In one of our recent classes, I learned that the two patron saints of mission are St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Francis Xavier. Its hard to imagine that these two would be the patron saints of the same thing because they lived such opposite lives. St. Therese lived in the same convent in France from the time she joined at age 16 until she died at 24. She dreamed of joining the missions, but since she had poor health, her involvement in mission was in prayer. St. Francis Xavier travelled to Asia and proadly claimed to have baptized thousands of souls. After serving in Japan for a while, he had a desire to go to China. As he was waiting on the shore for a boat to take him to China, he realized that he was dying and that he wouldn't be able to make the trip. So, being the dramatic guy he was, he got a piece of driftwood to lie down on, making sure he was facing in the direction of China. He wanted to make sure that when he met God in heaven that God would know of his desire to go to China. While Vatican II changed the idea of mission from converting souls to living out the Gospel call to justice, these two people clearly show two very important components of mission: prayer and zeal.
I am so glad that this past week, we had a whole day to spend in Rockefeller Park to pray in nature, which is where I often feel closest to God (the pictures are from the park). This intentionality of prayer is so important to me because sometimes I can become so passionate/fired up about issues and a desire to be an agent of change (the zeal of St. Francis) that I can lose focus on what mission is all about: connecting with people. Prayer brings me back to this reality, that I am called to love, and as Henri Nouwen so relevantly puts it in his book Gracias, "We cannot love issues, but we can love people, and the love of people reveals to us the way to deal with issues." Jesus' love for each of us is unique; he is the shepherd that calls each of us by name (apparently this notion comes from the fact that shepherds have a unique call/whistle for each of their sheep - who knew?). So, likewise, we are to reach out with compassion to each individual according to his/her unique situation. This is my hope!
"We are not political persons;
we do not put our trust in merely human powers.
We are, above all, Christians, and we know
that if the Lord does not build our civilizaton
all labor in vain who build it.
We know that our power comes from prayer
and from our turning toward God."
-Archbishop Oscar Romero
