The array of faces a human can make when they hear you're embarking on a 2+ month mission where you will need to fundraise in order to support yourself alarms some, excites others but confuses most. Many ask us, "Why are you becoming a missionary?" or, "Why not just get a job?" or my personal favorite, "So what are you doing with your life after mission?"
Something interesting I have learned through formation with my fellow missionaries is that the mission doesn't stop after we conclude our time of living together in community come the beginning of August. Our life as missionaries does not simply halt once we leave Covington, LA. So, what are we doing with our lives after mission? Some of us will be going back to finish up school, some are continuing on in seminary, while others of us are heading back to jobs and even just trying to figure out what the Lord is calling us to post-graduation. The only thing we all know for certain is that while the Lord may be calling us into vastly different spaces to use all of our unique gifts, He is still calling us to stay rooted in mission so that we may perform and experience radical trust, radical availability and delve into our individual formations with the Lord.
We get asked lots of questions as missionaries. Some comical, some very comical. Some of our favorites are the comical questions like, "Are ya'll all nuns and brothers?" solely based on the fact that we almost exclusively wear Chacos with every outfit. Or whether or not the girls sleep in hay bales because we forget that it's not normal to say that we live in a 'barn.' people misunderstand all the time that we are not working for "Dum Box Ministries" or that we are not starting a new religious order of DumbOxen.
This season of life has revealed to us our calling for the present journey. My missionary brother Tyler recalled beautifully, "This summer I have grown to understand more deeply what Pope John Paul II teaches in his Redemptoris Missio [Mission of the Redeemer] — we are universally called to participate in the mission of radically living and preaching the Gospel, no matter what phase of life we inhabit. Walking with my fellow missionaries and the Dumb Ox community has quickly and powerfully oriented my heart to constantly gaze upon the Gospel, to gaze upon Christ Himself. From this relationship with Him, I am confident and empowered to be a witness to the Gospel as a lifelong missionary." Tyler's word emphasizes that our call to mission doesn't end with the close of the summer, our call to mission only deepens with each breath we take.
Over the summer we have been blessed to encounter beautiful and intelligent servants of the Lord who continually our themselves out in order to help aid our formation. We have learned so many valuable nuggets of wisdom that help us to understand our call more fully and how to live that out as adequately as possible both during our time as Dumb Ox Missionaries and beyond into the realm of future seasons in our lives. My beautiful missionary sister and trundle-bed-bunk-mate Caitlyn reflects on the beauty of learning about our call to mission and how to put those virtues into practice in our everyday lives. She writes, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21 Even when I was a little girl sleeping over at friends' houses and leaving home was a huge fear of mine. It was such a big fear that I chose never to do it. As Jesus knows this fear of mine, that still sticks with me today, he knew I needed to be challenged and taken out of my comfort zone to learn how to fully embrace and abide in his love.
A few months ago Jesus called me to leave everything I had behind and follow him as a summer missionary. Little did I know my whole life would be changed. My outlook on masculinity and femininity changed from past open bleeding wounds in my heart to powerful scars that cannot be scratched away. That happened because Jesus’ love and grace has been bestowed upon me and the people around me that I love in this mission and back home. Being a missionary has also taught me how to live the virtue of chastity to the fullest extent by learning to see the Lord in others and having them see the Lord in me. I have also learned how to have a consistent prayer life which has taught me to be still and let the Lord speak to me in the silence and through others. Overall, this mission has truly challenged me in so many ways, but through those challenges God’s grace has overflowed my heart."
Not everything that we have learned or encountered this summer has been easy to accept. Even the disciples during the Bread of Life discourse in the Gospel of John admitted that when the Lord informed us that the eternal nourishment we were to eat was His own flesh and blood, it was a hard teaching to accept. Caitlyn's strength in being able to recognize that the Lord was desiring to stretch her heart by pushing her out of her comfort zone and using her fears to teach her about His undying and everlasting love for her. Caitlyn has demonstrated immense strength in taking on the mission on fully, challenges and joys alike.
Another missionary brother recalls that the challenges and joys of the mission mimic peaks and valleys in his own prayer and experience. Michael says, "The life of a missionary is peaks and valleys.
The peaks are beautiful and filled with exuberance, abundant life and joy, and a spirit of love and freedom. The peaks are fun. It's easy to accept and share the mission and the Gospel message when I'm sitting on a peak.
Then there are the valleys. The valleys of missionary life are private and unseen, but it is in these places of my life that I am truly transformed and made new. It is because I am able to walk through the struggles and difficulties of missionary life that I have the strength to climb up to the next peak.
But what's the point of the peaks and valleys? The point is: whether I am dragging myself through a pit, wounded and broken; or I am singing and dancing on top of a mountain, I do so to encounter God, in my successes and my failures. Because I know He wants to encounter me in all places of my life too."
Michael's wise words expand upon the truth that everything we do is for the Lord, with the Lord, and in order to encounter the Lord. When we strive to continually lift everything up to the Lord and repeatedly desire to give Him our battles, we learn the art of truthful surrender to turn everything over to the Lord. My good missionary sister Caroline wisely says that the Lord doesn't simply desire us to hand over all of our burdens, hardships, battles and struggles and simply leave them with Him while we go out into the world to field other temptations and missteps. Rather, the Lord desires for us to surrender everything to Him, but then take Him with us into battle, for "rejoicing in the Lord is our strength"! (Nehemiah 8:10)
Within the missionary life there are several components that are essential for a thriving community. Affirmation, intentionality, freedom, and above all: prayer, are the true backbone to our community who thrives under the practice of virtues of chastity, purity and patience.
