Africa Matters

Over this past weekend, I was in Omaha for the Word Made Flesh Board Meeting, where we marked and celebrated a significant transition in the leadership of the 17 year old ministry among the poor in the world. Chris and Phileena Heuertz now serve together as the international co-directors of Word Made Flesh (until now, Chris has served as the International director and Phileena as the associate director for community care). The transition into co-directorship is not only an affirmation of Phileena’s leadership and gifts within the organization, it is a celebration of the mutuality of the gifts of activism and contemplation, of advocacy and administration; of the outer and the inner calling; of St. Francis and St. Clare that Chris and Phileena model and live into as husband and wife, and now as co-directors for partnership and community accompaniment respectively.

WMF Board

There are many organizations that serve the poor around the world. What makes WMF unique is their commitment to community and friendship with the poor. In the ten countries in which WMF “operates,” the goal is not so much to serve or even minister to the poor, but to live among, and be friends with, the poor. As Chris Heuertz (and Christine Pohl) write  in Friendship at the Margins (one of the titles in Resources for Reconciliation series of CFR):

“The possibility of and longing for local friendships is what drew many present staff members to WMF. Much like career missionaries, we learnt to love those we had gone to serve. But as the friendships on the streets and the neighborhoods grew, we came to understand that we were not ministering ‘to’ our friends, but in ministry ‘among’ them. We ourselves were being ministered to as authentic and humanizing relationships emerged.

“As our friendships grew and deepened, we discovered that we loved the people among whom we lived and ministered…. Gradually we realized that even more than we wanted to ‘minister’ to our friends, we wanted to be in community with them.

We were surprised. In relationship and friendships with those who are poor, we were learning to follow our friends to God’s heart. Along the way, we redefined success in terms of faithfulness.”

-Chris Heuertz and Christine Pohl, Friendship at the Margins, 33-4

Be sure to check out this wonderful book, but also be on the look out for Phileena’s book: Pilgrim of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life (to be released in June).

I remember when a priest friend of mine from North Carolina came back from his first visit to Uganda. He talked about his experience going to mass in a parish in Uganda. The service was very lively and energizing, he said: there was music, clapping, dancing, an offertory procession with gifts of produce and live animals, animated preaching, personal testimonies, communion, etc. The service lasted from ten in the morning to three in the afternoon. “I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Bob said, “but it also felt like too much of a good thing.”

"Mystery Revealed," James Fissel

That is kind of how Easter feels, or at least the Easter Vigil service I attended. The service started at 8 PM, and we did not get out till around 11 PM. Moreover, the service was so full of lively music and rich symbolism: from the blessing of the Easter fire; the lighting of the Easter candle; the procession (led by the Easter candle) into the dark church, which gradually became filled with the glow of flickering lights from our small candles; the aroma of incense; the signing of the Exultet, the readings (we did 5 instead of the suggested 7); the singing of the Gloria and great Alleluia; the gospel proclamation; the blessing of the baptismal water; the baptism and anointing of the newly baptized; the renewal of the baptismal promises; the Eucharist… Not only was the service packed with lots of activities, everything was excessive. Talk about “too much of a good thing.”
I had received news about some disappointing developments at home that Saturday morning. As I drove to the Vigil service, I was still feeling sadness and anguish from the news. The gift of Easter that I distinctly remember is that when I was driving home later that night after the Vigil service, I was feeling completely different. I still remembered the news from home, but the sadness and anguish that I felt earlier in the day had disappeared. In fact, I was feeling very hopeful about the whole event. Somehow, in the three hours of the “too much of a good thing” as we participated in the drama of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, Easter had happened. Anguish, fear and sadness had given way to hope and joy.

What the three hours of Easter Vigil confirmed is that Easter does happen: God does indeed Easter (a Franciscan priest taught me to see Easter as a verb) new life, hope and joy in our lives, but that takes time for us to even experience or feel it. It also takes a bit of “too much” of God’s grace – an excess of God’s Eastering work, through various symbols, signs, gestures, insights, friendships and  community. I hope and pray that you take the time to experience something of this “too much” of Easter during this Holy Season.