Solidarity – a new understanding of the Gospel

By Marc Chartrand
May 2002

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Christ is among us and lives through us especially when we defend the poor and the weak; when we live our lives with compassion, love and solidarity.

For as long as I know, I've felt a deep call to serve the Lord. With that call comes the question: How can I serve you Lord? My quest brought me to study theology and to consider the priesthood. Through deep reflection and prayer I realized that I could not live my life in celibacy.

But what about serving God? I felt so strongly about that. (Now married, I still haven't given up the idea of becoming a priest, although our Church would have to make room for married clergy for that to happen.) Slowly I came to realize that serving God is to serve and love one another and all of creation.

While at university I had the opportunity to work and live in a slum of Lima, Peru. That experience changed my life forever. The poor were no longer the faces of hungry children on the TV screen; they had become my friends and family.

I understood the Gospel in a new way—that believing in Christ is believing that He is among us and lives through us, especially when we defend the poor and the weak; when we live our lives with compassion, love and solidarity.

If I want to be salt of the earth and light of the world, I simply cannot ignore what is happening to my sisters and brothers throughout the world who struggle to survive on the margins of society.

I heard about Scarboro Missions while at a Canadian Catholic Students' Association Conference in St. John's, Newfoundland, through a fiery woman named Mary Anne O'Connor. I could really relate to her way of being Church and her description of what Scarboro Missions was all about.

After my wife, Anne, and I had completed all of the admission requirements, we applied to become Scarboro lay missioners and were accepted.

We are presently living in Ecuador, working in projects that involve the formation and training of people living in rural areas. The economic situation that they are living in is getting more and more critical. This is because of an ever-increasing cost of living, widespread corruption, rising external debt, the recent dollarization (replacement of the local currency with the US dollar), not to mention the natural disasters such as flooding and volcanic eruptions.

After a hard day's work I sometimes wonder what I've accomplished. Then I stop to think of others who are working in solidarity with the poor here in Ecuador and everywhere else in the world, and all those back home who support and are in solidarity with our work, and it gives me hope and the courage to continue the struggle.

Marc Chartrand and his wife, Anne Quesnelle, are Scarboro lay missionaries serving in Riobamba, Ecuador. Marc is co-director of the Monsenor Leonidas Proaño Rural Formation Centre.

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