Faith in Haiti

Cnn.com has a home-page article headlined, “Many Haitians’ religious faith unshaken by earthquake.” It’s really quite an interesting read. A snippet:

“A lot of people who never prayed or believed — now they believe,” said Cristina Bailey, a 24-year-old clerk.

In parks and backyards, anywhere a group gathers, the prayers of the Haitians can be heard. Last week, the call-and-response chanting and clapping that accompany those prayers pierced the darkness of night and the pre-dawn hours — sometimes as early as 4 a.m. The singing and praying was particularly intense in Champs de Mars plaza, where hundreds of people have taken refuge. But the scene was repeated throughout the city, with preachers on megaphones exhorting the faithful, who responded with lyrics like “O Lord, keep me close to you” and “Forgive me, Jesus.”

Many preachers are telling followers not to lose faith, that God remains with them regardless of what’s happened.

Most Haitians don’t feel abandoned, Bailey said.

“People don’t blame Jesus for all these things,” she said. “They have faith. They believe that Jesus saved them and are thankful for that.”

erhaps few personified that deep belief better than 11-year-old Anaika Saint Louis, who was pulled from the rubble Thursday night and later died. Her leg had been crushed, and doctors thought they might have to amputate her feet. She said she didn’t care.

“Thank you, God, because he saved my life,” she said. “If I lose my feet, I always had my life.”

Jean Mackenle Verpre also suffered a crushing leg injury and was freed after 48 hours underground.

Asked what kept him going, he answered without hesitation: He believes in Jesus Christ and put his life in God’s hands.

I’ll be the first to say that I find this surprising, and that I don’t really understand it. Though I do share the same faith (Christianity, specifically Catholic Christianity) as 80% of the Haitian people, mine is a faith that has never been tested by adversity. I always thought that perhaps the worst thing I could say to someone who has experienced a tragedy is, “Don’t worry, it’s all part of God’s plan.” The apostle of New Atheism, Christopher Hitchens, always says that the death of a single child should cause us to doubt the existence of a benevolent deity, and I cannot deny the emotional strength of that argument even as I reject it intellectually. Let’s be realistic: intellectual arguments don’t help someone who has lost their family in an earthquake. The last thing that a suffering person needs is a theological lecture on how their suffering is really the door to glory, no matter how true that may be.

Or so I thought. It appears that for many Haitians, their Christianity has given some sort of meaning to their suffering, and provided them a strength upon which those of us who will never experience what they went through can only look in awe. It’s not something that I understand. All that I can conclude, from my perspective as an American Catholic, is that the priest who led Adoration in Caldwell Chapel last Wednesday was correct. In his homily, he said that “Jesus Christ is as present among the ruins of Haiti as He is in the Blessed Sacrament upon the altar.” In some mysterious, incomprehensible way, the people of Haiti seem to have felt that presence.

So, for those who survived, may God continue to give them strength as they prepare their dead for burial and begin to rebuild their country, and may He inspire us to provide them the support that they need. And for those who died:

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

“May angels lead you into Paradise; upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the ranks of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, the poor man, may you have eternal rest.”