November 2004 | Vol 40 No 11 | Index
 

From the Director…

Dear Mission Friends,

C.S. Lewis once said: “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you will get neither.”

In this issue we hear of the spiritual dimension of the ministry of Fr. Timothy Conlan, O.P. among the Indian people of the mountain regions around Rabinal, Guatemala. He leads the people to heaven while working with them to bring about the realization of God’s kingdom of peace, justice, and love in the midst of human suffering caused by poverty, sickness, and political oppression.

As we approach the season of Thanksgiving in this month of November, we give gratitude to God for all the ministries that Fr. Timothy and our Dominican Missionaries have been able to carry out because of your loving generosity.

In Christ’s Peace,
Fr Martin de Porres Walsh OP

The Spiritual Dimension of Mission
By Fr. Timothy Conlan, O.P. 

n last year’s August issue of Missionaries in Action, I reported on the two chapels that I was building in two villages in the municipality of Rabinal, Guatemala.  Actually, I wrote that article when we finished putting the roofs on the chapels just as we were being hit by the rainy season.  I was exhausted by all the work of supervising the construction but also elated that we had finished the roofs, which still seems a miracle to me.

During the six years that I have been in Rabinal, I have written on various projects, such as the bilingual school, the  scholarship  program, the latrines that produce organic fertilizer, the wells, the sewing projects, and the weavers’ projects.  All of these were projects that I began on a small scale.  I have also written on the human rights issues that continue to be of paramount importance in Rabinal, and the ecological disaster that is slowly eroding the land, the economy, and the morale of the people.  I usually give just a small capsule of the gargantuan corruption that has plagued Guatemala, especially in the last four years.  I think most of you like to hear how your donations have helped people in practical ways.

ut perhaps I have neglected to share the spiritual dimension of our mission.  This also requires support financially: that  is,  someone  has  to pay for me to live here.  I do not live from the donations of the people here in Rabinal, because they are very poor and what they give does not even pay the light bill, or the salaries of the sacristan, guardian, and secretary of the church.  Now someone might object that the people in Rabinal should offer more.  But as you recall from my descriptions of the work on the adobe chapels, although the money for the materials came from donors like yourselves, the people of Rabinal provided tremendous physical labor. 

As you may know there are many donor groups that put a priority on giving money for improving health, education, human rights, and cultural activities, but few want to aid evangelizing work.  So our building the chapels was an important statement.  God really is the health of human life and the light to the mind.  Jesus brings true unity in the human family.  He makes us truly free to enjoy all the human rights and respect justice.  Let’s give God  His  due.  Let’s not forget His great love.  However I started the chapels only after we had given attention to many more basic human needs.  We believe in a God who loves the whole person, not just his or her spirit or soul; but it is the human heart that will remain famished and malnourished without encountering God’s voice and word that comes to us in His Son and in His family, the Church.  We need to do a lot more to show concern for the human needs, but not to the neglect of the faith in God.

he chapels are not yet finished, but this year we made progress.  We plastered the outside of one chapel that was being buffeted by squalls of wind and rain.  We put drain canals on both chapels this year just before I left as the heavy rains were coming.  We also built the sacristy and storeroom on the chapel in Cumbre de Durasno, where we also finished making the 750 cement floor tiles that are 18-inches square and two-inches thick with red coloring that will make the floor look just like the colonial fired adobe tiles, besides 300 smaller tiles for the borders. No one had ever made these kinds of tiles before in Rabinal.

ell, building chapels would have little value if we were not building the people of God, built on the foundation stone, which is Jesus and His message.  Let me share with you just one activity that illustrates the spiritual dimension that takes place in these village chapels.

When I returned in August, I was swept up in the pastoral activities of a mission to every one of the 38 villages.  Actually my part was visiting 12 of them for 12 days in October, but my villages were 6,000 feet high in the mountains and I had started the mission with a cold.  During the 12 days with the cold nights and the cold water for bathing, my cold developed into a nasty case of bronchitis.  The next three months I was taking antibiotics and trying all the home remedies known in this part of the world for curing bronchitis.  It was only when I got some real rest in January that I finally shook it.

ou might ask, what kind of a mission were you on?  I thought all your work was a mission?  Well our young pastor had come up with the idea of taking the Blessed Sacrament  to  the villages  in procession and also a Mission Cross for the 4^th Conference on Mission in Latin America that was to be celebrated in Guatemala in January 2004.  The people in the villages had never had the Blessed Sacrament brought to their villages in procession.  We have always celebrated Mass but never left the Blessed Eucharist reserved in the tabernacle, because they don’t have tabernacles and only a few villages even have doors on the chapels.  The catechists and people were genuinely awed by the idea that the Blessed Sacrament would stay with them, even if only for one night.

During several months our parish team had trained a group of 20 lay people to be missionaries in town.  Once the team was ready, we divided the parish into four areas and worked in each one for the six weeks.  The lay catechists were divided into ten teams.  Each team went to the same home for six weeks.  In one meeting each week the teams presented a biblical theme and a reflection on the readings for the following Sunday.  After all the mission was completed during one half of the year, some of these lay missionaries volunteered to help us go on mission to the 38 villages outside the town.  They helped the priests give talks on mission and visited the homes of Catholics who were not active.  If time permitted they visited the homes of people of other faiths or no faith. 

he people in the villages were excited by the visit of the missionaries and the Blessed Sacrament.  The goal was to reach out to lax Catholics and strengthen the faith of the practicing Catholics and help them to be more Christ centered.  At one point in the daylong mission, we had a forum so people could ask questions of the priests and missionaries.  Some topics stirred a good deal of interest and went late into the night.  At the end, people walked home on dark paths lighted by a burning branch of ocote pine.

he procession would start out from the village at about 11 a.m. with usually one woman carrying the tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament on her head as is the accustomed manner, accompanied by the people singing the popular devotional hymns.  Usually various guitars helped animate the singing.  A representative group from the welcoming village came out to meet them half way and there was a passing of the tabernacle and cross to the new village representatives amid much incense and ritual by  the catechist  leaders.   At almost all the villages the people    had    prepared    the chapel with wreaths, garlands, and flowers … lots of flowers.  In some villages even the hundred yards in front of the chapel was lined with palm branches.

fter all had arrived in the new village everyone was served a substantial lunch, followed by various talks on what is a mission and what is the Eucharist.  Then the teams of missionaries with the catechists went out to visit fellow Catholics and others.  This was a new aspect for these villages.  At 5:30 p.m. we celebrated Mass and afterward shared a bit of food prepared by the women.  The evening was devoted to talks, songs, and the question period.

The next morning, we had a communal celebration of the sacrament of the sick, which had never been done before in the villages.  Then the procession started off again for the next village at 11 a.m.

People still talk about that visit.   Now I ask: do you think they had not seen processions before, had not celebrated Mass or heard preaching before, had not had the chance to ask questions or sing hymns?  Of course they had, so what was it that touched them so profoundly?  They were asked to open their house to Jesus as a guest and He came walking on the paths just as they do when they visit one another.  They value hospitality and  affirmed their faith that Jesus, Our Lord, was present in the Eucharist.  It was truly evangelization because the theology was clearly stated, understood and applied.  Hooray for mission!  We need more evangelists – priests, sisters, and lay.  It takes money to educate these people.  You are making a difference.  God increase your faith.  It is not just buildings; it is people who are Church.