Witness to hope

Intimacy with Jesus is essential to the life of a priest missionary as he reveals the Hope of a healing world

By Fr. Joseph Curcio, S.F.M.
January 2004

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Let me tell you the story of a child of God as told to me. She was an elderly woman with an unusual name, Vasilica, and an unusual wisdom. She lived in the little town of Miches nestled on the shores of the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, just beyond a range of steep hills.

Vasilica was fascinated with the pastor, Scarboro missioner Fr. Dan MacNeil. She followed his every move, in the church, on the street, in the stores, wherever he walked among the people.

I was pastor in Miches for a brief time after Fr. Dan left. One day a catechist told me that Vasilica had joined his class uninvited.

"I was describing Jesus as a stranger," the catechist said, "how kind Jesus was, the marvelous things he did, his love for the people and their love for him, his way of speaking about new and wonderful things. Then, I asked the children who they thought this strange man might be. Well, Vasilica immediately shouted: 'Padre Daniel!'"

Fr. Dan had been her "strange holy man," her Jesus. Although Fr. Dan had much difficulty with Spanish, he made Jesus better known to the people of Miches through his loving service to them. After Fr. Dan died, someone from Miches sent an article to a Dominican newspaper. The title of the article read: "We have known a saint".

As Scarboro missioners, we often heard Fr. Dan express his intimacy with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. He referred to Jesus as "a priest from Jerusalem." While Fr. Dan served in mission in the isolated town of Miches, Jesus had been his constant companion. So was Vasilica.

There is no meaning to priesthood or to missions without an intimate relationship with Jesus. The experience of such friendship is joy, peace, confidence and strength. Such friendship overcomes all, even in the midst of fear and failure. It is truly shalom. What a thrill to be in such love and surrender.

A missionary priest gives his life in search of such intimacy with Jesus. That is his vocation. With such a relationship, the missionary priest learns gradually about the ministry for which he was ordained. It is as we used to sing at the time of farewell to newly ordained missionaries: "Go forth ye heralds of God's tender mercy!"

Of course, priests are not the only ones called to such relationship. That is the vocation of all human beings. We are all children of God, children of the Divine. We are all called to some particular task in building the reign of God. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, patroness of missions, saw love as her vocation. That is what is common and basic to all: to know Jesus and enter into a surrender of love. It is this love that is shared with all children of God and with creation itself.

The world is filled with violence and sorrow, hunger and abuse, hatred and rejection, deception and greed, extreme wealth and poverty, the powerful and the powerless, and finally, death. Into this world the missionary priest is sent with a special ministry, the ministry of life. With Jesus, we suffer all things, even death. With Jesus we reveal the hope of a healing world, a new life even on Earth. Yes, even death will be overcome. We can help the world to laugh and to love again.

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