Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord

I wanted to go visit the Iglesias de la Soledad y de San José near the cathedral. I got up around 6:00 a.m. and did a lot of preliminary stuff – my Dad would have been angry with me for doing my nails and polishing my shoes on Sunday! Anyway, I left around 8:30 to walk to San José first.

As I hurried down Calle Sóstenes I heard a screech and a bang. A man and woman riding double on their bike were hit by a car. The white car took off. The woman was still lying on her husband’s leg and they both looked hurt. I raised both my arms to stop traffic. It was in one of those funny intersections that have like six entrances. Everyone stopped and the other bikers and other taxi drivers all came out to help them. I found out later that a shop woman stopped the driver and told him to own up to the hit. They lifted the woman up as she was crying out in pain. A police pickup truck finally came. They spoke to the man in the white car. He claimed he was not driving. He said the driver was tending to the woman. I gave the hurt lady 50 pesos for the taxi to take her to the church. She and her husband were concerned as they were to be Eucharistic ministers at Our Lady of Soledad Church. Oh, boy! They were more concerned with their duty to the church!

I left them and got to Mass at San José. I prayed for the two people. The church was packed. The priest was awesome. His sermon was great. I stayed afterward and told him he deserved a 10!! (That’s an A+ here!) In his sermon he asked if we could remember our own baptism day. He explained that there are three happenings at Jesus’ baptism: the skies opened, the Spirit descended and the voice of the Father was heard. Father asked us to repeat those three things. (I liked his style—that’s the way I teach!) He said that the very same thing happened when we were baptized! The doors of heaven opened for us because it is our true home. The Holy Spirit was given to us and the Father adopted us as His children and we are His delight!

He asked the congregation if they remembered his sermon from last week. A few people nodded “yes” and so he asked, “Can you summarize what I said?” Oh, boy! Everyone sank down in their pews. He laughed. He re-told the story. “A woman dreamt that she had died. The angels accompanied her into heaven. She was glad to enter heaven. The angels offered to escort her to her room or her house. The first house was made of gold. She thought it was wonderful. However, the angels told her that was not hers. That house was for people who had been friends of God…who spent time with God and always put God first. The second was made of beautiful strong marble. She thought she could take that house. But that was not her house either. The angels told her that that house was for people who had done great deeds, lots of acts of charity in God’s Name. The third and final beautiful house was made of glass—a beautiful crystal house. The angels told her that that house was for people whose intentions were very clear—there was no duplicity in their hearts or thoughts or actions. Finally, the woman saw an old shack which had a bad odor and very poor building materials. The angels told her that that was for her. She couldn’t believe her eyes! The angels told her that that was all she sent for the building of her heavenly home. She had been selfish in her deeds, her spoken uncharitable words, had been unjust, had watched bad movies and had never concerned herself with others…not even her own family. The woman woke up from her dream bathed in her own tears. Shortly after that, the neighbors noticed a huge change in the woman. She was busy going about doing good and she always had the Lord with her.
Neat story, huh? Father told it so well. At the sign of peace many little children went up to him to give him the sign of peace. He seemed loved by many people…young and old! Ah, nothing like a good Sunday liturgy!!

Back to the couple on the bike, I decided to stop at Our Lady of Soledad Church. I asked the sacristan if he knew anything about the couple who had obligations to serve as Eucharistic Ministers at the 9:30 Mass. He smiled and said, “The couple is being checked out at the hospital as we speak.” I asked, “Do they know who hit them?” He smiled again and said that one of the priests had hit them. Oh, my goodness! He said that he had stayed with them the entire time and had brought the bike to the church and had taken them to the hospital. As far as he knew, the couple was fine. So was the priest. Well, the couple will be in some pain and a bit hesitant about riding double on a bike again, but all is fine. Thanks be to God. Thank God that no other car was following that close to have gone over the poor couple. God is good all the time.

Tomorrow I go to the capital city of Guanajuato to try to renew my permission to stay for another 6 months in Mexico. They can only give permission for 180 days at a time.

By the way, after church today I stopped at the city plaza to read my little booklet that I purchased at the bookstore. I also wanted to do some people watching. A feeling of pure joy came over me as I was sitting there. I was enjoying the people, the buyers and sellers, the traffic, the color, music, church bells tolling, the sounds of people laughing…. I decided that maybe I was “home”. They say that home is where the heart is so, maybe my heart and I are in the same place. The cockroaches back at the convent…well, that’s part of being in a different temperature zone and accepting life as it is where I am living! Guess what the dictionary says about cockroaches: a nocturnal insect with a flat oval body, long antennae, and chewing mouthparts, some species of which are household pests!!