Comboni Lay Missionaries

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground”

Brasil

This land is called Pau-Brasil, Irajá, Comboios, Caeiras, Olho d’Água, indigenous villages in the state of Espíritu Santo.

I spent nine days with great intensity, important days, beautiful, full of friendship and sharing, we as Comboni Family (priests, religious, laity, scholastics) and the Tupinikim indigenous people, people of this holy land.

The simplicity, humility, sharing, hospitality, are words that I remember celebrating those days.

The availability, tenderness of the families we met, visited, lived, brought forth the beauty of true and sincere principles ​​that value the encounter with the Other and the sacredness of knowing how to welcome.

The Tupinikim people, as all indigenous peoples, fought for the recognition of the land that was always theirs and they lost with colonization, besides losing the right to be resident.

Indigenous land, holy land.

A fight that began in 1979 until 1981 for a territory increasingly exploited by another colonization, a foreign multinational, supported by the lobbies of political and economic power.

Many attempts were made by the police with guns and threats to the Tupinikim in order to leave their land. Many were the processes, finding letters and documents to prove it was an indigenous land and finally in 1993 came the land demarcation and recognition that protects the indigenous territory, their communities and villages.

The struggle for life, fight for rights, respect for a culture that is being lost and resist the increasingly dominant homogenization that wants to treat everyone as objects and consumers.

Threats ended and the law has confirmed a truth that has always existed, now is the time to recover a territory exploited by a (foreign) industry that planted eucalyptus trees at each site by market interests, for the manufacture of cellulose.

The problem is that these trees grow faster and take water from the land, impoverishing the soil and occupying the space of the native forest.

When the weather due to drought does not help, everything becomes difficult and complicated for those who live from agriculture.

Restart, caring for the earth and its fruits, through an indigenous tradition that always respect the Pachamama, living with essentials, is a beautiful lesson of life that indigenous taught us.

In this land we were welcomed, we felt at home and there is no more beautiful thing for a foreign pilgrim that being accepted and taken in hand.

Comboni Family: Father Elias, Father Savio, Sister Josephine, Emma, ​​Wedipo, Cosmas, Fidel, Grimert.

Emma Chiolini (Italian CLM in Brazil)

The vine, the branches and the pruning

A commentary on John 15,-18, Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3

Last Sunday Jesus used the image of a Good Shepherd, connected to the culture of cattle raising; today he chooses an image connected to the culture of vine growers. Vine growing is not a universal culture, but it is spreading quickly to many parts of the world and wine is being increasingly consumed, even if many do not know the plant itself. Anyway, I think that it is not difficult for anybody to understand the deep meaning of this allegory that Jesus is telling us today, based on the culture of Israel and many other peoples in the world.
Let us proceed then on this allegory. To have grapes and wine, we need, apart from the land itself, three esential elements:

P10102511. The vine that carries new life
Jesus compares Himself with the vine, and the Father with the wine grower who prunes the branches of the vine. Jesus, whose personality is rooted in the Father’s Love, gives life to new “branches”, “members of his body” (as Saint Paul says), called to bear plenty of fruit in communion with Him and with the Father.
Some people seem to think today that they can give fruit by themselves, as if they were the “autonomous” sources of life, as if the branches could grow without the vine or as if a vine could grow without a land and a grower. But the true disciples of Jesus know that without the caring Love of the Father given to us in Jesus Christ, the “vine” to which we are attached, our life becomes fruitless and it ends up in a useless fire.
Some seem to think also that the Church is little more than a social, political or humanitarian organization. But the Church is, in the first place and above all, the community of those specially related to God in Jesus Christ. Certainly, the Church is and does many things; it runs, for example, thousands of schools and hospitals and its ministry has many social economic, cultural and political effects… Certainly, but lets us not confuse the effects with the causes. The Church is, first of all, an space of faith and relationship with God the Father in Jesus Christ. If that faith disappears, all the rest will disappear sooner or later.

gesu-e-vite2.- The branches that, springing up from the vine, bear fruit
Jesus says that we, his disciples and friends, are those “branches”. Saint Paul uses another expression, but the meaning is the same: We are members of his body. It is quite evident that the branches of a tree or the members of a body are nothing without the tree or the body. So to have life and bear fruit, we, the “branches”, have to avoid two dangers:
-To be broken and separated from the vine: I remember when I, as a young man, used to go with my father to the vineyard. We were very careful not to break the branches. If that happened, we knew that we have just lost part of the fruit we were so eager to receive from that vine. That is what is actually happening to us, when by unconsciousness or pride, we separate ourselves from Jesus Christ, thinking maybe that we are strong enough to do important things by ourselves. If we fall into that temptation, we become fruitless. It is essential to remain united to Jesus Christ with our love, the reading of his words, the obedience to his mandates, the communion with his disciples and the openness to his Spirit.

