As a young man, Fr. Nicholas
HARDING, was educated at one
of the world’s truly elite universities. He
studied at Harvard University, near Boston, working towards a Masters in Public
Health. His professors were some of the brightest minds in the field. He was
surrounded by magnificent buildings.
Today Fr. Nick is
receiving an even more valuable education in Tijuana, Mexico. He is being taught, not
by college professors,
but by laborers, sick people and children. He is surrounded by shacks and waste in the streets. And he wouldn’t have
it any other
way.
“At the university, things were going well
for me on the outside,” he said. “But inside, I felt stagnant, and in reading the Gospel, I knew something was going to have to
change.”
In May of 2011, the
change he longed for came to fruition when Fr. Nick professed final vows as a
Missionary Oblate. It was the culmination of a unique journey across the globe and in the soul.
Father Nick was born
in 1952 in West Virginia but his family moved frequently because of his father’s work. He
spent years living in Argentina, Switzerland and Belgium.
After university, he
spent seven years working in legal services, helping low-income people navigate the court system in Kentucky and Nebraska. While in Nebraska, he
became acquainted with the work of the
Missionary Oblates.
He entered the Oblate
novitiate in 1987. He then pursued theological studies in Rome. He left the Oblates to examine a
calling to monastic life. Eventually
he was ordained a diocesan priest in Houston,
Texas.
For nearly ten years, Fr. Nick worked in parish ministries in Houston and taught courses in spirituality at the local seminary. But he knew something was missing. He didn’t
have the same sense of community life and
missionary charism that he had experienced with the Oblates.
So in 2007, Fr. Nick
reentered the Oblates. He was assigned to the La Morita mission in Tijuana, Mexico. The
man who had traveled the world to find his calling had finally found a place to call
home.
La Morita is far removed from the hallowed halls of Harvard and the suburbs of Houston. It is a neighborhood of about 180,000 people. Homes are made of scrap wood and metal. A drug war has engulfed the region for the past several years, resulting in the murder of 1,000 local residents annually. The survivors live in constant fear for their safety.
In addition to caring
for the spiritual needs of the people of La Morita, the Oblates also help
provide healthcare for the poor. A medical clinic established by the Oblates at their main
parish is a lifeline for local residents.
Father Nick spends
much of his time in La Morita, traveling to the Oblates’ eight chapels, where they
celebrate Mass more than 20 times a week. The chapels are made of discarded building
materials. Leftover office chairs, tattered and speckled with paint, serve as
seating. Cracks between the plywood walls offer the only ventilation on hot days. The jagged gravel serves as both the church floor and as kneelers for the faithful.
As Fr. Nick celebrated
his profession of final vows, the Oblates and the people of La Morita were also celebrating
another special occasion -- the 150th anniversary of the death of the Oblate founder, St. Eugene de Mazenod.
The parallels between
the Oblate founder
and Fr. Nick are many. Both men came from successful families; both
received the finest education and both traded in the “good
life” in order to be a “good shepherd” to some of the world’s poorest
people. As St.
Eugene was dying, his final words to his
brother Oblates were: “Practice well among
yourselves charity, charity, charity and outside, zeal for the salvation of
souls.” (Oblate World Magazine, US
Province, October 2011)
