A morning prayer: Take courage
Recently, I was in St. Louis to visit my mom, and one of the stories dominating the local news concerned Glendy Gonzalez del la Cruz and her three daughters. Glendy’s husband, Nixon, was deported by immigration authorities in April 2025. Glendy remained in the St. Louis area, working two jobs while waiting for the immigration court to grant her claim of asylum. She and her husband had arrived in St. Louis a few years ago to escape the violence they had experienced in Guatemala. But with mounting financial pressures and fearful she may be deported and separated from her daughters, Glendy decided to self-deport and return to Guatemala with her daughters, ages 1, 5, and 11, to be reunited with her husband.
A few weeks after Glendy returned to Guatemala, Glendy and Nixon were found bound, gagged, and executed in a sugarcane field. Their 1-year-old daughter, Giovanni, a U.S. citizen born in St. Louis, was found crying beside their bodies. One of the men attending the memorial service held in a suburb of St. Louis is a carpenter who knew and worked with Nixon before he was deported. “My kid is the same age as Giovanni,” he said. “I keep thinking about what it would be like to be bound and shot next to my 16-month-old kid. It didn’t have to happen.”
There is much to be afraid of these days. The world is on fire, not only with global warming but with rage and fury and hateful rhetoric to rain down fire upon enemies. The fire of anger is stoked by the divisions that exist in our world today. In such a climate of polarization, anger, the threat of violence, and fear, people of faith, and especially people committed to living Precious Blood spirituality, are called to stand in the gaps. It is a difficult and dangerous place to be, which is why our morning prayer might be: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
These are the words Jesus said to his fearful friends when their boat was rocked by a raging storm. The wind was against the disciples because Jesus stayed behind to pray in silence to finally mourn the death of his beloved cousin John, after the feeding of the multitude had interrupted his grieving. I am often drawn to this gospel because Jesus comes to the disciples “during the fourth watch of the night,” and says, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Violence continues to plague so many people around the world. Immigrant families like Glendy and Nixon continue to be caught in the middle of political posturing, leading to unspeakable tragedy and three young girls without a mother and father. Each day, new threats seem to rise to threaten our democracy, freedom, and basic human rights. So, the words of Jesus to his disciples caught in the storm at sea are timely and must become our mantra: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Courage, Nelson Mandela said, “is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” Jesus never says we won’t have fears, but insists we not BE our fear. For when we become our fear, we build walls, we arrest strangers instead of welcoming them, we keep our distance. Courage is the willingness to act even with our fears. Whether it is standing up to speak truth to power by challenging lies, wrestling with persistent grief or chronic illness or a grievance or grudge we can’t let go of, or a loss that breaks our heart, courage is a daily choice we all face.
We don’t need to walk on water as Peter tried to do until fear got the best of him. But we do need to stand in the gaps that seem to grow wider every day. So, each morning, take a deep breath and whisper, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Fr. Joe Nassal, C.PP.S.