a platform for promoting humanity our common heritage
Belgian youth, before going to the World Youth Day in Krakow, did a week-long pilgrimage in six different parishes. In Namur (Belgium) they meet with the French youth, from diocese of Cambrai, they also were on the way to the WYD. Some French youth joined their Belgian friends for a flash mob at Namur train station. It was a way of inviting people to come to the evening’s spectacle.
In our Come & See itinerary we moved from Braine-l’Alleud on Monday morning towards Fleurus. And on Tuesday we were in Wavre. One thing that marked me from our evangelisation on the streets was the response from some persons who said: I’m not interested. I wonder how on earth one would know something is not of interest without first giving it a chance? I learnt a lesson for myself.
In every town we visited, in the evening, we made the spectacle of the religious nature in the parish church. So when we arrived in a town some among us went out on the streets to tell people about the spectacle and invite them to come in the evening. There were mixed reactions. Some raised their hand in total refusal as if to say don’t disturb. Others simply said no. Some people held out their hand to receive just the flyers. There were also those who stopped to listen to us. But there was another type of reaction that left me thinking.
It was the response from people who, in the manner quite dry, cut us short by saying I’m interested. They wouldn’t even give us a chance to explain anything to them. Their mind was already made up neither to listen nor to receive anything. I wonder how they got the intuition to know what we wanted to propose to them wouldn’t be of interest to them.
I guess among those who said I’m not interested could be persons searching for a meaning in their lives. And the spectacle we were proposing gave this possibility, not only religious meaning but also human. That’s why I think, possibly, some of these people missed the chance. Such experience allows me to reconsider my reaction to other people I meet on the street doing some promotion. I realise that I too, perhaps, may have missed opportunities whenever I reacted with I’m not interested attitude.
In fact, rarely do I stop to listen to someone making a campaign or promotion on the street. One thing that comes to mind now is that this blog I write is about promoting humanity. It’s very likely that those people I refused to listen to, not even receiving their flyers; some of them could actually be involved in the same promotion for humanity. But because I closed my mind, I missed the occasion to unite with them and be enriched by what they had to offer. This experience is a point of conversion for me.
Now I realise that perhaps I’m not interested attitude is not a best response. It blocks true encounter with others. Of course, it’s not everything out there that may be of interest to me. Nevertheless, I lose nothing by giving a chance to another person to talk to me. On the contrary, I stand to gain. In fact, I may be surprised to discover how profoundly we share common interests.
I have learnt a lesson. I shall never consider anything to be garbage without first knowing what it is all about. I want to trust another person as someone coming to enrich my humanity. I choose to listen for it’s human to listen to others. And it’s also a way of growing together in our common humanity.
I got into this journey that I describe as journey of faith and humanity in obedience to my superiors who sent me on this mission, with two others, of vocational and missionary animation. It was all about making known our missionary Society by our presence among the youth on the way to the World Youth Day in Kraków, in the program Come & See, as seen in the earlier posts. Happily, it turned out to be more than just a religious journey.
Often it’s the little contradiction that served as point of encounter. Presenting myself, an African, as White Father among the youth predominantly White made a little laughter of astonishment. Indeed, I wasn’t as white as the name suggested. But through such contradiction we got to talk and to know one another a little more.
I got know where these youth live, what they do and a bit of their dreams for the future, especially the type of world they would like to build. There I discovered something profoundly human that lay hidden deep down them. Many of them expressed the desire to work in the cadre of social service. Others were already offering their service in the homes for the old aged or for the handicapped persons. This opened me to another perspective of speaking of vocation.
We like to say there are no vocations in Europe. We need to precise that. In fact, there are abundant manifestations of vocations but not religious or priestly life. However, the common denominator of the activities in which these young people involve themselves is to witness Christ’s love to others. In short, through this journey I was able to enter in contact with people in the way quite close, different from what we see on the streets.
In six days I was happy to taste the Belgian hospitality in six different families. Each family was quite different with its unique reality. However, one thing common to all was that they all gave me a warm welcome. Here I met persons different from those I meet on the streets, apparently too busy even for a simple hello. Indeed, to judge someone by such street encounter would surely be unfair. In the families I found persons attentive and ready to do everything possible to make sure I was comfortable in their home. Yes, I experienced a lot of humanity. It’s not only because they welcomed me but I discovered many of them were also involved in some humanitarian activities on voluntary basis. There I realised that their kindness was neither a show of politeness to me nor merely an impression to a stranger in a particular case. There were people thoroughly humane and it was their way of life.
Yes, it’s human to come close to another person and weave the links of friendship. This journey gave me such opportunity. It helped me to grow in humanity. It allowed me to meet the people where they live, to talk to them and get to know them better. It’s a journey that corrected the quick and an unfair judgement to which I would want cling simply because of one or another accidental experience on the street.
That’s why this journey has been important for me. It has been a religious journey and yet through it I was opened to new relationships that are human. I would say, faith is not opposed to humanity. Thanks to this journey of faith I have blossomed in my humanity. That’s why I call this trip a journey of faith and humanity.
Picture yourself as fanatic of the French football team and at the same time you find yourself sheltered for a night in a Portuguese family the moment when France and Portugal are fighting for the cup. Can you imagine the tension of double royalty, on one hand the emotional allegiance to your team and on the other the need to be polite to your hosts? Thank heavens I was spared of such embarrassment during the final of the Euro 2016.
At the end of the day’s activities, first day of Come & See at Braine-l’Alleud, Bruno announced the hosting families and the persons they would lodge. When a name was called out a woman stepped forward, “Je m’appelle Martine” she said, shaking my hand. “You are welcome to our home. My husband, Emmanuel, couldn’t come. He is watching the march –he is Portuguese.” While watching the match would only be a possibility in some other families, in my hosting family it’s a matter of course.
