This "persistent widow" built a school
It was on the Thursday of my first week on the job as the Newburgh City Assessor that I walked up Liberty Street looking for her. I stopped and knocked on front door of the little blue building where I was told I'd find her.
"Can I help you?" asked the woman who was shoveling snow away from the curb.
"Maybe . . . I'm looking for Sister Yliana Hernandez."
"Why?" she asked as she hurled another shovel full of snow into the street.
"Well, a friend of her's - Ada María Isasi-Díaz - told me to look her up."
"Ada did? . . . I'm Sister Yliana. . . How do you know Ada ?"
I explained that I was in seminary at Drew University and that Ada had taken several of us to Cuba the month before and that during one conversation Professor Isasi-Díaz had asked about my new job and told me of her friend in Newburgh, a fellow Cuban-American with whom she had worked in Peru. We chatted a bit about Ada, Cuba, Newburgh and other stuff before I headed back to work.
It wasn't long after that that Sr. Yliana stopped by the office with a question - "How do I get the City to sell me one if its buildings?" As it turned out, she had it on her heart to start a school for middle school-aged girls from low-income families and needed a building. I told her about the process and who to see and off she went.
Over the next year or two or maybe more, we'd run into one another at City Hall and her message was always the same - "I'm the persistent widow. The City is going to sell me that building." Then off she'd go in search of the City Manager or the mayor or whomever else she needed to badger to make her dream a reality.
In the meantime, Sr. Yliana and her board were putting everything in order, raising money and doing all the things one needs to do to start a school.
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Before . . .
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Finally, in December of 2006, three months after Nora Cronin Presentation Academy opened at an interim location, Sr. Yliana got her wish - her organization bought 69 Bay View Terrace from the City of Newburgh for $700. Five years and a huge sum of money later, the academy moved into its new
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home, a place of hope, a place where wonderful things happen, a place where all things are
possible. Click here to check it out. (And, click here to learn about the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the order to which Sr. Yliana belongs. They are remarkable women.)
The "persistent widow" to which Sr. Yliana referred can be found in next Sunday's gospel ready - Luke 18: 1-8. There you will find a parable about a judge who didn't care about anyone who was hounded by a widow demanding justice. The judge finally gave in just to get her off his back. After he told the parable, Jesus asked, "And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them."
I'm not sure what Jesus had in mind when he talked about timing. What I do know is that all struggles for justice require patience and persistence. All of us are called to do our part to build God's dream for all of God's children and keep at it until it becomes a reality.
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