Reflection
I entered the Franciscan Friars in 1982 at the age of twenty-two. Not long
after making my life commitment in 1988, I ministered with two other friars
in a small new parish in western Sydney where we tried to be in close and simple
contact with people. An important part of our Franciscan calling is to live
in a spirit of solidarity with the real life situation of those to whom God
sends us. So it was that we decided to rent a standard three bedroom suburban
home and try to make ourselves as available as possible to the local people.
Ours was not so much a "typical parish" for we had no church, but
worked out of our home, and celebrated the Eucharist and other liturgies at
the local Catholic Primary School. Eventually, our agreed time there was complete,
and we moved on, passing our ministry onto the Diocese that had invited us to
be there.
For myself, Franciscan life was to take me to East Africa, where I had earlier
volunteered to be available. Missionary activity is and has always been a very
important element of the Franciscan calling. St.Francis himself made several
visits beyond his native Italy, and the early friars soon began to spread their
Gospel way of life around the world. In Africa, I was to learn quickly that
to be missionary involves just as much (if not more) listening and learning,
as it does speaking, doing, and teaching. After some initial preparation, I
was asked to be responsible for the training of our first year candidates to
the Order, as well as taking pastoral care of the small parish where we lived.
Once again, my brother friars and I tried our best to work together as one fraternity,
for the witness of our common life and unity of purpose was to be crucial, not
only in helping each another to cope with the challenges we faced, but also
to give our ministry credible and lasting effect.
As I had experienced in the context of western Sydney, the three of us in Mwanza,
Tanzania sought to live a simple life out of respect for the usually much poorer
life that the local people around us had to live. To live in a tangible degree
of solidarity with the poor of our world, just as Francis and his brothers had
done out of imitation of Jesus who made himself one like us, is always a challenge
to we Franciscans. It is one of the ways entrusted to us of witnessing to the
Gospel truth of the first Beatitude:
After 8 years experience in the East African countries of Tanzania, Uganda,
and Kenya, my time had come to return to Australia. Here I am now, just 4 months
back. Where my Franciscan life will now take me, I cannot say with certainty.
But after some preparation, my hope is to continue being as faithful as I can
to our Franciscan values of prayer, the life of brotherhood, solidarity especially
with the poorer and weaker of our society, and the spread of the Gospel message
in whatever way seems best suited to time and place.
Mario Debattista OFM
