Good afternoon, fellow missionaries!
It’s been exactly ten years since my husband John and I met the founder of the Haitian organization, Hands Together. Quite honestly, I have an agenda. I’m sharing those first impressions today in hopes that you’ll consider supporting Fr. Tom and his extraordinary mission. But perhaps more importantly, follow his advice: “resolve to create a little bit of heaven now, today.” Continue reading to make sense of this nonsequitor.
“His voice boomed out into the church,. Awakening me from the torpor resulting from a seven-hour drive from that had begun at three AM.
“Good Afternoon, Fellow Missionaries!”
We were at the vigil Mass at St. Gall’s Church in Gardnerville, Nevada, where a priest we had never seen before was celebrating Mass. Fr. Tom Hagan, OFSC strode to the front of the church to celebrate Mass, joyfully, loudly and forcefully. After explaing that then Saint Gall pastor, Father Paul McCollum had invited him for a mission weekend, Father Tom began to speak.
His homily was long, maybe thirty minutes or more. But I was mesmerized. Despite my fatigue, Fr. Hagan woke me up. Today, I cannot get him or his organization out of my mind, out of my heart. He is still waking me up. Father Hagan reminds all of us that we are each called to a mission uniquely our own. If we ignore that quiet voice that challenges us, urges us to take that risk, follow that path which looks impossible, there will be no one to walk it.
Good afternoon, fellow missionaries!
How it happened
Father Tom Hagan was the Chaplain for Princeton University, Chaplain for Life. He explains that he lived comfortably among some of the wealthiest and best educated of the world. Until he took a group of Lafayette college students to Haiti. That comfortable world blew up when he listened to that quiet voice and decided to do something. Hands Together was founded when Fr. Hagan left his post at Princeton and moved to Port-Au-Prince in 1997.
He comes to churches like St. Gall’s in Gardnerville, Nevada, for several reasons. Primarily, to beg, the word he uses, for help for a three mile ‘city’ in Haiti where he lives along with more than half a million Haitians. The United Nations has called Cite Solei the most dangerous place on earth where anarchy and savage poverty rules and is home to Father Tom Hagan. During his appeal, Fr. Tom’s words are stark and graphic.
We shift uncomfortably in our pews, our well-fed bodies ill at ease with the fact that fifty-percent of all children born in Father Tom’s ‘parish’ of 500, 000 will die of starvation before the age of five.
Or at hearing about the orange hair and distended bellies that signify severe malnutrition.
And at his flat statements about prying the dead bodies of infants from the hands of despairing, unbelieving mothers.
The main-surprising- themes of his talk
boiled down to these six points:
- Yes! We need your help desperately and if you can, send money
- But more than that, please do this for me, for yourselves and for the world,
- Resolve today to create a ‘little bit of heaven’ right where you are by
- Being a better more loving wife, husband, mother,
- And pray as hard as you possibly can asking Jesus, ‘what is it you are asking of me, today?’
- Understand that we are all called to be missionaries in the place where each of is, now.
It is astonishing and humbling to consider men like this one. So obviously called for something huge, impossible and massively dangerous. Last night, on the way home from Mass, I was filled with the image of Fr. Tom’s face when I shook his hand and he took it with a plea: “Please pray for me,” exhaustion, sorrow and pain written all over his face. What a privilege it is to know there are men like him in this sad and broken world; what a privilege it is to want to help.”
Reading Father Hagan’s ten-year-old words matter. I am reminded me that if I choose, I can make my not huge tasks- doing dishes, cleaning the house, holy. But I must collect myself, keep myself in His Presence, only then can I sanctify the mess.
Message From Fr. Tom Hagan – Founder
Many years have passed since my first trip to Haiti in 1985. It’s with warm fondness and lasting satisfaction that I remember the handful of enthusiastic young students who organized efforts to help two dozen people suffering from leprosy in Gonaives, Haiti. I thank God for the wonderful, caring people that joined me in doing something for this great world of ours – joining “hands together” and discovering the joy that comes from helping others.
Much has been accomplished since our incorporation in 1989 and I am extremely proud of all the dedicated people who have participated in Hands Together’s efforts to build a more compassionate and human world. There seems to be an urgency now more than ever to offer challenges and give meaning to our young people’s lives. We must be willing to teach that we are all linked together; our only lasting bond is the bond of love. We must be willing to join hands with the poorest of the poor and work together to overcome all kinds of bigotry and hatred. Our spirit should be one of continual joy and optimism – knowing that we are indeed loved by God and through grace and prayer we are drawing closer to him as time passes. In the words of the prophet Micah we are required “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
