ONE HEART, ONE MISSION:

December, 2019

      Let us begin by telling you a little about how it all began: our vocational journey as lay members of the Chevalier Family:
      We met a Missionary of the Sacred Heart, Father Mauricio, in an unusual way; it was not in church, but at a moment of pain in our family, the death of my mother-in-law. A friend of hers brought him to the funeral celebration and we met there. In the following weeks, he visited us, showing his solidarity with us and taking care of us during the first days of mourning. Thus, he became a great friend to our family.
      At that time our two children were small and we didn’t actively participate in the Church, we just went to Mass. Time went by and little by little we returned to participate in some activities, until in 2003 Doris was invited to participate in a meeting with the Missionary Fathers of the Sacred Heart in the Seminary of Philosophy.
Today, 15 years later, we are laypeople of the Chevalier Family and our family breathes the Spirituality of the Heart and the Charism of Father Jules Chevalier.
      During this time we have had several experiences of being “on mission”: in Mato Grosso, Ecuador, Miguel Alves (interior of Piauí, twice) and Amazonia. On two occasions, we welcomed missionaries from Ecuador who stayed with us for one year, two young women, because as Father Luis Mosconi says: “Mission is Life and Life is Mission”.
As we have already said in the previous paragraphs, the Chevalier Family has become part of our family and vice versa. Thus, we always used to tell some Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of our desire that when we retired and our two children, James and Philip, were no longer dependent on us, we would like to go out on the missio ad gentes, because we understood that we could provide a service for the Chevalier Family in building the Kingdom of God, bringing the witness of God’s Love to the world from the perspective of a lay couple. And so this idea was built up and matured, and today we affirm, without a shadow of a doubt, that we have been blessed and graced by God. For a long time, the impression was given that this blessing would tskr its concrete in Ecuador, because of our involvement with that MSC Mission. But as we always say: God’s ways are not necessarily thought of with our logic so here we are on this continent where everything seems to be at the beginning of creation.
       When we were approved, for some time it seemed that it was not true. Time passed and preparations began and we arrived here on May 6, 2019, right after Cyclone Kenneth. Everything was devastated. The first departure from the capital of Cabo Delgado was two days after we arrived, with Bishop Luis Fernando, our Bishop. My God, how did you let this happen to these people who already have so little? My God, why did you put us here? And so it was with our arrival on this continent where we Brazilians have a historical debt, because of our history as a country. Yes, unfortunately our country for 350 years was developed by the slave labor of men and women who were uprooted from their homeland, Africa. Maybe this historical aspect of our lives is something that has marked our arrival and stay here. At various times, we feel ashamed of such atrocities carried out by human hands. Unfortunately in some moments the human being, to the detriment of his will, forgets that the other was also created in the image and likeness of God.
      People walked with their heads down, even wounded. Their lives had been hit full on, because where there is very little, any loss makes such a big difference. They had lost their houses, plantations, lives and perhaps, also, the courage to continue. Some people even wondered why we were there at a time like this. In fact, we have the impression that it even seems that they do not feel worthy of the presence of Missionaries. After all, they are so mistreated by the moral aggressions that we see every day: lack of schools, lack of health care, lack of medicine, lack of water, corruption and so many other things.
      With regard to the plantations, some families have lost everything, with not even the seeds left to remake the jambas (plantations), which means that hunger will increase.
      Our work was timidly begun, helping people to regain their self-esteem, being only together with them, speaking little, trying to be a presence and witness to the Love of God. After 7 months we are involved in various works such as Youth, Catechesis, Caritas Projects, Projects of the Diocese of Rehabilitation of Houses, communication, fundraising campaigns with the laity to help in the reconstruction of chapels that were affected by the Cyclone and of course our usual house work such as washing, cooking, searching for water, cleaning the house, raising animals and so on.
      We cannot forget that our mission takes place in a large geographical space, where we are a religious minority, a minority because we are foreigners, a minority because we are white, a minority because we do not speak the local dialects, or understand the traditions inherent to African culture. We can say that these are the ‘shadows’ of our Mission. As everything exists, there are two paths, we do not find only shadows. The lights also illuminate our day: to witness to the grace of the presence of Catholic Christians who for decades have persevered in the faith, most of the time in a hostile environment, the joy of the sincere conversion of people of all ages, the joy and the strength to live, the affectionate welcome towards the Missionaries. This makes us believe that the hope “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere” is fully possible.
      As members of a joint mission between laity and religious, we feel that we are participating in something new, which, if taken seriously by both sides, we see as a prophetic church for the present and the future. Obviously, the Lay members of the Chevalier Family need to be prepared and mature in faith, to face the diversity that a Mission like this presents us with every day. But it is precisely this diversity that enriches us as a missionary community, not only as an MSC Community but as people who are inserted in a suffering reality, abandoned and witnessing to a new way of evangelization.
      In this moment that our humanity lives, where everything and everyone is disposable, we hope that this experience does not enter into this way of discarding, especially on the part of the Lay of the Chevalier Family. That the layperson of the Chevalier Family can perceive the great value of putting himself/herself at the disposition without restriction to make the Heart of God loved in all, all the confines of the world.

Doris and Ranulfo (Lay of the Chevalier Family, Missionaries in Mozambique )