ave
you ever gone to a travel agent? If
you go, you’ll receive so many pitches on travel, for all tastes and means,
and to all sorts of places! His
office walls are covered with so many posters, and magazines, that make you want
to go someplace, somewhere far away, towards world’s exotic and appealing.
One can leave for all kinds of reasons: there are those who leave for
tours and some for work, others to run away from reality, some for rest, and
there are those who leave for some special mission.
We missionaries, leave because Someone send us and sends us to announce his word and his name to those who have yet to know him. And now, after some years of service in the United States, we, three Xaverians are leaving for the missions.Fr. Vasco Milani, from Franklin, WI, returns to the Amazon region of northern Brazil; from Chicago, Fr. Lino Sgarbossa once again goes to Mexico; and from Wayne, NJ, Fr. Jesus Euan leaves for the first time for Sierra Leone in West Africa.
We
have passed some gratifying years in the States and, even if stumbling at times,
we have lived those years with joy and serenity, always feeling as missionaries-among-you.
We have carried on a service which had been asked of us by our religious family. In a special way, we have been friends and educators of young men, in formation, mission animation or vocational ministry. Caring for those young men, we have sought to communicate to them our ideals and our passion for the announcement of the Gospel to all.
It surprises us, and it fills our hearts with joy, to feel how the values that have motivated our lives have matured in us during these years in which we have walked with so many young people and so many friends. The friendship and the sharing of life and faith have helped us make our vocation more solid and consistent.
To all we say “Thanks!”
And
now our thoughts and our hearts already look forward with joy, and with some
trepidation, to the departure for the mission and to what lies beyond.
We go because we feel part of a missionary church, journeying on the roads of the world, to announce to every creature the saving love of the Father.
We go because the Lord has called us from the beginning to be “fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). His last words were “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.” (Mark 16:15)
We go because we want to be faithful to a promise of joy and blessing which the Lord one day made resonate in our hearts. “Leave your country, your family and your house, for the land I will show you. (…) In you all the peoples of the earth will be blessed.” (Gen. 12)
We go knowing that God has gone ahead of us, the God whose beauty shines on the face of so many peoples and cultures, of so many brothers and sisters.
We go certainly not counting on our own strengths but on the strength of God who assures us of his help and of his presence: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your reward will be very great.” (Gen. 15)
We go because this wonderful vocation has grown in us ever more so as to take hold of our life and make us aware that this is a beautiful way to spend it.
We go knowing that the departure is the “page” that today the Lord is asking us to write for young people, friends, benefactors and all God’s people, the most beautiful gift we can make to them.
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)