When Jesus was passing from this world to his Father, he said to his disciples: ‘My commandment is this: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (Jn 15:12-17).
I have seen many communities where there is never any recreation. Everything is focused on the television. We eat fast to be on time for the TV. And because some people are slow eaters, those in a hurry remove their plates right before them. Their excuse is sound: washing up! And they’ll point out that you’re not helping them with the washing-up in addition to being late.
We’re prisoners of our own culture, our own way of life.
We are so busy doing things for people that we no longer have time to listen to those who are in great need. Yet to be a missionary is to show God’s love through the Church and the Society we belong to.
“Love of God, yes, but what about love of work? It will be difficult to tell the Swiss to slow down with their work since it’s part of their culture, except to reconsider their position as witnesses to God’s love. What we need to review is the way we do things.
When you look at the history of the Society, you discover that the brothers (and the sisters) are sometimes better witnesses to Jesus Christ than the fathers. Look at this example from the early days of the Society: the missionaries who built the church in Bukoba, Tanzania, were White Fathers who came from Uganda, where they had been expelled. The brothers were the best witnesses; they built churches and worked hard. But they also respected the work rules and stopped work at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, together with the workers. They washed and then had time… They loved their workers as colleagues and friends. Since they didn’t work on Sundays, they visited their workers’ families. Because of their way of life, the brothers are sometimes better witnesses to God’s love than some parish priests who preach the gospel in words, but often don’t have the time to preach it in deeds.
In his dedication of the book “Histoire des Missionnaires d’Afrique (Pères Blancs) à l’époque coloniale 1919-1939” Father Francis Nolan states: “I dedicate this book to the Brothers who were always less esteemed than their confreres priests. I dedicate it to the Brothers whose commitment and ingenuity will remain engraved in the stone of cathedrals, churches, schools and workshops built with their own hands, long after the memory of the Fathers has faded”.
The great obstacle to the love of God is that the culture of efficiency and performance has taken over. And then, when we meet African confreres, there is friction. Suddenly, you realise that your culture is centred on work and theirs on relationships between people: we talk, we discuss. Someone once quipped: “The ideal thing is to have a European priest and an African priest in a community: one who works, works, works…; and the other who you can talk to!
Christ came into the world so that the world could be saved
What did he do? First of all, he took his time. He did not start his ministry before the age of 30, and he was not impatient. After all, his culture forbade him from speaking before age 30. He respects his culture. What did he do for the next three years? Well, he took the time to go to Cana and would see Martha, Mary and Lazarus on weekends. Afterwards, when Lazarus died, people could say of Jesus, when they saw him weeping: “See how he loved him”.
He arrived at Peter’s house and, seeing that his mother-in-law was ill, healed her. What is striking about Christ is that he bears witness to God’s love by being attentive to the needs of others. Are we attentive to the need to do things for others or to the needs of others?
I went to see a friend with whom I was working on a book one day. I told him, ” I’ve come to see you because there’s this work to be done and …” I explained, and I got excited. After 10 minutes, my friend said, “Hello, Father, how are you? How are the other Fathers?” He retained nothing of what I’d said because I hadn’t greeted him!
We bear witness to God’s love by the way we treat others. Sometimes someone comes to see us, and just because it wasn’t planned, we get annoyed because it interferes with our work. Our work is essential, but when someone interrupts us, we lose our patience and don’t take the time to bear witness to God’s love.
Jesus paid very special attention to the marginalised, the outcasts, the widows, the lepers. God’s love is revealed today by anyone who knows how to listen and console, especially by those who feel called to reach out to those who, in the culture of efficiency, are left on the sidelines. “My commandment is this: greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
By: Raphaël Deillon, M.Afr.