De la Mano

“He took the blind man by the hand” (Mark 8:23).

After the rough slog of the first day of classes Tuesday, God and the city of Cochabamba were gracious and merciful. I returned to the Franciscan convent and was able to shower. Later in the evening, a tremendous thunderstorm broke, sending a sizzling rain. The thunder thumped my heart. The lightning illuminated the cloister garden and brought sparkle to the raindrops. The air freshened with the scent of a cooling night. Oh, it was beautiful to see and to hear. My interior water tank was replenished to overflowing. And I wanted to stand at the balcony of the cloister for hours to watch the garden get saturated, if only I did not need the sleep.

And so after a good evening meal, a better night’s sleep, and a gentle morning of workbook exercises, I set forth today for the language school fully renewed, walking the roads with lightness and feeling like a voyager ready to go the long distance.

Students with afternoon classes (like me) have longer days than the students with morning classes when mandatory plenary activities are scheduled, as they usually are, in the morning. For example, today is Wednesday, and every week at 11 o’clock there is a lecture in Spanish on one of various cultural, social, political, or religious topics. Today, one of the Maryknoll Mission Center staff members gave a simplified history of the Catholic Church in Bolivia. It was simplified in details and in language. As the lecture got underway I could process a few words here, a few words there. As the lecturer continued, I began to hear more words at a time in sequence and make the meaning. About a half hour into the talk, I realized that I was now in fact hearing every word and processing whole ideas, paragraph-sized! I felt like the blind person that Jesus healed, who went from seeing people as if they were trees walking to seeing people distinctly as they were. Praise God! Granted, I had an outline of the lecture (in Spanish) in front of me, and the lecturer used a slideshow with his presentation. But the point is that through all the helps, all the guiding hands given, my ears were opened little by little until they were doing as much work as my eyes were already able to do. I will accept this as another little miracle on the way to better communication skills.

During his homily at the noon Mass at the Maryknoll Mission Center chapel, the priest reminded us in very simple terms that the journey to healing and wholeness is a process, and it occurs in stages. With trust in the Holy One who continually offers a helping hand to us, we too can reach out, be led beyond the places and circumstances that confine us, and come gradually to our fullest, liveliest selves. This is our salvation.