We
usually hear from readings from the Old Testaments in our Sunday masses. However, throughout the weeks of Easter, we’ve been hearing the story of the
Early Church from Acts of the Apostles. Our
readings from Acts during the Easter season tell us about the missionary journeys of Paul, Barnabas, and
their companions, of the miracles they performed in the proclamation of God’s
kingdom, of the way they were criticized by the Pharisees and even thrown out
of certain towns, of the way they encouraged the coverts to the Way of Jesus
that they brought into the faith. Today, we hear about the Council of Jerusalem, the first council of the early
Church, addressing what it meant to be a disciple of Christ, addressing whether
Gentile converts to the Way of Jesus need to first obey the Jewish laws and
customs prior to their conversion. Just
as conflict and tension arose in the Early Church when they were confronted with
a new problem or new reality, we see this mirrored in some of the new realities
we face in the Catholic Church in our current day as well. We know that being a disciple of Christ is
never an easy task.
As
you can see, I am wearing a colorful stole today that was hand woven by the
indigenous people of the rain forest where I served in Ecuador. I
wear this stole today, remembering that 20 years ago this week, I started my three
year assignment as a Comboni lay missionary in Ecuador. Peter,
Paul, Barnabas, and those early disciples went on an external, physical journey
to the far regions of the ancient world to bring them the Good News of Jesus
Christ. However,
besides their physical journey, they also went through an internal, spiritual
journey. Being a missionary means stepping out into
the unknown. When I arrived in Ecuador,
I did not know how to speak Spanish at all.
I had never been to Latin America before. Yet,
accompanying my calling to be a missionary, I brought along a lot of hopes and
dreams for my missionary work. After
studying Spanish for several months, I went to the village of Borbon in the
jungle province of Esmeraldas, very close to the border of Columbia, an area
where there was a lot drug trafficking and gang activity going back and forth
between Columbia and Ecuador. Just
as the communities that Paul visited had their own culture and traditions, the
province of Esmeraldas where I served as a missionary had its own unique flavor
and culture. It was populated with
descendants of escaped slaves from nearby Columbia who found freedom and refuge
in this isolated jungle in the 18th century. These
escaped slaves and their descendants practiced their African tribal religions
and traditions in virtual isolation from the rest of the country until after
World War II, when the Comboni Missionaries were invited by the government of
Ecuador in order to help integrate this area with the rest of the country. I worked with a team of priests, nuns, a
brother, and another lay missionary. We
were from different countries throughout the world – Brazil, Chile, Mexico,
Uganda, and the United States. We came
together as missionaries to work for the good of the Gospel. We had our differences, both in our cultures
and our personalities, but we were united in our faith.
I
think about the diversity we have in our parish here at St James, how we have
different age groups and cultures and socio-economic backgrounds and
personalities represented. As we
think about our diversity and our differences, we might think about how we
could not find two people much different than Peter and Paul in the stories
told in the Acts of the Apostles. They
both had very different visions for the Church. These
apostles in the Early Church had to respond to a rapidly changing reality. Through their patience and persistence, God spoke to Paul and his companies in
the middle of the changing circumstances that confronted them in their
missionary work. Sometimes, the answers that God reveals to us can seem very difficult to
discern – we look at the discussions and arguments and disagreements that came
out of the Council of Jerusalem. The
Holy Spirit led them in the Council of Jerusalem to a plan of action for their
complex situation. Through
the different interpretations that we brought forward in their discussions,
through their discussions and disagreements, they finally found where the
Spirit was leading them. The
same Spirit that Jesus sent to those first disciples to be their guide and
advocate is present to us in the world today as well. That
Spirit helps us respond to the reality of the world.
We
have the cross. We also have the
resurrected Jesus. Those two realities
go hand in hand. I am
sure that sometimes Paul and Barnabas and the other disciples wondered if their
work was bearing fruits. In fact, after
my first year of missionary work, I wondered the same thing. But God calls us to be faithful to him. I remember that President John F Kennedy once
famously stated: Ask not what your
country can do for you, rather, ask what you can do for your country. I we
just criticizing things that go on in our Church and in our parish and in the
community in which we live, or are we trying to be a positive influence and
contribute and change things? Are we
just making a minimal effort in the way we approach our faith, or is it indeed
our priority in life, the center of our life like it was for those first
apostles?
The
Early Church had the Holy Spirit leading them and guiding them – the Spirit
that Jesus sent to them as an advocate and counselor. The
Spirit was sent to the community of the Early Church. The Spirit has been sent to our community as
well. I
look back sometimes and think if I would have chosen to go out as a missionary
if I had known the challenges and difficulties that were awaiting me. And I would have to say “yes”. The
Spirit speaks to us both as individuals and as a community, and through my
discernment and the community’s discernment, God’s will was for me to be a
missionary. We
need to be willing to be open to the Spirit, for the different ways the Lord
can come into our lives. If we
spend time with the Lord each day, if we open to his will and not only our own
will and desires, then we will hear the voice of God and will be able to
discern his will for us.
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