In Ngöbe mythology, Mögatda is a sea serpent who enters the river from the sea. As a small creature he goes up the river unnoticed, and spends years or perhaps hundreds of year under the mountains growing larger and larger. The hot springs flowing from the hillside give testament to the creature inside. The frequent landslides give caution that the creature is now much too large for his subterranean dwelling.

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One day, when no expects it, Mögatda leaves his hiding and heads back to the sea. Now with seven heads and much too big for the river, his tail knocks down trees, water floods the banks and wipes out whole villages. Music from traditional flutes and other instruments can be heard as he makes his ferocious dash for the sea.

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On September 3, 2008, as the sun was setting, Mögatda came down the Fonseca River where we serve as the Soloy Catholic Mission in a way even the elders have never seen or heard. Huge trees from the high mountain forest came down river, wiping out villages and crops.

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Plinio, a young Ngöbe man who always helps Fr. Charlie in guiding the missionaries through the mountains, quickly looked for higher ground with his family. But like most, the only alternative was to climb trees with children in tow. Plinio left his safe spot in the tree when her heard the screams of young girls in a nearby hut, and quickly saved a women and child as the waters continued to rise. He waded through the water once again, returning to the hut in search of the last little girl. But as he left the hut – with the girl in one arm and a pig in the other – the force of Mögatda was too strong. Plinio and the girl in his arms were among the six that died that night.

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When we gathered for mass a few days later – three bodies had been found and three were still missing. The government had stopped looking, so the men from the villages took up the search. After mass, which we celebrated under a tree, as the chapel was too small, we invited people to speak to the large group gathered for the quasi-funeral. The words of the Ngöbe in this moment manifest there immense struggle to survive, and their deep faith in God’s loving hand. They spoke of the humble bravery of the men searching the dangerous river for the remaining bodies. They spoke of the need to help the families who lost the little they had, rebuilding homes, planting crops. More than anything they encouraged one another to have faith in the love of God for the deceased and the now homeless.

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Two days later, we stood on the river bank along with the last body, a four year old girl; her mother and grandmother were also among the deceased. I looked around at the many Ngöbe gathered in silence, waiting for several hours for the government’s OK to take the body to the chapel. In the midst of this, I couldn’t help but think of the wisdom of Vincent in encouraging his missionaries to open their lives and hearts and find Christ present among the poor. Standing for hours on the river bank beside a water-bloated body of a four year old, who now laid in a grain sack, I knew that following Christ evangelizing the poor is the greatest gift and greatest challenge we face. The experience of Christ in the most desperate circumstances is overwhelming, indescribable, yet “swells up” from the experience of the poor.

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“And (Christ) himself wished to be born poor, to receive the poor in his company, to serve them, to put himself in their place, and even to say that the good and harm that we do to them he would consider to have been done to his person”

Vincent de Paul

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When Vincent said that “love is creative even to infinity” he was not speaking of the need for creativity in serving the poor, although that is surely a good thing. He was speaking, rather, of the creating and loving God who broke into human history as a poor child to a young mother of an enslaved people. Vincent was speaking of how when Christ deeply desired to be present to his disciples in a concrete way, he unexpectedly left for them his very presence in simple bread and common wine.

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I think Vincent knew that God, in all his abundant creative love, enters our story in ways we often fail to see. I believe Vincent understood this most in his accepting the way Christ is present in a special way among the poor. In sending his missionaries to the margins of society and the forgotten corners for the world – he was inviting them to accept the gift of God once again breaking into our story, our journey, in the humblest of ways – through the lives of those who God loves most.

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I come to realize more each day the privilege it is to journey amongst the Ngöbe as a Vincentian, share their joys and celebrate their culture, as well as witness their unshaken faith and commitment to each other in the most horrific of circumstances.

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As we continue our plan of renewal as a Province, I thank God for our vocation in following his Son accompanying the poor; I thank Vincent for the simple and rich heritage that continues to be our guiding light today; and I thank the poor, the Plinio’s in the life of each of us, who allow us the privilege to walk with them and experience Christ among them.