January 12,2010-January 12,2016

January 12, 2026

In remembering the hundreds of thousands of people who died 16 years ago today, and during the weeks after, in the terrible earthquake~ we cannot but remember the worldwide outpouring of concern, solidarity and help.

It is a healing memory in the face of great devastation.

At mass this morning we asked the prayers and spiritual help of those who died 16 years ago.

They were loved, mourned and remembered.

Because in our new tribulation that is destroying the people and the country, for five years now, there is absent this time a universal concern and massive solidarity to help.

For 5 years under destructive rule of gangs, vast sections of Port au Prince are burned or destroyed by artillery or drones, UN estimates of displaced people is near one million, the massacres deaths and kidnapping over these years is astounding.

Many victims are not even reported.

They are not loved, mourned or remembered.

10 year old Willyson, whose body I went to recover three days ago- another victim of this senseless violence- will remain anonymous to statistic keepers and to the world.

He death circumstances were so disturbing to me that I found myself digging for my phone to look at my daily wordle puzzle guesses.

I was somewhat ashamed of that but it gave me a few minutes reprieve before getting back to consoling his screaming mother and the brutal reality of his body.

I think flights of fancy are ok if they stay flights and are not permanent landings.

 Willyson’s mom has no such luxury. Her grief ends only in physical collapse.

On December 21, the day called winter solstice, the sun stopped its journey away from us and into ever more darkness and cold, and started to return to us.

When will the human family turn again to all that is light and life giving?

The splendor of truth, the dignity of each person, the beauty of life?

We will all be better off when that happens.

I think I know what it sounds like the moment the sun turns around to come back to us.

How lucky and blessed when we turn from darkness and death to fullness of light and life.

This is my favorite “sound of solstice”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0_B7NnbHlg

Thank you for remembering the beloved dead of January 12, 2010.