Bangladesh
Between being missionaries and doing missionaries, there is a big difference.
In doing missionaries, the emphasis is placed on action, on doing, on building, on organizing projects, opening schools, etc. All praiseworthy things for a missionary commitment.
But a question arises: am I on mission for the people or with the people?
Doing mission for the people or with the people
Between the “for” and the “with”, I notice this peculiarity: if I do FOR the people, then I am the protagonist, the one who conceives the project, provides the money, and accomplishes everything. The others are not subjects; they remain spectators.
Instead, if I start something WITH the people, then the perspective changes: here I am not the protagonist, but together we listen to each other, discuss the proposal (which can be accepted or, if people are not convinced, stays on standby), examine the possibilities, and build the project together.
Therefore, in this case, it is a community that, united together, seeks to accomplish something beautiful for everyone.
Obviously, we must respect people’s timing and pace.
So, being missionaries means listening to others, sharing their time and meeting spaces. It is bearing witness to being disciples of Christ who, in gratuitousness and simplicity, witness to the love of God.
For all of us in Bangladesh, this is a great daily challenge, where the tendency is to focus on doing rather than on being.
The temptation of the ego and the true model of Christ
Being missionaries does not make us feel at the center, where the ego prevails: I built the church, I built the school, I built the hospital, etc.
I remember that during my novitiate year, a father came to share his mission experience in Congo with us. But in his speech, sentences like this surfaced: I did this, I built that, I accomplished the hospital… there was this “I” emerging in an overwhelming way. At the end of his presentation, I asked him a question: «Father, but did you go on a mission to be an engineer or a missionary?».
I will not tell you the words he said to me, but he became furious, and I left the room.
It was just to say that the mission is not ME; the mission is Christ who, with immense humility, sat on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, talked with the people, and healed the sick.
By letting one’s own “I” prevail, there is a great risk of establishing one’s own kingdom where I am king and master. Woe to anyone who attempts to enter or bring changes.
Focusing on being helps us step back, where I am not a manager but a brother among brothers who wish to bear witness to the name of Jesus together.
Photo by Father Giovanni Gargano
