Beyond the Clouds by Fr. Jacob Nampudakam, S.A.C. | Page 33

the powers it possesses. God came to console them. In the midst of apparent
hopelessness and confusion, they found God’s hope. That is faith. It is the
experience of genuine poverty which makes us rich in faith.
On the other hand, then, those who boast of their riches, of their super
cultures, languages, cars and bank balances- all at the cost of humanity- are
the really poor and wretched. The problem lies not with these God-given gifts,
but with foolish arrogance and pride; the outcome of the illusions of greatness.
Certainly, we are not condemning those who are blessed with earthly
resources. How many magnanimous materially rich people exist in the world!
Those who use their resources to bless others, living by the words: to whom
much is given, much is expected. We are only speaking about the ones who live
in the illusion of earthly greatness.
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Christmas 2017, moreover, was celebrated in our Bolivian mission. Of all my
experiences, this is one of the most grueling places to live and work. No doubt,
people are nice and gracious. But the mountainous, slippery roads and living
conditions make one shudder.
It is worth mentioning one occurrence here. Five of us were traveling in a car
through the mountain roads, which were under construction at that time. As
the altitude became higher, the roads became more narrow and dangerous.
Often, we were blocked by the huge machines responsible for the construction.
After traveling about four hours on these perilous roads, we finally reached
the top. Relieved to see more plain terrain, we soon started off again. Sitting in
the front seat, I could see the car begin to sway. I told the driver to check the
air pressure of the wheels, but he assured all was in order.
Going further, we heard a loud noise from behind. To our terrible surprise, we
found that the nuts on one of our back wheels had come off, and the wheel was
almost at the point of detachment! It could have happened on the mountains
when we were turning left and right on the narrow path, but God protected us.
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