Watching and waiting

By Fr. Tim Ryan, S.F.M.
January/February 2002

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In 1968, while pursuing mission studies at a Mission Institute in Germany, I was invited by the editor of the institute's publication to attend and write a report on the 38th Annual Louvain Mission Week in Belgium. The principal annual gathering of the European Catholic Mission movement at the time, it brought together academics, representatives of mission societies and many missioners and representatives of the "younger churches" (as they were called at the time!). The event was impressive-about 150 participants from more than 20 countries, all involved in mission in various ways throughout the world.

One particular memory of that conference has always stood out for me. In a small workshop session, a middle-aged Dutch missionary recounted how, some years before, he had accepted responsibility for working with a people in East Africa who had no significant previous exposure to Christianity. Based on his own mission experience up to that point, he felt a fundamentally different approach was necessary.

Mutual respect

He set out to live very simply and patiently among this newly-adopted people, taking as much time as required, not only to learn their language and culture, but also to develop a relationship based on authentic mutual respect. He had waited, literally for years, before a common exploration of religious beliefs developed between them.

In the Church of the 1960s, this approach was prophetically challenging. It incorporated a sensitivity and respect for cultural diversity which the contemporary world was by then appropriately demanding. But it also reflected a more humble recognition that 'God's reign' was present in our world in diverse and mysterious ways and that this required of us a respectful and patient dependence on the movement of the Spirit.

In the course of sharing his story with us, this missionary recounted an interesting anecdote. Fairly soon after he arrived to live among his newly-adopted people, word reached him that his father had died back in Europe. Returning home for the funeral was impossible. He was there, alone, among a people who could provide none of the support which would have been there for him within his own family, faith and culture.

However, a local man who had done some work for him, on learning of the death of his father, simply arrived at his home. He entered and just sat with the missioner, mostly in silence, throughout the day and into the evening. Across a yawning cultural divide there was little the man could say or do; but he could and did 'watch and wait' with the missioner. This gentle gesture had been a genuine grace for the missioner, helping him to bear his sorrow.

Some 30 years later, we can be grateful that much of our contemporary mission experience has come to share in the qualities of this prophetic missioner's experience. For a generation now, many Scarboro missioners have been willing to live and serve in China teaching English. They go fully aware that it will not be possible in the foreseeable future to have any role in formal 'evangelization' or to contribute in any direct way to the building up of the Chinese Church.

Most newer Scarboro missioners in other parts of the world are now lay missioners. Few work in any direct way in 'evangelization'. They are content to serve humbly in any position where they feel they can be of help, and where their host country is willing to accept and sustain their presence. Their calling is to 'be with' brothers and sisters far away-to be a human expression that we want to know and respect all of God's children throughout the world as, together, we search for and wait upon God's will. When, how, or if our shared quest will find expression in a common faith often remains a mystery to us.

By going to 'be with' others across the still so mysterious chasms of diverse languages, cultures and beliefs in our world, missioners serve as a special sign of how all of us are called to vigilantly but patiently respond to the Gospel's call: to 'watch and wait' upon God. Meanwhile, in the process, we experience how God grants us to serve as genuine channels of grace for one another.

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