In 1680, times were hard in New Mexico. There had been nearly a decade of poor crops due to a climate change that saw the usual small amount of rainfall dry up and the flow of the Rio Grande cease.  But throughout these bad times, the colonial government in New Mexico continued to try to meet the undiminished demands of distant overlords for taxes. The Spanish arrival in 1598 had brought not only the Franciscans with Catholicism but had also imposed a new form of central government on peoples who for hundreds of years had acknowledged no governmental authority beyond their own village. The result was a disaster all the way around.​

On August 10th, 1680, Pueblo Indians revolted against Spanish rule.  Twenty-one of the thirty-three Franciscan friars in the colony were killed, along with many others on both sides. Don Antonio de Otermín, the colonial governor, fled to El Paso del Norte with the remaining Spanish colonists, Piro and other Pueblo Indians who chose to go with the Spanish rather than join the Revolt, and the remaining friars.  Twelve years later, Spanish settlers and some friars returned to northern New Mexico to reestablish the colony, this time with a much different attitude toward all things Native American.  From the return of the Spanish, Pueblos and Spanish fought together against raiders who attempted to “gather” their crops and livestock. Native dances became part of the Catholic saints’ day celebration in every Pueblo. Things were different in New Mexico.

But some of the Pueblo Indians from northern New Mexico did not return.  They stayed just south of the Rio Grande in a new village of Socorro, wherein 1691 they built their first Mission Purisima Concepcion, the home of the pictured statue of San Antonio de Padua with the Christ Child and a Hungry Man. That original mission was destroyed in a great flood of the Rio Grande in 1829; a flood that also changed the course of the Rio Grande from north of Socorro to south of the village.  In 1848, eight years after the current Mission was completed, when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande as the border between Mexico and the United States, Socorro ended up in Texas, rather than Mexico. The border indeed crossed the people.  Franciscans continued to serve the Mission without interruption until the 1850s, and they returned for a brief time a few years ago when our own Joe Nelson was part of an interprovincial Franciscan effort there at the Mission.

I do not know the origin or the age of this statue of San Antonio, the Christ Child, and the Hungry Man, but it has a lot to say to us.  First, the placement of the statue in the Socorro Mission is a reminder of the deep connection of Franciscans and the people of the Southwest, on both sides of the border, which goes back hundreds of years. Second, the very existence of this Mission is a reminder that the migration of peoples is nothing new, and that unfortunately, that migration is too often caused by economic hardship, brought on in the 1670s by climate change, and that economic hardship, in turn, led to violence. But the statue also says in a powerful way, that the place of a Franciscan friar is to be present, to share the bounty that Christ has to offer with the hungry. That bounty is truly life-sustaining Bread.

As we enter into reflection about a border ministry for friars of the Province, we must admit that we will not have all of the answers and that indeed we may also be crossed and double-crossed in our efforts by demands of distant governmental powers which make no sense to us, by economic, environmental and other factors far beyond our control. But when we look into our tradition as followers of Francis of Assisi, we can have faith that somehow, in the midst of chaos, stress, struggles, and strains, God is ALWAYS present, and we must help make that Presence known.