-To forget the pruning. Winegrowers know very well that a vine that is not pruned becomes very soon old and fruitless. I remember a vine that we had in one of our communities: left without pruning for a few years, became fruitless and is was set for death. When we decided to prune it adequately, it began quite soon to renew itself and give good fruit. The meaning of this allegory is quite clear, if we do not prefer to look to another side: A life “abandoned”, not “pruned” becomes chaotic and fruitless. We all know how athletes and musicians, among many others, need a lot of discipline to make progress. The same happens with our life and our discipleship. We need the decision to be disciples, but, besides, we need to be pruned by the Father through prayer, Bible reading, good counselling, openness to the Spirit…

IMG_01473.- The fruit: the wine, that can transform a sad life into a feast banquet, like in Cana.
We all wish to give fruit and to live happy and fruitful lives. But we must remember that fruits are not something artificially added to the branches of threes. Fruits do not come from the outer part, but from the inner one. I’s only the inner life of the tree that can assure the arrival of the fruit. In the same way, a disciple will give fruit, only if he or she has a rich inner life, in deep relationship with Jesus Christ, and if he or she allows himself to be constantly “pruned” and taken care of by the Father. If the disciple remains united to Jesus and the Father, He or she will give abundant fruits of goodness and generosity, peace and joy, humility and service… In short, of a new life rooted in Jesus Christ.

Fr. Antonio Villarino
Roma

CLM formation in Ghana

GhanaSince the Provincial Counsel has assigned Fr Godwin Kornu to journey with us, we have also started focusing on the formation process. In the line of this, we have our monthly formation at Bakpa-Avedo, an out-station of Mafi-Kumase, the quasi-parish where resides our chaplain. The theme should have been Comboni’s Faith, but father decided to talk first of all about FAITH. Father started by defining Faith in four ways:

  1. Faith in something or in somebody.
  2. Strong religious belief.
  3. Faith in reference to a particular religion.
  4. Faith used in conjunction with adjectives good or bad. To keep or to break faith.

The (b) is the one closer to our situation said the Rev. Fr. He said that faith is a gift from God and He is the initiator. To have faith in God is to surrender to Him. The faithfulness of God arouses faith. The one who believes will wait actively and Hope should give us joy. Our joy should not be circumstantial but should have its root in God. Faith does not go in contradiction with the reason but faith is higher than reason. Faith is, said father, compared to a seed which everybody has to develop. Prayer is the way by which faith can grow. But while praying, we should have in mind that our prayer can’t change God’s plan for us but prepare us to receive what God has for us.

After this presentation, we discussed some few issues. We concluded for all members to create a Small Christian Community (S.C.C.) at our various places as a way of our commitment. Through it, we can carry out some of our activities as far as Evangelization, Mission Animation, Vocation promotion and JPIC are concerned. We also decided to show our closeness, “common cause” to two of our members having some accidents. The 9th May was at the end agreed on for our coming meeting at Abor, our CLM Center. After this, we had the agape.

Justin Nougnui, coordinator.

Visit to Italy

Italia

Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the coordination meeting of the Italian CLM in Florence.

I appreciate the invitation of the CLM from Italy to share this time together. It was very interesting to know more deeply the reality of the different groups that are present throughout Italy. Each with a particularity and its own way. A reality closely linked to each specific place and expressed particularly by each group. The richness of the charism of Comboni is clear, and in Italy can be seen in the way that lay people try to stay faithful to this vocation. Some groups with great commitment to social level, working on JPIC issues like immigration (which is news in the media these days for the misfortunes in the Mediterranean), raising awareness in schools and doing missionary animation in parishes and area centers, heavily working the presence of community life as laity, with specific experience and new projects for opening, maintaining consistency in training the groups, with prayer as revitalizing center, etc. We had a specific time to know how things are going for Emma in Nova Contagem with the Brazilian CLM and Marco and Valentina in Piquiá (also in Brazil) and the support that the different groups provided them.

We also had a good time to talk about the reality of the CLM internationally, so that I could inform and exchange points of views. I encouraged them to communicate in the international blog what each group was doing. Something I always do in the groups. There is so much wealth that, it is a shame that others do not know it and when we exchange it everyone can grow.

I think Italy has a nice way to go to create synergies. Starting with the different groups within the country and of course in coordination with the CLM internationally. We create a large network where we can work together for a more fair, more human, more divine… world attending to the problems of men and women of our time from the 20 countries where we operate, exchanging ideas, experiences, contacts, support. On top of that, we are one big CLM family, united by the same charisma and intuition of Comboni that “this work (the mission) should be Catholic, and not specifically Spanish or French, German or Italian”. Comboni encourages us to continue working together, not seeking uniformity but synergy, commitment, collaboration, fraternal assistance to carry out Jesus’ call to mission. A family that worry and support each other for the good of the people.

