THE GLOBE
PO BOX 5079 (51102)
1825 JACKSON ST.
SIOUX CITY, IA (51105)
712.255.2550
800.352.9035
WWW.CATHOLICGLOBE.ORG

Passion for missions starts in youth

By Rev. Thomas Flanagan, Ed.D.
Guest commentary

As a child growing up on the farm near Rock Rapids my family used to receive the Maryknoll Mission Magazine in the mail. I remember paging through that small magazine, looking at the pictures more than reading the articles, and day-dreaming about what it would be like to be a missionary in some far-off country. I was intrigued by the cultures, the people, the life and the work one might encounter in those places. And even in my younger days I always felt compassion for the poor and for the people I saw in the pictures.

My passion for the missions has been with me for a long time! I had the opportunity to realize those childhood daydreams when I joined a group of about 15 priests here in the Sioux City Diocese who belong to the Secular Institute of Diocesan Priests in the Opus Spiritus Sancti (abbreviated OSS and meaning, Work of the Holy Spirit). That is one community of five that belongs to the OSS, a federation of international, missionary communities.

My association with that community led me to an international leadership position with the OSS and to missionary work in countries of Africa, in India, the Philippines, Germany and here in the USA, where members of these communities are located. I enjoyed doing that missionary work for fifteen years and then returned to the Sioux City Diocese in July 2009.

Now that I am back here I find a great contrast between the richness of our country and its people compared with many of the places and people I visited elsewhere. Poverty, of course, is a relative concept that is measured in relationship to those around me. If I sense that my income is less than those who live nearby, or my property is of less value than theirs, then I might consider myself to be poor in relationship to others. The same holds true if we transfer that idea to a country in the developing world. There, however, the basic income is much lower. People in some countries earn a mere dollar or two a day for at least eight hours work. It is true that the buying power of a dollar for some products in those countries is often greater than the buying power of a dollar in our own.

Still, even in what we would consider countries with very poor economic conditions, there is a range of richer and poorer. I remember, for example, visiting our community group in a remote village in Malawi, Central Africa. While I was at Tsangano I was told about one of the lay community members who had recently been murdered by thieves. He left behind his wife and eight young children. While I was walking across the parish grounds the widow, Mrs. Nyaka, came toward me. She fell on her knees in the dirt in front of me and begged me to help her find a way to pay school fees for her two oldest children, a boy Elias and a girl Alimfe. I felt very humbled, not by the request itself, but by the way it was delivered, an expression of such desperate desire of a mother to give her children an education and help them out of the cycle of poverty.

While the people of that Malawian village were all poor in material things, I found them to be rich in faith. One of the Sunday Masses I attended there was scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. Shortly after 7:00 the first people were starting to gather outside the church. They sat on the steps or under the trees, taking time to socialize with friends and neighbors whom they might not have seen all week. I watched the assembly grow to such large proportions that the church building was not large enough to accommodate them all. An altar was set up on the church veranda where the pastor, another visiting priest and I concelebrated the Eucharist. We got started about 9:30 – things in Africa operate on “African time” which is seldom punctual.

Besides the Sunday Eucharist this was also a day for confirmation which was presided over by the Vicar General of the diocese. The people sat on the ground, most of them directly exposed to the warm morning sun. The whole celebration lasted about three hours with its African components of song, dance, processions with offertory gifts, and the confirmation ceremonies. Interestingly enough, no one seemed to be in a hurry, no one was looking at a watch in frustration at how long this was taking, no one left early!

Here in the USA we have much to be thankful for. Despite challenging economic conditions we are still very well off. We have been given much in material riches and also in the depth of our faith. We do well to reflect on Luke 12:48b where we are reminded: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”