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Maracay Delegation Breaks Down Barriers and Builds-Up Solidarity
This past July I experienced a new definition of the multi-faceted word "mission.” Our St. Cloud Diocese has a special partnership with the Diocese of Maracay in Venezuela. This is where I had the privilege of traveling this past July. Many of us think of mission in what has become the stereotypical context of building houses and street-side evangelizing. However, our group experienced a new kind of mission. The focus of our delegation was global solidarity, our call to be one human family. With that focus we left the stereotype and went to Venezuela not to build, but rather to break down. We went to break down the barriers that we use to separate ourselves from the rest of the world and to hold us back from solidarity, be it language, culture, or distance. We learned how rich people can live, even when eighty percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Life is not measured by individual accumulation, but rather the good of "you" takes precedence over the good of "I." Communities are tied together like lives are tied together. There's no separation of Church and State, tradition and progress, or family and friends. As Maryknoll Missioner Lisa Sullivan says, "faith must spill well beyond the walls of our church," which I grew to understand through this experience. Tradition does not need to step to the side of progress, as we learned through their celebration of folk-dances and music. Family and friends are not mutually exclusive, but rather intrinsically symbiotic, as was felt often as we were called "brothers" and "sons" or "sisters" and "daughters." I came to understand the necessity for this new paradigm of mission as I encountered more and more walls we've constructed in an infeasible attempt not to offend anyone. In constructing these walls, we've amputated vital parts of our lives from an all-encompassing core. We learn to shut off our faith as we enter the mall, or shut off our humor as we enter Church. We separate what we should integrate. Perhaps that's why I feel a connectedness to the Venezuelan people after only a few days that extends well beyond the reach of any cultural, language, or national borders. They answer the call of human family in Venezuela in a way we can learn a lot from. With the purpose of global solidarity we left for Venezuela; but moreso, with the purpose of global solidarity we came back.
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