Reflection: Jesus, who burnt my heart

On 29 June 2024, at the Marian Shrine of Popenguine, by the laying on of hands of Monsignor Benjamin Ndiaye, Archbishop of Dakar, I was conferred the priestly ministry on behalf of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Engraving this unprecedented gift in the compassionate Heart of Our Lady, I wanted to make it concrete with the motto taken from the implacable Easter hymn entitled ‘Jésus qui m’a brûlé le Coeur’ (‘Jesus who burnt my heart’) by Didier Rimaud, sj. It goes like this: ‘Let me go out in the evening when too many of my people are without news, and by your name in my eyes, make yourself known’.

In addition to me, 16 other candidates, including 05 religious priests and 11 deacons, religious and diocesan, received the grace of being configured to Christ the Servant.

Preceded by a 5-day preparatory retreat, the ordination took place in a lively and sensational atmosphere, bringing together almost everyone from the four corners of the country and its surroundings. This was all the more true given the unsuspected number of priests and religious who had made the trip. It was also a first for the archdiocese to host ordinations with such a large number of religious.

The afternoon Mass was devoted to the various fraternal meals offered by the Congregation and the Family, respectively. And the immensity of the joy of welcoming a new priest was inescapable, so much so that the sleepless nights accumulated in favour of this day could hardly be read on the faces. What’s more, the mobilisation of the parish community where we are newly assigned and family members from countries in the sub-region was impassive.

Initially scheduled for 30 June, the day after the ordination, the first Mass will finally occur on 14 July at Saint Paul’s parish in Grand-Yoff to mark the end of the parish pastoral year. And whatever the tangled web of organisation and proceedings, we have made our own Pauline invitation to give thanks in all circumstances and continue to ask God to rekindle in us this gift we have received.

At the heart of the rural community of Malicounda, in Grandigal, in the department of Mbour (a subdivision of the region of Thiès) lies a large complex whose elegant architecture rivals all the other buildings around it. The UAF MSCs, and particularly those from the District of Senegal, intend to make a spiritual impact on this gigantic estate, which is the stuff of dreams and aims to transform the children who visit it into walking memories. And it was on the occasion of the 70th year of the presence of the MSC in Senegal, under the high presidency of Monsignor Benjamin NDIAYE, Archbishop of Dakar, in the presence of Father Yvon César BANACKISSA, Superior of the UAF, Father Michael HUBER, Provincial of Austria-South Germany and Father Georges Moise DIABONE, District Superior, that this work, unformed and unpopulated until the date of 04 May 2024 which consecrates its deployment, was blessed.

‘Our Society is also concerned with training young people (…). All those responsible for these children will never lose sight of the sublimity of such an important mission. Considering the immense usefulness of this task, they will apply themselves to it with all the more courage and ardour, as it is more thankless and repugnant to nature.’ Based on the spiritual heritage of our founder, Jules Chevalier, of venerable memory, the man who, incidentally, is the patron of this great Complex, we have dared and continue to dare to make the Sacred Heart of Jesus known and loved everywhere and forever, even in the high-risk profession of education.

In fact, ‘rebuilding the global educational pact’ by promoting education for and about the maturing of the person through the language of ideas, the language of the heart and the language of the hands is indeed the evocative paradigm for which we would like to consume ourselves in a world with unfortunately famous scoops such as egolatry, human waste, exclusion, soulless and sweatless consumption. This would then require, in part, a conditioned framework, such as the CSPJC (Complexe Scolaire Père Jules Chevalier), which is for the benefit of all inhabitants of Gandigal and elsewhere, without discriminating against any culture, let alone religious denomination.

To put it mildly, and it has to be said, the fundamental aim of this Complex is to cultivate the dream of a humanism based on solidarity, responding to the expectations of mankind and God’s plan, and consolidating the efforts of the underprivileged to rise above their affront. It is to such a grave responsibility that we each commit ourselves to our specific mission, defined by our terms of reference. There are three of us working here, including a technical director, an economist accountant and a chaplain in charge of spiritual guidance and the religious and moral education of the children.

As a reminder, since we define ourselves by excellence, we have opted to open one class per year to follow better and supervise the generation of beginners and to expect convincing and beneficial results.

Buama Demba, MSC