COMPELLED BY HIS LOVE | KAIROS GLOBAL | JUNE 2021

Author: Dr. Sunny George

Intro: Spe Salvi/ Saved by Hope was a webinar conducted to highlight the plight of Haiti. Dr. Sunny George writes about it. 

Haiti – A nation in turmoil

Haiti is in the throes of political crisis. Police in Haiti have placed the nation on alert after a series of gang killings. Gangs are allegedly targeting anyone criticising the government. For months, thousands of angry protesters had marched through the streets of Haiti’s capital demanding that President Jovenel Moise step down. Clashes right next to the presidential palace between the opposition and security forces have become a regular occurrence in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

The country was devastated by a massive earthquake on January 10, 2010. The Haitian government estimated that over 316,000 people lost their lives, and more than one million people were displaced. Though an outpouring of support from around the globe was sent, the small nation has not yet recovered. The effects of that earthquake were palpable for the next decade. Being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has suffered a lot due to the exploitation by France, Spain and the United States. Devastating earthquakes were also recorded in 1751, 1770, 1842 and 1946.  The island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, lies mostly between two large tectonic plates, the North American and the Caribbean, and the Haitian capital practically straddles this fault-line.

Amidst poverty and natural calamity, the country is facing a very difficult situation. Violence, kidnappings for ransom and political unrest threaten the people on a daily basis. A human rights organisation counted at least 91 cases of kidnapping in April 2021, which is a 300 per cent increase from March. The majority of kidnapping cases happened in the capital city, Port-au-Prince. The Catholic Church describes the situation as ‘a descent into hell.’

A group of four priests and a nun from Haiti and one priest and a nun from France had been abducted near the capital Port-au-Prince on April 11, 2021. The kidnappers had demanded a sum of 1 million USD as ransom. The attack happened in the town of Croix-des-Bouquets when the Catholic clergy were on their way to the installation of a new parish priest. A gang calling itself 400 Mazowo was believed to be behind the abduction. Some of the clergy were later released after an undisclosed amount was paid in ransom.

Spe Salvi: Saved by Hope 

It was in this context; the Jesus Youth of America organised a webinar called Spe Salvi: Saved by Hope on April 25, hosted by Dr. Sindhu Nadarajan & Brian Mundackal. Jesus Youth from all over the world, India, Canada, Middle East, Europe, participated in the nearly two hour session of prayer, reflection, message by the Bishop Pierre-Andre Dumas of the diocese of Anse-a-Veau and Miragoane in Haiti, praise and worship and Q&A. The Bishop was also joined by two Haitian priests, Fr. Loius Merosne and Fr. Wildor Pierre. The main intention of the event was to share with the world, the current situation of Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries, crippled by political instability and vulnerable to natural disasters.   

It was appropriate and fitting that the organisers chose the theme of Christian Hope for the programme, amidst violence, poverty, apathy and indifference. Spe Salvi was the second encyclical of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI. The Holy Father teaches that the meaning of the hope can be understood if we look at its opposite, fear. What we fear is not the irritations or minor setbacks of everyday life. We fear that our lives in their totality might be ruined, or made unlivable. The hopeless person is afraid that it might have been better for him (and everyone else!) had he never been born. He says, ‘in this case, death, which is the end of all hopes, becomes the only hope.’ 

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(PART 2) 

Shepherd with the Smell of the Sheep 

The Spe Salvi webinar started with a very powerful praise and worship followed by a video clip depicting the biographical sketch of Bishop Pierre-Andre Dumas, founding bishop of the diocese of Anse-a-Veau and Miragoane in Haiti. He was born in Saint Jean du Sud and grew up in Port-au-Prince. After his high school education, he went to France to study medicine, but God had other plans. It is there, at Taizé, with the late Brother Roger (founder of the Taizé Community) that he discovered his vocation to priesthood. Brother Roger facilitated his admission to the Pontifical Roman Seminary, St. John Lateran in Rome. He also studied Education at the Regina Angelorum and Scripture at the Biblicum and the Gregorian University. Pierre-Andre Dumas was ordained a priest on May 26th, 1991 by Saint Pope John Paul II. 

Upon his return to Haiti, Fr. Dumas served at a parish and then at the national seminary as a professor, vice-rector and then rector. He also taught at and was rector of Universite Notre Dame d'Haiti (UNDH) for several years. He was consecrated bishop on February 22nd, 2003, and was assigned as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince. In July of 2008, He became the founding bishop of the diocese of Anse-a-Veau and Miragoane. His motto is Caritas Christi Urget Nos – The love of Christ compels us!

