You are a missionary -religious or diocesan – and all you can boast of offering to your community of missions is the record of grottoes and church structures. Church halls and podiums that serve more to goats and sheep, chapels of adoration and orations, rebuilding an already existing parish house or the multiplication of unnecessary structures in the church. Golden tabernacle alters in marble, imported chasubles, too costly parish schools, etc. And if you didn’t know, now you know.
Tell me that the Lord likes beautiful things, but when did God tell you that he prefers your expensive grottoes and opulent tabernacles to make your parish school affordable for your poor parishioners?
Tell me that the Lord wants a befitting house, but when did He ever inform you that He needs two to three halls in a village where some citizens cannot comfortably eat to their satisfaction?
Tell me when God said that the chapel in your beautifully constructed Church is not sufficient and that you have to build another expensive chapel when most of your people dwell in abject poverty.
It is time for the church in certain parts of the world to begin investing in sustainable and human development.
Your community is made up of peasant farmers; invest in agricultural development structures
–they have no source of potable water, invest in water supplying infrastructure
–they have no excellent school, give them an affordable qualitative school
–build a library to promote a reading culture
–collaborate with the schools in your community to build a better tomorrow for the youth
–Develop a pastoral program that helps promote justice, peace, and the integrity of the creation.
–protect the vulnerable and the marginalized, etc.
Remember that he mandated the Apostle to feed them when the people finished listening to Jesus. So,
- Is your community hungry for a good education? Feed them yourself.
- Are your parishioners thirsty? Give them to drink.
- Are they lacking in social amenities? Work with them to invest in sustainable development infrastructure.
Stop misusing the opportunities you are given to change your mission. Stop multiplying unnecessary structures and wasting the opportunity to be the natural agents of change your mission calls you to be.
And finally, never forget that heaven starts here, not in the head but in your community members’ lives (social, spiritual, anthropological, etc.).