Mary, another beautiful missionary sister, shows this beautiful by describing the components of intentionality and affirmation by explain that, "Missionary life has shown me, through beautiful practical examples, that the Christian life is meant to be lived in community with others and not in isolation. Living in community and learning how to make intentional decisions for the good of everyone is teaching me how to let go of my desires to control and to surrender to God's will. As I let go and let God work, He is continually affirming me of His overwhelming love for me, particularly through the love and acceptance I receive from my missionary brothers and sisters. Through this affirmation of who I am as a person, not just what I do, I am able to be myself and share my talents with the community. Despite all the challenges, this missionary experience has stretched me in life changing ways, bringing me to the true freedom that Jesus desires to give my heart." This ability of Mary's to take her experiences and use them as a learning tool in order to understand why the Lord desires to continually stretch her heart.
My sweet sister Caroline highlights the aspects of community related to prayer and explains why a consistent prayer regiment is so essential for communities. She mentions that, "Within the rhythm of missionary life, one of community and prayer, I have grown in my understanding of what it means to serve the other. As missionaries we have grown to be able to serve out of our communal foundation that empowers us and holds us accountable. Because there is a rhythm of constant prayer there is also a freedom that follows to give more of myself in whatever I’m doing. I can trust that the Lord will take care of me so that I can solely focus on best caring for others. Learning how to love the other more fully has been a beautiful experience." This empowerment that urges us to accountability for one another ignites one of the core fruits form our mission: FREEDOM.
This accountability, as our missionary brother William recounts, aids in the growth of the community as much as it does for the individual. He also underlines why entering into radical honesty even when it is difficult or when we are in a time of struggle is so essential in order for the community to remain a tight knit orb of the Lord's graces and mercies poured out through both physical corporal works of mercy as well as personal intercessions. William recounts, "This community’s commitment to helping each member flourish amidst trial has been such an amazing example for me. Out of our imperfections and brokenness, there have been times when we have experienced conflict and loving each other has been difficult. These times have actually been the some of the most impactful moments for me this summer, because we have chosen to love each other selflessly and do what is best for the other at so many points when it would have been easier to hide our feelings or give up on one another. We certainly are not perfect. We struggle. But at the end of the day, we sacrifice for each other to make sure that we restore our relationships and seek the best for every member. There are times with my brothers that we have had conversations that each of us hated. But because we knew that these discussions were necessary for the good of our relationships, we suffered through them out of love, and cultivated deeper bonds with one another."
This sacrificial love for the other allows each of us to come alive through the confidence we have in each other to do what is best for the other. We all firmly believe and have expectant faith in each of our missionary brothers and sisters to continually will the good for the other, even to the point of self-sacrifice. Our suffering in situations like this allows us to image the love of Christ poured out through His passion by laying down our life for our friends. Saint John Paul the Great says that suffering is never unnoticed by the Lord and that the intercessions from the who suffer are what fuel the faithful, the church and the new evangelization.
What we are doing sounds radical: abandoning our lives, our jobs, our family and friends and our normal way of life. But as my missionary brother Matthew says, we are not doing anything new. It may be new to some people we encounter, but our way of life fostering a healthy and chaste community is not a new concept to the Christian realm. Matthew continues by saying, "Living in community as a group of missionaries this summer is very close to what I imagine the early Christian communities might have looked like. We do have really great and fun times together, but the best part of our community has not been when we just hang out and enjoy life, but rather the ongoing intentionality in helping each other to grow in holiness every day. From praying together through daily Mass, night prayer, or a shared Holy Hour, to being willing to have difficult conversations about certain parts of ourselves that are still in need of purification, the way this community intentionally makes holiness a priority actually makes living this kind of life, the life of intentional disciples of Jesus Christ, not only a possible but also an exciting adventure." Matthew's beautiful testimony of our community ties together all the aspects of community that allow us to enter into the state of freedom that we are living each and every day. He highlights the important of intentionality in wanting to help the other grow, our daily regimen of prayer and sacraments together, our accountability towards those hard conversations and our affirmation of each soul in our group that continues to remind us of our commitments in order to make holiness the priority and fuel our mission through the spiritual fervor of the Lord's most sacred heart.
So. Why mission?
For the eight of us it is because we desired to answer the call and be as closely united with the Lord's call for us as possible in this season of our lives. Is it sometimes hard to get up for daily mass and holy hour before a day of intern tasks at the office? Yes. Sometimes we fall into the spirit of monotony and it can be easy to misinterpret the fruit of our labor. Sometimes prayer is dry, or we fear what the Lord is trying to tell us, so we don't even allow Him the chance to move in our hearts. If you're like the girls, we frequently struggle with being on time to mass. We struggle with sloth, patience, compromise and sometimes even our family situations influence our mission. Even though we have struggled over the course of the summer at various points, the joys and glory stories that have emerged far outweigh any suffering we have endured.
Maybe you're thinking, "Hmmm. This all sounds great, but why should I do this now?"
Why now? Because the Lord desires our conversion each day. He desires our "yes" each day. Why should we delay? As JPII says, "Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." Why should we be fearful when the Lord, the creator and savior of the universe, is on our side!
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI asserts that, "The one who hopes lives differently." This statement fuels how we live as missionaries. Full of hope. Full of expectant faith. Filled with an abundance of graces and mercies bestowed upon us by the Father. This hope allows us to step out into the deep and live life as JP2 encourages us to by scattering the darkness by our light and conquering hatred by our love.
Our missions start now my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ!
Do not be afraid!
Will you step out into the deep in order to answer the call that our Lord has set aside uniquely for your soul?
We encourage you to immerse yourself in prayer today to ask the Lord what he desires of your heart today.
"There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already born for use and does not now bear with us." -- Pope Saint John Paul the Great
Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song. --JP2
St. Thomas Aquinas, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Joseph and Pope Saint John Paul II PRAY FOR US!
Comments