Just imagine, the same day Mr Emmanuel Mendes, Martine’s husband, was his birthday but there was no celebration. It was anticipated a day before so as not to disturb the sacred cup final. You can appreciate then what this particular match meant to this family. “Do you like football?” Martine asked me as we were driving home. At that moment it was more than just liking football, the side you took mattered also. Happily for me I was prepared to live this moment in the Portuguese family with truly shared sentiments. When I took my option for Portugal I had no any inkling I would find myself few days later in a Portuguese family.
It all began in a simple way. In fact, I must confess that I took the side of Portugal not because of strong attachment to the team. That’s why I would say normally I would be for another team. Indeed, my allegiance to Portugal was quick and uncalculated. It was during the match between Wales and Portugal. For my confrere, Simon, his choice was obvious –he was for Wales. Our cook, Belgian, she too rallied herself behind Wales. With such choice, it appeared to me as if Portugal had already been judged and taken for a loser. In the name of humanity I chose to be on the side of the weak. Of course my choice added nothing, but for me, it was a way of giving Portugal a chance. In the end not only did Portugal win, it humiliated Wales. I felt confirmed in my option. So on that Sunday morning when we were on the train to Braine-l’Alleud my confrere wanted to know if I had changed mind. I told him I was going till the end for Portugal.
When we arrived in the house Mr Mendes abandoned the match to prepare some tea which he served with pieces of cake. And when he came back to watch the match we were really one football family, cheering for Portugal. I was not just being polite to my lodgers; rather, we were indeed for the same team. And his wife, Martine, would remark the following morning while driving me back to the parish church “it’s nice of you to watch the football with us.” In fact, it was our prayer that Portugal would win, and that would be the best birthday gift to Mr Mendes. Anyway, he finally got it after moments of uncertainty and suspense.
How does this experience work for single humanity? Yes it’s often thanks to small experiences of sympathetic encounters that help us to establish and experience friendship. They are provoked by little events that however engrave in us indelible marks of humanity. Thanks to such experiences of fraternity we are given the possibility to believe still in humanity even when it’s destruction we hear from everywhere.
The rendezvous for send-off was Sunday 10th of July at 10:30 hours at Saint-Etienne (St Stephen) parish in Braine-l’Alleud. It’s a send- off for Europa and Come & See.
The three Missionaries of Africa who took part in the Come & See are Simon Gornah, Ghanian, Jean-Noel Baraka, Congolese and I, Evans Chama, Zambian. That Sunday, we rose earlier than usual so as not to be late for the send-off. We took the train from Brussels Central Station to Braine-l’Alleud. Already on the train we could recognise some familiar faces that we had seen during a week-end of preparation in April in Wavre. That made the send-off much homely as we were not a group of strangers. We had at least seen one another before which made it a lot easier to develop some relationship necessary to live this week-long pilgrimage. We were hence not foreign to one another. In this case, I can affirm that the week-end of preparation was, among others things, helpful in preparing us to dive into this spiritual adventure as a family and as friends.
At our arrival in Braine-l’Alleud, even before the send-off, we received tools: a hat, a booklet of songs for the WYD, a booklet for Come & See route containing reflections on the beatitudes, questions for personal meditation and the programme for the week. We had also the Magnificat that contained the reading of the mass as well as morning and evening prayers.
Before the midday bite, we had a little send-off ceremony after which the Europa route got on the bus for Amsterdam while Come & See remained to begin its program.
For the group Come & See the send-off day was mainly to prepare for the activities of the entire week. It involved mainly three groups: the actors of the four vigil prayers. It consisted of acting out biblical events either the encounter of Jesus with Zacchaeus or with the sinful woman.
The second group is the choir that prepared songs and the interlude music for the vigil. The same choir sung at mass that we celebrated every evening.
The third group was technical service. I was part of it. This involved putting in place sound system especially the different microphones: for speakers, singers and for the instruments. The light system was mainly installing spotlights.
While the choir was out for the rehearsals as well as those for the prayer vigil, we too had a full initiation. We began with how to unroll and roll the cables. It’s quite different from what I had known and done before. There’s a way of doing it that has to be respected. It’s quite different from celebrating mass or following a theology lecture. Yes, I had to repeat several times unrolling and rolling the cables before I finally got it. Indeed, it pays when you allow yourself be guided.
In fact, we made the full installation in the parish church, Saint-Etienne at Braine-l’Alleud, as if preparing for a performance, as one participant remarked, “I don’t understand you made all the installations in Church and I was waiting to see something but then you dismantled everything.” All that was a preparation of that we would be required to do every day during the week: installing in preparation for the vigil and dismantling afterwards.
Apart from the three mains services I have mentioned above, there were other activities that involved everyone. For example there were certain songs that we all needed to know, namely the official song of the WYD. Besides, there were also some dances that we needed to learn. One of them was a Hebrew dance entitled: “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony.” There were other songs also like the one we used for flash mob during the evangelisation in the streets.
By the end of day we were thoroughly tired since just after the send-off we swung into action. We were only saved by families that came to pick us as we could not keep them waiting for long time. The send-off Sunday was special. It was the final for Euro 2016 and we looked forward to the march. However, to watch or not depended on the family that received you.
Happily for me, I lodged in a champion family. Indeed, I unknowingly prepared long before hand. That made it a lot easier for me to be fully on the side of the family that welcomed me. The football results injected spices in my stay in the family. I invite you, look out for the next post on the champion family where I spent the night.
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