In addition to the meeting I also had time to visit the group of Bologna and Venegono. Talk quietly, share concerns. I admit that I felt very comfortable at all times, in family. The best of these trips is to feel closely the warmth of each CLM, the enthusiasm for the mission, the commitment of everyone, beyond or within the labor and/or family obligations that as laypeople we face every day. The Faith and follow of the Lord that from every corner of the world we try to carry out every day.

I hope many others may join the group, in all countries, to continue serving the Lord in our smallest and needy brothers wherever He leads us.

The unselfish Shepherd

A commentary on John 10, 11-18, Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 26th 2015

We continue Reading Saint John’s Gospel. Today we read chapter tenth with the allegory of the Good Shepherd, a very meaningful image for ancient peoples, who used to live on cattle. The majority of us live now in big cities and do not have the direct experience of a shepherd’s work and life, but still the image is powerful and inspiring also for us. Let me offer you three points of meditation:

aaa1.- People, more than a wages
Walking from town to town, in Palestine, Jesus could observe, as we do nowadays, that there were many authorities working just for the pay, not for the good of the people they were working for. Those “shepherds” were centred in themselves, their money, their prestige, their good name, with no real interest for the good of the persons they were supposed to serve, people who were really in need of guidance, like “sheep without a shepherd”: Many politicians were more interested in their own richness than in organizing a just society; many fathers and mothers were thinking on their own wellbeing more than on their children’s vocation; many religious leaders were acting, not according to the heart of God, but putting their search for money, power and prestige before the wellbeing of God’s children.
Before this situation, Jesus, Son of the living God, who has declared himself “the shepherd of his people” (Ezekiel 34, Psalm 23), presents himself with his real identity: an unselfish shepherd, that is, not centred in himself, but in the need of his “sheep”: sick people, sinners, friends, children of his Father. For Him people are not means to achieve personal, political or religious goals. People are not instrumental to anything, but the Father’s loved children. And He has no doubts about giving his life out for them in total freedom and generosity.
This leads me to two conclusions for my own life:
-Jesus is the only true Shepherd of my life. Nobody else. Certainly, all of us need others: friends, parents, teachers, doctors, politicians…They are, somehow, shepherds of our life. But one thing is clear to me: the only shepherd to whom I entrust my life is Jesus Christ. I allow myself to be guided by Him, loved by Him. In him I find the nourishment for my soul, the free and undisputed love… And that makes me free from so many pretentious shepherds who try to use me for their own interests.
-I am also called to become a shepherd. I am called to guide others, to give my life for others. Looking at Jesus I become a disciple-shepherd, somebody that looks at others, not as a means of “self-realization”, but as autonomous children of God, to whose fulfilment I can contribute with my words and actions, affection and testimony.

P10104232.- To know and to be known: “I know my sheep, as my Father knows me”
The famous Uruguayan writer, deceased recently, Eduardo Galeano, told once a story about a young boy who was lonely in a hospital on Christmas eve. To the doctor who went to visit him before going home to celebrate Christmas, the boy said: “Tell somebody that I am here”… Maybe you have seen how people become “mad” when they see themselves on television; they rejoice at the fact of their public appearance, of been seen by others… That happens because we are made to “be in the eyes of somebody”, to be looked at, to be recognised by somebody. Without that we feel alone, “abandoned”, not taken into consideration, we are like “nothing”, as “sheep without a pastor”. Sometimes we may have the impression of being alone in live and that even the nearest people know us only from the outside, not what we really are in our inner self.
What Jesus is telling us today is that He knows us in our inner reality, that we are not lost in the mass, that we are SOMEBODY in his eyes. Jesus relates to me as the Father relates to him: with knowledge, love and mutual belonging.

P10202723.- An inclusive community
The disciples of Jesus learn continuously how to build up a community, in which everyone is appreciated and accepted as He is with an absolute value in himself. People are not important because of their “instrumental” value but because they are God’s children. In this sense, how beautiful it is the custom we find in some Christian communities to stay over, after Mass, to greet around, to take a coffee together, to know more about each other, to be “somebody” among many other important “somebodies”.
This community of people known by Jesus and to each other is an open community, always ready to welcome other “sheep” that are for some time out of the “sheepfold”, not because we want to increase our numbers (for power and prestige), but because we want to share the marvellous gift of this unselfish shepherd, who wants (and we with Him) that everybody has “life and life in abundance” (Jn 10,10). The community of Jesus’ disciples is a missionary-shepherd community, who cares for the wellbeing of others, always ready to go out of itself and meet the needs and joys of the people of our time.
Fr. Antonio Villarino
Roma