"Why would I want to go to the U.S.?  You try to kill people like me up there."  A vendor at the pyramids of Teotihuacan, Mexico caught our entire group off guard with these words.  He spoke the truth of how people from Mexico view the United States of America.

     During our 9 days in Mexico, we met many people in great suffering.  One family had 21 children, 2 of which have died, the mother with cancer.  They have no electricity, no sewage system and no clean drinking water.  In another family, a young 14-yeard old girl fell out of bed when she was 7 months old.  She cannot walk or move, and cannot communicate with her family – which can't make enough money to buy an electric wheelchair for her.  These circumstances and government corruption force many to head North (where the wages are 7 times that in Mexico).

     With so many people coming North, why would we head South?  To learn about simplicity, hospitality and life.  I have never seen such generosity of spirit nor received such hospitality.  They welcomed us into their lives.  Their openness made me realize how poor I am in some ways and how we need each other.  They need us to share our wealthy abundance and we need them to share their faith and spirit of life.

     Pope John Paul II has challenged us to this mutual sharing.  He has called us "America", from Canada to Chile.  The Pope’s revolutionary idea asks us to rethink "ours and theirs" and to question the many borders standing between the people of America. After visiting, I see that we can only be enriched in this process.  I pray that one day we learn to greet each other with Jesus’ words to his disciples after his Resurrection, "Peace be with you."