Father Jacob Dumont, LC, carries out his pastoral work in Louisiana (USA), and recently shared some of his experiences during the Holy Week evangelization mission in Haiti. The present text is a translation published on our portal in English under the title “Seeing the Face of Christ this Holy Week“.
This year, during Holy Week, I had the opportunity to return to Haiti for the second time in Port-au-Prince. I went with 20 other missionaries, many of whom are from Louisiana, where I currently carry out my pastoral work. These missions are organized by Juventud Misionera, one of the apostolates of Regnum Christi dedicated to serving the most needy.
On Palm Sunday, we joined the Missionaries of Charity and hundreds of locals for Mass in their own language. Afterwards, we began the mission at the orphanage run by the Missionaries of Charity. We helped feed the children and spent quality time with the babies at the orphanage. We also organized some games for the older children. We repeated this each day of Holy Week. It was hard not to see God’s hand during these days, opening our eyes to see Him in every person we encountered. I vividly remember a moment when I had to carry a baby, and his eyes looked at me with tenderness, a gaze that reached into my soul. How could we not see Christ in those looks! It was an invitation to generosity—to give more of ourselves and to share His love with others.
On Wednesday, we visited the house of the dying, which is also run by the Missionaries of Charity. Here, the missionaries spent time playing board games with many of the patients, and also talked with the women and children present. Everyone was very grateful for our visit; however, we realized that those of us who were most grateful were ourselves, for this experience where we received more than we could give.
On Holy Thursday, we traveled to the Church of the Immaculate Conception outside Port-au-Prince to help with manual remodeling work on the church, as well as organize activities for the children there. That afternoon, we celebrated Mass with them. The next day, we woke up very early to pray the Stations of the Cross with the locals. We walked between 6 and 8 kilometers, reflecting and praying the stations of the Cross. Before we knew it, we had been walking for 3 hours… accompanied by many people from the town, including young people, the elderly, and some children. I remember a woman about 90 years old who tried to kneel at each station to pay homage to the Lord, regardless of the heat or her body pains. She gave us all a great testimony of faith!
Going on Holy Week missions to Haiti opened our eyes to find the suffering and thirsty Christ. And His thirst is not material but for encounter, for closeness. I felt that during the mission I helped to quench that thirst a little, not by what I did, but by what I allowed Him to do through me. He let me see His face, and I let Him show me His mercy.
