Across the road from our Missio office there are a series of magnificent trees proud and welcoming, not haughty or threatening, but potent reminders of the beauty and splendour of God’s creation.
Wrapped around the bushes beneath the trees is a vine that spreads its tentacles around anything that will accept it. It reaches out under the road and pavement some thirty feet or so and emerges through a crack in our wall. And there, against all the odds, it bursts into new life. As many times as I have cut it back, it never gives up and starts growing again. Seemingly, its progress cannot be halted.
It struck me recently that this perseverance in nature is a reflection of the coming of God’s Kingdom – that order of human affairs where God reigns in human hearts with compassion and justice.
This can be applied equally to our life as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ. Just as God perseveres in establishing His Kingdom, so we are called to persevere in proclaiming it in word and deed.
In his message for World Mission Sunday this year, Pope Francis reminds us that perseverance is a fundamental characteristic of mission which ‘is a tireless going out to all men and women, in order to invite them to encounter God and enter into communion with him. Tireless! The Church, for her part, in fidelity to the mission she has received from the Lord, will continue to go to the ends of the earth, to set out over and over again, without ever growing weary or losing heart in the face of difficulties and obstacles.’
Missio in Nigeria
I had the pleasure of recently meeting Fr Solomon who is the Missio National Director in Nigeria. He spoke at length about insurgency in his home Diocese of Maiduguri, where terrorists target Catholic communities. Now relatively calm, its effects are still keenly felt.
He told me how in 2011 he called in to the Cathedral house in Maiduguri town on his way back to his parish. When he arrived, he found that the Bishop and seven Priests had all gone to funerals far away. The housekeeper offered Fr Solomon a simple lunch after which he went to the bank across the road. While in the bank there was a mighty explosion that rocked the building. ‘Just my luck that the day I go into this bank, is the day of a bank robbery!’ he thought.
But it was not the bank that was attacked, it was the Cathedral house. ‘I ran to the Cathedral only to find the house I left a few minutes ago, bombed. I could not believe what I saw: the roof of the dining room had collapsed along with many structures within the Cathedral house, including the bedrooms and offices,’ he said, ‘but the miracle of this incident was that not a single person was in the house when it happened. No one was hurt.’
He concluded by telling me that although he was minutes away from being killed, this incident strengthened his faith, and in his words made him ‘to be more dedicated, committed and determined in serving God’. No one was going to stop him being missionary.
This is perseverance of a special kind that few of us will be called to imitate, and I do wonder how I would have reacted in those circumstances. I would like to think that I would choose to imitate that annoying vine that plods on regardless of difficulties and obstacles, tirelessly reaching out with new life, confident that the coming of God’s Kingdom cannot and will not be stopped.
Links and stories from this month’s eNews
Before he became a Bishop, Fr Vincent addressed a group of young Malawian men training for the priesthood. You can find out how to support future Priests here>>
Mission Together recently gathered brought hundreds of pupils together at Aylesford Priory from across the Archdiocese of Southwark. Read more here>>