Consolation
Raymond Perrier SJ reflects on his time with the JRS in Uganda and how it relates to St Francis Xavier
Long before e-mail or round-robins or even 'Jesuits and Friends', the first companions kept in touch by letters which took many months to travel the world. We can therefore learn much about the missions of St Francis Xavier through his own words, as he wrote to his superior (Ignatius), to his friends and family, to his new religious family, and to the people who were both helping and hindering his work.
Spending my two years of 'Regency', (a period between studies, when I got to do some practical work) I worked with the Jesuit Refugee Service - something which has caused me to reflect on Xavier in his anniversary year. There may no longer be parts of the earth to be 'discovered' by missionaries, but in Northern Uganda, where I worked, it did feel that we were on the very margins of modern civilisation. Living alongside 20,000 Sudanese refugees at Rhino Camp, we are 'off the map' as far as electricity, running water, shops, paved roads, TV or internet are concerned.
Like Xavier, our work marries religion (running two parishes and 30 chapels) with education (adult literacy, secondary school support, peace education, women's empowerment and vocational training). And like him, we face the challenge of communicating through, or round, a variety of exotically named languages - Bari, Acholi, Pojulo, Kawaka. After six months, after struggling with the lingua franca of simplified Arabic, I feel more sympathetic to his admitted weakness in languages.
Xavier's letters, as you would expect, are full of consolation: evidence of God at work in the world, giving life and hope. The greatest consolation at Rhino Camp was the knowledge that even a small amount of time or money or training can make a huge difference to someone's life. It matters whether we go to work each day!
Like him, I also gain great consolation from the prayers, letters, packages and donations (as well as e-mails) sent by people back home. Through his letters, Xavier was showing people the universality of God's Church across the globe. But he also used them to excite people back in Europe about his own work and to attempt to get recruits and financial support. In turn, I have also been overwhelmed by the generous support of people who know me - and some I have never even met! - in paying for school fees, sewing machines, carpentry tools and even altar breads and wine for the chapels.
But his letters also have moments of desolation, questioning where God is in our world. These moments of desolation during my time with the JRS in Northern Uganda were, 'Deo Gratias', few and far between. The feeling was usually frustration at bureaucratic inefficiency, time-wasting, or the shortage of resources.
Reassuringly, Xavier's letters also have their fair share of administration - hire x or pay y, sack z and build at a, scale down at b and send money to c. ItŐs very encouraging. In 500 years we have greatly improved the means of communication, but one thing has not changed - the work of building the Kingdom of God is fundamentally work - not just hopeful dreams.
To find God in all things means to find God, not only in consolation but also in desolation - even in administration. But with the example of his great missionary endeavour, Xavier continues to add a heavy dose of inspiration.
Spending my two years of 'Regency', (a period between studies, when I got to do some practical work) I worked with the Jesuit Refugee Service - something which has caused me to reflect on Xavier in his anniversary year. There may no longer be parts of the earth to be 'discovered' by missionaries, but in Northern Uganda, where I worked, it did feel that we were on the very margins of modern civilisation. Living alongside 20,000 Sudanese refugees at Rhino Camp, we are 'off the map' as far as electricity, running water, shops, paved roads, TV or internet are concerned.
Like Xavier, our work marries religion (running two parishes and 30 chapels) with education (adult literacy, secondary school support, peace education, women's empowerment and vocational training). And like him, we face the challenge of communicating through, or round, a variety of exotically named languages - Bari, Acholi, Pojulo, Kawaka. After six months, after struggling with the lingua franca of simplified Arabic, I feel more sympathetic to his admitted weakness in languages.
Xavier's letters, as you would expect, are full of consolation: evidence of God at work in the world, giving life and hope. The greatest consolation at Rhino Camp was the knowledge that even a small amount of time or money or training can make a huge difference to someone's life. It matters whether we go to work each day!
Like him, I also gain great consolation from the prayers, letters, packages and donations (as well as e-mails) sent by people back home. Through his letters, Xavier was showing people the universality of God's Church across the globe. But he also used them to excite people back in Europe about his own work and to attempt to get recruits and financial support. In turn, I have also been overwhelmed by the generous support of people who know me - and some I have never even met! - in paying for school fees, sewing machines, carpentry tools and even altar breads and wine for the chapels.
But his letters also have moments of desolation, questioning where God is in our world. These moments of desolation during my time with the JRS in Northern Uganda were, 'Deo Gratias', few and far between. The feeling was usually frustration at bureaucratic inefficiency, time-wasting, or the shortage of resources.
Reassuringly, Xavier's letters also have their fair share of administration - hire x or pay y, sack z and build at a, scale down at b and send money to c. ItŐs very encouraging. In 500 years we have greatly improved the means of communication, but one thing has not changed - the work of building the Kingdom of God is fundamentally work - not just hopeful dreams.
To find God in all things means to find God, not only in consolation but also in desolation - even in administration. But with the example of his great missionary endeavour, Xavier continues to add a heavy dose of inspiration.