Hopelessness. At times the feeling may overwhelm us — maybe as we watch the pain and suffering of others, as we all witnessed recently from the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Perhaps we feel hopeless from the challenges and trials in our own lives, maybe our financial worries, an illness, or anxieties for someone we love, or for ourselves.
On a small island in the Philippines, Nene watched her mother experience such feelings. Confined to her bed because of illness, Nene’s mother couldn’t care for her family. She felt helpless — hopeless.
Every day, Nene would attend the mission school near her home. There local Sisters taught her and her friends many things; most of all they helped her to come to know Jesus.
One day, Nene asked the Sisters to come to see her mother. The Sisters did so that very day, helping to care for the ailing woman, listening to her fears and frustrations, praying with her.
As they had with Nene and her classmates, they spoke of God’s great love for each of us, how our Lord is with us always, never abandoning us.
The Sisters told Nene’s mother that she was a missionary, that she could reach out in prayer to support those who were sharing the hope-filled message of God’s love.
“For many years, I felt useless because my sickness forced me to stay in bed the whole day and stopped me from caring for my children and family,” Nene’s mother said. “And then the Sisters brought me hope, and helped me to understand that I can help the mission. During my day, I travel in my thoughts from place to place, accompanying missionaries like these Sisters with my prayers.”
Bringing hope
This same story is repeated throughout the missions. Through the service of local priests, religious Sisters and Brothers, and lay catechists, those who feel alone in their suffering come to know that the Lord is with them, offering them the hope of his resurrection.
Think of the people in Torit in south Sudan, living for years in exile — driven, by fighting, from their homeland and scattered throughout that African country and in neighboring Uganda.
War broke out in Sudan in 1983, with violence reaching Torit a few years later. Negotiations eventually led to a Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, enabling these refugees to return, which they did in the spring of 2008.
But throughout those Good Friday days in exile, these refugees were accompanied by local priests from Torit. These local clergy educated their children, provided practical help, and, above all, offered the Lord’s healing, loving presence, bringing hope to their suffering.
Upon their return home, the poor of this African country will continue to be served by these priests, as well as by local Sisters and catechists. “We the people of God in the Diocese of Torit see ourselves as a community of love,” says their bishop, Akio Johnson Mutek. “Building this community of love is the vocation of all of us gathered here.”
Transition from suffering
This Lent, as we prepare to mark the transition from suffering to hope — our Lord’s own passing from death on the cross to risen life — will you reach out to your mission family as the Sisters in the Philippines and the priests in Sudan did?
Above all, will you pray, as Nene’s mother did, for the work of bringing the “Good News” of God’s love to the poor?
And will you offer help — perhaps even $1 a day for each of the 40 days of Lent — to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in support of the local churches of the missions, building communities of love and bringing hope to those who are ill and suffering, who feel abandoned and alone?
Know that your own sufferings — your feelings of hopelessness — are also the prayer intentions of your brothers and sisters in the missions. May you and those you love experience abundant blessings at Easter!
Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer is director of the Propagation of the Faith for the Diocese of Madison. Contributions to the Propagation of the Faith may be made at the parish or may be sent to: P.O. Box 44983, Madison, WI 53744-4983.