August 2, 2010

The words of today’s [August 2, 2010] Responsorial Psalm: ‘Teach me your laws, O Lord ...’ move me to ask the question; what ways? What I am I learn? The law Jesus is teaching, in his compassion for the tired and the hungry, is that God is love. It is out of love that Jesus came to us, sent by the Father.

The multiplication of the loaves has always been seen as more than a hint about the Eucharist and about Jesus giving himself for the life of the world. It is the only miracle of Jesus that is recorded in all four gospels. There are so many possible explanations why He did what He did. I think of the many deceased who have gone to heaven, who know the real reason. There is an enormous crowd there, listening to Jesus. We can only wonder what it must have been like being there by the lake listening to the Son of God for hours. Once I heard a homily that claimed what really happened is that the bystanders took out food they were hiding under their cloaks and shared it. Jesus’ preaching inspired the melting of selfishness, and this was the true miracle according to this homilist.

This was a needy crowd. They could not feed themselves or each other. They could not heal themselves or each other. Jesus was moved with pity and was ready to provide them all that they needed. The apostles wanted to send them away to fend for themselves. And this hits upon the grain of truth contained in the interpretation I just mentioned. Though this story is about truly supernatural, miraculous action, it is not about God creating something out of nothing. He says to the apostles “you give them something to eat yourselves.” He had to be joking, they must have thought to themselves. They had nothing, or almost nothing. Just five loaves and two fish–scarcely enough to serve as an appetizer for themselves, never mind the crowd. But the apostles sheepishly complied when Jesus ordered that they surrender their scanty food supply. He blessed this meager offering and the miracle happened. It was not only enough, but after thousands had eaten their fill, there was more left over than what they’d started with in the first place.

What would I have done? It never ceases to amaze me at how much energy I put into making excuses. All I am called to do is to just evangelize through good example and obedience.

‘Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us on the road?’ the gospel says in a post resurrection experience. Jesus does not withdraw his love and hospitality from people he knows will desert him in his hour of need. Now that brings me great consolation!

Speaking of food. Hurricane Alex caused widespread and extensive damage to both Nuevo Leon and to Tamaulipas. The people of Yucatan have always been able to be counted on in case of emergency. Just yesterday, 16 tons of food, water and supplies collected at Siglo XXI, arrived in Nuevo Leon. While we are all very proud of Yucatan’s relief effort, we know that the hunger and thirst go on when the eye of the news camera goes away.

The Latest On Human Migration Statistics recently released here in the Yucatan:

Net Migration Numbers From: National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI)

• 2nd Trimester 2006 and Second Quarter 2006
• Emigration 14.6 per thousand inhabitants, Immigration 3.4 per thousand inhabitants
• Net Migration: negative 11.2 per thousand inhabitants
• 4th Quarter 2009
• Emigration 5 per thousand inhabitants, immigration 3.3 per thousand inhabitants
• Net Migration: negative 1.7 per thousand inhabitants
• 1st Trimester 2010
• Emigration: 3.8 per thousand inhabitants, immigration 3.4 per thousand inhabitants
• Net Migration: negative 0.4 per thousand inhabitants

Mexicans choosing to head north of the border continue to be, in large part, from the states of Michoacan, Zacatecas and Guanajuato and net migration has remained fairly constant from the 4th quarter of 2008 until the present day. This represents a reversal of the previous trend, and a large drop from the numbers in the years before 2008.

iPad Comes to Mexico. Apple rolled out the iPad to ten more countries and one of those was Mexico. The iPad became available here on July 23. According to Apple, the iPad has so far sold more than 3 million units. And the place to buy them here? There’s a new store in the Alta Brisa shopping mall… an authorized Apple dealer, apparently owned by Carlos Slim who is a Mexican businessman, philanthropist and the chairman and CEO of Telmex, Telcel and América Móvil. As of April 2010, he is the wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of around US$60.6 billion. His sons Carlos, Marco Antonio and Patrick Slim Domit run the day-to-day operations of Telmex, Telcel, and América Móvil. I am pretty sure they’ll be carrying the iPad there.

Ordination of Transitional Deacons. On Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 7:30 pm, in the Cathedral of the Archdiocse of the Yucatan, Archbishop Emilio Carlos Berlie Belaunzarán, will confer the Order Deacon on Edwin Pereira Beltran, Carlos Zi Caamal Ismael, Mario Alberto Fermín Cervera Ancona and Rigoberto Chi Nah.