Ryan Greenberg

You’re not going to believe this one. Caitlin and I went to Mass this morning at Santa Ana, one of the nearby churches. While we were waiting for Mass to start, a lady approached us and asked ¿Puede leer la segunda lectura? (“Can you read the second reading?”) I said that I could. As she walked away, I nervously began to practice pronouncing all the words in the reading. Fortunately, Caitlin was very supportive. “Don’t worry—if you make a mistake, we don’t ever have to come back to this church again.” More fortunately still, I only had to pronounce the words, not understand them.

And so, as if I didn’t stick out enough as a six-foot-tall gringo, I became the six-foot-tall gringo who read the second reading very slowly and with an American accent. I told my Bolivian family later that night, lo leí, pero no lo entendí (“I read it, but I didn’t understand it”). If you’re interested in what I read, here it is:

Lectura de la carte del Apóstol san Pablo a los Romanos (13:8-10)

Hermanos: Que la única deuda con los démas sea la del amor de unos con otros; el que ama a su prójimo ya cumplió toda la Ley. Porque los mandamientos: No cometerás adulterio, no matarás, no robarás, no codiciará y cualquier otro precepto, se resumen en éste: Amarás a tu prójimo como a ti mismo. El amor no hace mal al prójimo. Por lo tanto, el amor es la plenitud de la Ley.

Palabra de Dios.