Reflection for Wednesday, Dec. 2

There are some days that a person can never forget. Some days that will always have significance. For me, December 2 is one of those days. On December 2, 1980, the bodies of three American religious sisters and one lay missionary were found in a ditch. They had been raped and murdered by a death squad in El Salvador and just left there. Their crime:  helping the poor and catechizing the children. My heart aches whenever I think of them but especially on this day. These women-Maura, Jean, Ita, and Dorothy-the slain servants of the Gospel-were enacting Eucharist in their lives in a way that most of us have never been asked to do. They were the living bread, blessed and broken, of which Matthew speaks in today’s Gospel, who brought to the people of El Salvador, during a civil war, the bread of compassion, the bread of mercy, the bread of justice.   

Many times during their years there, their friends back home in the States and their Provincials, had asked them: “Because of the war, are you afraid?  Do you want to come home?” The answers were always the same: “Yes, we are afraid.” And to the second question, just as Jesus took care of the people in that deserted place, the answer was “No, we do not want to come home. We will not abandon the people.”

During the days of this Advent season, my prayer is that each of us can remember that we, too, are the bread of life, the bread of mercy, the bread of understanding that this broken and fragmented world needs at this time.

Sr. Maryann Cantlon, C.S.J.