It’s been just over a month since I arrived in Haiti for my summer mission trips. I would go back in a heartbeat!
At the beginning of the mission, Father reminded all of the missionaries, “don’t give your cross away, you will find that you will need it during the mission…or if you feel you must give it away, do it on the last day.” The idea is that the cross reminds us that we are on mission and that Jesus is with us.
Since I have been back, I haven’t had the desire to take off my “mission cross”. It’s not just because it was blessed by Blessed Pope John Paul II. In fact, if it were just an ordinary cross, I think that I would still have it on. I keep wearing it because it reminds me that I am still on mission.
In Haiti, I found that it was so easy to love, so easy to give myself. But it’s not really Haiti that makes that happen. It is my attitude when faced with difficult situations.
When I first arrived at the Home for the Dying the first Sunday we were on mission, my heart beat nervously as we climbed the stairs to the women’s ward to be with the people. I was acutely aware that the other missionaries were looking to me for an example of how to “be with” the people, but I was also acutely aware that this was one experience I had foregone last year when I was on mission.
But faced with this difficulty, I knew I just needed to get started and I decided to embrace this mission and the women staying at the Home. This was one of the most beautiful experiences of the mission. As I began to give the “spa treatment” to the first patient, my hands applying lotion to her emaciated legs, I began to think, “how would Jesus touch this woman?” and “how would I touch this woman if she were Jesus?”
Those few minutes were some of the most intimate moments I spent in prayer with Jesus. I could have stayed there forever. I didn’t want to leave. And at the end, I couldn’t help myself and I kissed the woman’s feet.
But as I reflect on this experience, I realize that God allowed it not only so I could have this one-time beautiful “mystical” prayer with Him, but so that I could take these same questions home with me and reflect on them in my daily dealings with my community, with the people I encounter here in Michigan.
I think that I will be staying with my mission cross for quite a while. From this moment on, I am always on mission!
