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Happening ... in the Local Church
By Louisa J. Reese
For The Catholic Moment
MUNCIE — In the mountains of rural Haiti, impoverished people often walk two hours to attend Sunday Masses that last two hours. To them, one hour of worship is not enough.
Still,
Father Andre Sylvestre says, they — and all Catholics — need more time with
Christ.
“Attending Mass is not enough to make us closer to God,” said Father Sylvestre, a Haitian priest who presided during Eucharistic devotion at Muncie’s St. Mary Parish in December, as did St. Mary pastor Father Ed Kacena. “We need to spend more time with him in order to grow in faith and love. It is for this reason the Catholic Church created extra time of worship, called ‘adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.’
“Eucharistic adoration is a time we spend in the presence of Jesus,” he said. “... It is a time of contemplation of Jesus present in the Eucharist, a time of intimate dialogue with Jesus.”
Through the celebration of Eucharist and in adoration, Catholics express their love and gratitude to Jesus for the sacrifice of his life, he said, but “we cannot be satisfied only with the intimate meeting we have with Jesus during the adoration time. We have to do some action, too, because action and prayer also connect us to the life of Jesus.”
Before coming to Muncie in August 2007, Father Sylvestre served as pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Plaisance, Haiti. In 1998, Muncie’s St. Francis of Assisi Parish twinned with that parish to help address medical and educational needs.
Father Sylvestre is in residence at St. Mary Parish while he pursues a graduate degree in counseling at Ball State University.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and most of its people are Catholic. St. Michael the Archangel Parish and its 12 smaller, satellite missions serve 45,000 parishioners spread out far into the mountains. It is the largest rural parish in the Diocese of Cap Haitian.
All parishioners must come to St. Michael for Mass on the first Sunday of each month so that they will have a sense of belonging, Father said. On the other Sundays, they attend their own mission churches.
St. Michael broadcasts recitation of the rosary, Bible classes and all Sunday Masses. Everyone, even Protestants, listens to Radio St. Michael on Sunday, he said.
St. Vincent de Paul, one of the five parish schools founded by Father Sylvestre, serves homeless street children, the poorest of the poor.
During his 14 years as pastor, Father Sylvestre served without an assistant priest for six years.
However, he was assisted by many catechists and extraordinary ministers of holy Communion.
“They are a special gift to St. Michael,” he said. “Without them, I would not be able to meet the parish’s needs.”
When he was the sole priest, it took him three months to visit all the churches.
“The people in the missions are so happy to see you,” Father Sylvestre said. “They want to keep you. They don’t want you to leave. On Sunday they wear their nicest clothing, to come to worship God.”
Haitian Catholics have great devotion to the Eucharist and deep faith in its power, he said. During Mass they often pray for food, medical care, jobs, justice, clothing, housing and money for school.
Attending Mass gives them hope, Father Sylvestre said, because they believe that God will “do something for them in the future.”
“(Although) they live in poverty, they hope tomorrow will be better,” he said. “They always say in Creole, ‘Bondye Bon.’ That means ‘God is good.’”
***
Here are some other highlights of Father Sylvestre’s talks at St. Mary Parish:
• Jesus identifies himself, in St. John’s Gospel, as the bread that gives life to the world. As members of the Body of Christ, all the faithful are called to be bread for each other, Father said.
• Shortly after the multiplication of loaves, Jesus said that he is the bread of life, the true bread that comes from heaven.
In that context, the word “bread” can mean anything that gives life: such as work, health, food, housing and clothing. “Indeed, ... by all his life, Jesus was really a bread for the people. He gave hope to them. He fed them. He cured them. He forgave them,” Father Sylvestre said. “By his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ is not only the true bread for people in the past, but for all human beings. All those who believe in him will have access to eternal life.”
• On Holy Thursday, using bread and wine, Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist, saying, “This is my body given up for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
“When we receive holy Communion, we become united to him,” Father Sylvestre said. “Each of us (takes on) the mission to become bread for each other — that is, to give life to each other as Jesus Christ did.”