Joeven Matugas,sx
The Holy Father Pope Francis is inviting the consecrated people of today to be joyous and exultant of the experienced of the consolation of God – the comfort, tenderness, being loved, encouragement and bears witness to His mercy through love and deeds into the various cultures and locations of people in this world (Pope`s Letter Rejoice).
As I have been moved by this invitation, and as I am a consecrated person, I am inclined to share my little thoughts and experience. The experience of how God have been transformed me by this joy of encounter. I was borne and gladly grew up in this new generation of young people. I have left my family and country and decided to take this path of religious and missionary life giving up the promising career of job opportunities of my youth hood. And now I am belong of this religious-missionary congregation with the mission of proclaiming Christ and His gospel to the people who have not heard him yet. And I have been assigned here in this mission of Sierra Leone to proclaim Christ`s gospel and give witness to my faith and Christian hope to the blessed residents of this land.
It is in this place that various faces of the world’s reality are apparently seen. It is a place where a common folk ordinary citizens striving hard every single day to earn for a living for their sustenance. A country which has a severe problem of Health care delivery and services, good education, political and economic instability. They are a people who are victims of massive graft and corruption practices by their government leaders, victims of strife and violence, and stricken by malignant tropical diseases and illnesses. That to be in their presence every now and then is another feature of our humanity where we can find God incarnated in these people who are in dire need. On one hand, they are a nation who has been blessed by the abundance, richness, natural beauty and resources of the physical universe created by God. A people that are full of hope, endurance and faith to the Creator embedded within their beliefs, local customs and traditions.
I am here as a young missionary lived, interact and work with them seven days in a week. I see and testify their struggles and intricacy. Moreover, in like manner I also see their smiles, laughter, interest, zest of life, positive thoughts for the future. Many of them have already embraced the Christian faith and lived it out joyfully and willingly shared it to their relatives and companions.
The second option of my sharing faith experience is the splendor and attractiveness of community life, where we a group of confreres work together and continuously give witness to our faith. We Xaverians operating in this Region are a communion of men from various ages, language, places of origin, culture, family background, thoughts and ideals. We are here with our presence and mission work in solidarity with the local church and the suffering people of this place carrying out the task, the mission that is entrusted to us. We lived as a community of individuals able to recognize our strengths and weaknesses. And our first missionary call is to be able to live in unity among ourselves in harmony and love, in a way that our incarnated community is a profound place of conversion, sharing and discernment. We are a community of Christ disciples able to set aside our personal projects and concerns and give way to the greater values of the Kingdom and courageously put our very selves at the frontier.
The congregation`s dynamic characteristics ad gentes, ad extra, ad vitam is not just something written down on paper and put it on a shelf and been admired from afar. Rather, it is that something truly happens in a factual life experience of us Xaverians. It is not just a certain collective thoughts that remain a dream. It comes to happen in a true to life story that we could share and forth tell. An event that we are able to touch, embrace and feel by our senses and faculty.
The Holy Father Pope Francis is inviting the consecrated people of today to be joyous and exultant of the experienced of the consolation of God – the comfort, tenderness, being loved, encouragement and bears witness to His mercy through love and deeds into the various cultures and locations of people in this world (Pope`s Letter Rejoice).
As I have been moved by this invitation, and as I am a consecrated person, I am inclined to share my little thoughts and experience. The experience of how God have been transformed me by this joy of encounter. I was borne and gladly grew up in this new generation of young people. I have left my family and country and decided to take this path of religious and missionary life giving up the promising career of job opportunities of my youth hood. And now I am belong of this religious-missionary congregation with the mission of proclaiming Christ and His gospel to the people who have not heard him yet. And I have been assigned here in this mission of Sierra Leone to proclaim Christ`s gospel and give witness to my faith and Christian hope to the blessed residents of this land.
It is in this place that various faces of the world’s reality are apparently seen. It is a place where a common folk ordinary citizens striving hard every single day to earn for a living for their sustenance. A country which has a severe problem of Health care delivery and services, good education, political and economic instability. They are a people who are victims of massive graft and corruption practices by their government leaders, victims of strife and violence, and stricken by malignant tropical diseases and illnesses. That to be in their presence every now and then is another feature of our humanity where we can find God incarnated in these people who are in dire need. On one hand, they are a nation who has been blessed by the abundance, richness, natural beauty and resources of the physical universe created by God. A people that are full of hope, endurance and faith to the Creator embedded within their beliefs, local customs and traditions.
I am here as a young missionary lived, interact and work with them seven days in a week. I see and testify their struggles and intricacy. Moreover, in like manner I also see their smiles, laughter, interest, zest of life, positive thoughts for the future. Many of them have already embraced the Christian faith and lived it out joyfully and willingly shared it to their relatives and companions.
The second option of my sharing faith experience is the splendor and attractiveness of community life, where we a group of confreres work together and continuously give witness to our faith. We Xaverians operating in this Region are a communion of men from various ages, language, places of origin, culture, family background, thoughts and ideals. We are here with our presence and mission work in solidarity with the local church and the suffering people of this place carrying out the task, the mission that is entrusted to us. We lived as a community of individuals able to recognize our strengths and weaknesses. And our first missionary call is to be able to live in unity among ourselves in harmony and love, in a way that our incarnated community is a profound place of conversion, sharing and discernment. We are a community of Christ disciples able to set aside our personal projects and concerns and give way to the greater values of the Kingdom and courageously put our very selves at the frontier.
The congregation`s dynamic characteristics ad gentes, ad extra, ad vitam is not just something written down on paper and put it on a shelf and been admired from afar. Rather, it is that something truly happens in a factual life experience of us Xaverians. It is not just a certain collective thoughts that remain a dream. It comes to happen in a true to life story that we could share and forth tell. An event that we are able to touch, embrace and feel by our senses and faculty.