether I am alive in this life or with Him in the next.  What does matter is that I am alive with Him, never to be separated.

  A happy Thanksgiving Day and weekend to you all.  One of the Kenyan Jesuits who studied in the USA for some years is cooking Thanksgiving meal for all of us Americans on the evening prior to Thanksgiving Day.  So I have that to look forward to.  I begin my annual retreat on the evening of December 1 and finish on the morning of December 10. I would appreciate your prayers. please.  Thanks so much.

Bernie Owens