A short reflection on missionary life

“The Church that ‘Goes Forth”, is Pope Francis’ challenge  on the Call to “Missionary Discipleship” (EG.21)

            As I look  at the situation of the world that is becoming more and more secularized, it made me wonder what could the Church do to make itself relevant? How can it continue its mission to bring people to the right path?  I, as a religious and  missionary, what is my role in the Church’s mission to this ever changing world? What could be my contribution to this mission that Pope Francis calls: “the Church that goes forth”?   

            Perfectae Caritatis 2,c states:   “All institutes should share in the life of the Church, adapting as their own (…) the Church’s undertakings (…)” . Our Constitutions highly emphasized the Congregation’s collaboration to the Church’s mission:  “Opening to the times, also “ad gentes” in collaboration with the local Church”  (intro of n. 2).  The vitality of our Congregation’s Charism can give rise to new choices (…)  it is therefore possible that some sisters (…)could be occupied in activities that are not explicitly indicated by the Constitutions but are in conformity with the end of our Congregation (n.6).  

            The more I read the Church’s documents as well as the Pope’s exhortations on the role of religious life in the church of the modern world, the more I ask myself: “how is my missionary spirit manifested in what I am and in what I am doing?” The more I look around me, the more my missionary identity as an Ursuline Missionary of the Sacred Heart  is in question. Does what I do, which I considered “apostolate” and what  am I as a religious,  answer to the need of the Church of today? Our Constitutions say that, we need is to adapt ourselves to the signs of the times. Indeed this is what the Church encourages us at this moment. Pope Francis encourages the religious to “wake up the world!” but I suppose before we can wake  up the world,  we, ourselves, need to wake up from our “sleep”  too, which means that we need to wake up from the life that we are used to, where we feel more comfortable with, because that kind of life may no longer be relevant to this modern world. When we are able to do it, it is only then that we are able to wake up the world. “Immobilism is not suitable for Christian witness and the mission of the Church” (Angelus 2 Feb, 2020) and Pope Francis continues:  “when the Church does not go out, she becomes sick with many evils” (Angelus sept 20, 2020) of any kind.  

            The Church that “goes forth” , as Pope Francis puts it, needs a new missionary face and a new missionary spirit. He continues to challenge us to take part in this new missionary discipleship : “to go forth” ,  to obey God’s call  to go out from our own comfort zones in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel. (EG 20) We are “called to go out to the various types of ‘boundaries’ and offer everyone the word of salvation that Jesus came to bring (EG 24)”.  To make this concrete in our daily life is never easy.

            Iam gratefully thanking God for having given me the possibility “to go out”- first of all, to go out from my country in order to experience another reality of the Church different from what I used to; to go out from my religious community in order to experience what the people experience outside the four corners of our religious convents; to go out and to meet those in the different peripheries of life.

            In the Parish where I am sent to, I may never have done anything exceptional and spectacular that might make me great in the eyes of people. In fact some would say that here, I am doing nothing because we no longer have our school in Corpus Domini. On my part, it might be true that I might not have done anything extraordinary, because I just do what the situation calls me to do, be it big or small but it is exactly in it’s “smallness and ordinariness” that I found out that as long as i put love on those small and ordinary things that i do, they become great and extraordinary in the eyes of faith, and most of all, because it brings me  joy deep within. For this reason, I never considered what i am  doing as “nothing” because what matters more to me, are their effects, first of all, on the people that I come in contact with, and  secondly, their  effects on me as a Christian. I repeat I am ever grateful to God for this missionary experience completely different from what I used to.

            Encountering different people coming from different walks of life is an enriching experience. Living in canonica of the Parish with refugees neighbors coming from another part of the world and also having as neighbor the big family with an amazing  mission in the Church,  living as if we were one family, sharing everything that we have like,  our  food, our presence, our  help when needed and when we can,  is a greater treasure that one could ever have. Bringing Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to those who are sick and old and are not able to go to Church and yet still wish to get connected to Him, is a greater privilege that one could ever have. Going to the houses and visit the old people who, oftentimes, alone and lonely, listening to their lamentations and sad stories while giving them words of encouragements and consolation, are simple things we do but they could be an unforgettable event in their lives. There were those, on the other hand, who, despite of their lonely situations in life, are still able to see the positive aspect of it and share with us its wisdom. Their smiles and their simple gestures in accepting life as it is, is what made me realize that in life there is little room for complaints. This kind of apostolate is never small. The impact of our presence on them and theirs on us, makes the difference. Going to the different families with the Parish Priest for the blessing of their houses, is a good experience because there I met the different situations that I may not have known if I did not go out from where I was. Helping in the distribution of food to the poor people in “Caritas” is another uplifting experience. They may be poor but encountering them and speaking to them while giving food, makes me come face to face with my own poverty in many aspects. During lock down, when everybody closed themselves in their houses for security, I was out helping  2 old people to be of service to them in their health needs. There was the feeling of fear because of the pandemic but it feels great upon knowing that despite of fear, i was able to serve them with my little gesture. Animating the liturgies to help people enter into prayer is a real experience of belonging to a community, where members work together to reach the one purpose: to journey together towards Him.

            All these experiences I owe so much to the Lord as well as to the people that I encountered and to those who collaborated to make all these things happened. As I reflect on my life as a missionary, with all the things that I did for our brothers and sisters, be it big or small, together with the people in the Parish, I would say that for me, they are all extraordinary experiences not because they are exceptionally great works, but because of  the great impact they have on me, as a Christian, a religious and a missionary.

            I believe that the experiences mentioned above, is a kind of answer to what Pope Francis is encouraging us : “to go out” and search for those who are lost and bring Jesus to them. Encountering people in their own “peripheries” and stay with them where they are, is also encountering Jesus in them. This simple encounter might bring great impact of faith on us  without them knowing it.  I remember 2 experiences of great faith, expressed by  two simple children belonging to two different families in this Parish. On one Christmas season, the whole family arrived while the mass was going on. They usually sit at the front pews of the Church. While they were proceeding to their usual place, the 5-year-old girl noticed the crib that the children of kindergarten made. She was fascinated by the beauty of the scene accompanied by the blinking lights, that she prostrated on her knees while saying: “My God!” I heard it because I was next to her when she said it. While in another ocasion outside christmas season, an experience of faith was expressed by a younger brother of a little boy who, after the mass,  usually asked a non consecrated host because he said that when he grows up he wants to become a priest. His younger brother is around 3 or 4 years old. With all the confusions of people after the mass, I knew that the father of the little boy was searching for his little brother. To my surprise, I saw him finding his little one in front of the Tabernacle kneeling in the midst of confusion. These are the happenings that could not be expected of the children of the present time but thank God for the beautiful families who have never forgotten their mission towards their children. Indeed God uses many people, even children, to remind us of him. Those experiences have amazing effect on me that would remain forever.  Anyone can become agent of evangelization. Clergy and religious could be the obeject of Evangelization done by simple people because a distinctive feature of being missionary, according to Pope Francis, is that of acting as facilitators, and not as controllers of the faith.

            At the end of this reflection, I  feel like thanking the first group of  Ursuline sisters who came to the Philippines, Sr. Clara Bruno, Sr Anna Maria Mazzuchi and Sr. Pia Rosas,  whose missionary zeal was great  that inspired me to discover my own vocation. While this article reaches to Sr. Pia, I believe that in heaven, Sr. Clara and Sr Anna Maria, are smiling and happy as they thank God for using them as his instruments to inspire many in their missionary zeal.  

Sr. Ninfa Montano, OMSC