It was a privilege and honour to have Bishop Dumas throughout the event and he poured out his heart so kindly and lovingly. Bishop Dumas is a man of so much love, hope and trust. Although he hails from and is bishop in a country rife with brokenness and conflict, his heart is filled with hope – hope of Christ. Bishop Dumas is, to quote Pope Francis, a ‘shepherd with the smell of the sheep.’ As the Scripture says, Hope does not despair us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts, through Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Romans 5:5). Even in the midst of violence and strife, the bishop encourages his people to look to God and seek hope in him. One has to use this as an opportunity and discover the godly way of facing trials and tribulations in life. People need to look to the cross and seek inspiration, encouragement and peace.  In John 14:27, Jesus talks about a special peace that he gives us. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do, I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. This peace that God gives is free to take but also free to lose. It is like a comforter; a restorer of any guilt, pain, trouble or heartbreak that we endure. It is this peace that spurred many righteous men and women in the Bible persevere because they knew they had a purpose on earth – to fulfil God’s gracious promise – a promise that was made to humanity in the very beginning, at the fall of man. 

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(PART 3)

Heart-speak from the Shepherd

God of Suffering 

The Catholic Church in Haiti has assumed role as a guardian of the dignity of human life, especially as the government is unable to protect its own people. When the topic of suffering was raised, the bishop poured out his heart with a powerful reflection. God is not idle in our suffering. He suffers within us. For he accompanies the sufferers and also suffers with us. When Jesus suffered Calvary, in his humanity he experienced near-total rejection. This did not cause Jesus to return rejection or abandon his love for us. On the contrary, by accepting those who rejected him, Jesus set an example of heavenly and unconditional love. His acceptance of the rejection in no way diminished his craving for the love of humanity. Christ continues to crave our love and safety. The more we possess Christ, the more we recognise Christ and love him in others.

Hope is a Person

Referring to Spe Salvi, the encyclical on hope, the bishop emphasised the need for hope in order to live. Only true hope that flows from the Heart of Jesus will sustain us, preventing it from being whittled away by the false hopes that are on offer everywhere. Jesus wants to present a hope that is the salvation, not the destruction of humanity. This hope is a person – a gift – an offer of relationship – an invitation to life. More importantly, hope has a face, the face of God revealed in love, to the end, of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. 

As the world faces a difficult time, we will need to work hard to understand God’s power and stop talking about darkness. Of course, there is darkness around us. We sometimes add to the darkness instead of holding up the light. Darkness has no power over light. We are children of light. As we take our Christian faith seriously, we practice our faith in an interior way. The joy that comes to us by our interior practice of the faith spills out into our external lives, into the world of work and social responsibility. The Christian manifests hope in the totality of his life, first in the heart, then in his work. Hope, as Pope Benedict says, drives us to the energy of movement that takes place in the practical world of daily responsibility. Because we cannot raise ourselves or help raise others without action, without work among our fellow human beings.

Prayer as a School of Hope

Every inspiration to pray is a Divine invitation. The bishop stressed the importance of prayer over and over. If we do not pray, Heaven cannot help us. We are created to do good things – to fix our eyes to Eternity. Even the desire to do good things is evidence of our goodness and enough for us to start the journey. Just as we can never become a saint by studying sin, we will never become free by studying slavery. Our thoughts and hearts need to be focused on heaven. We, the sheep, can be easily scattered, through our own frailty and that of others. But if we are connected to the Good Shepherd, we cannot be scattered and we will recognise each other. As thoughtful children of God, we must practice being saints. We must practice being contemplatives in the world, or out of the world. Only by contemplating our lives with Jesus every day, will we prepare for the next world and help bring about the changes we are meant to in this world. 

Human life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we look for the stars that show us the way. The true stars of our life are the courageous men and women who lived a life of prayer, penance and love. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Lord Jesus Christ is the true light. But to reach him, we also need lights close by – people who reflect his light and can guide us along our way. More than anyone, Mary, our Blessed Mother is the star of hope for us! With her fiat she opened the door to Heaven; she became the living Ark of the Covenant, in whom God took flesh, became one of us and pitched his tent among us! 

Dr. Sunny George is a Professor of Food Technology, Amal Jyothi College of Engineering. He holds a Master’s degree in Theology and is founder of two start-up companies. He lives in Kanjirapally, India with his wife, Dr Mini Mathew and their four children.