World Mission Sunday or the “gala of love”
This year, the World Mission Sunday in Saint Joseph the Worker Parish, the Xaverian parish in Thailand, was the celebration of cultural diversity and the promotion of friendship between Thai people and Burmese people. Motivated by the affirmation of Pope Francis that "the poor, the little ones and the sick, those who are often looked down upon or forgotten, those who cannot repay us" are “the first to whom the Gospel message must be proclaimed", we welcomed 15 young Burmese people from one of the Burmese refugees camps in Thailand in our parish from Saturday 17 to Sunday 18 October. It was a meaningful experience for most of our parishioners since they are used to consider Burmese as transgressors of Thai laws and norms, illegal migrants, criminals, outsiders, people destined for dangerous, dirty, degrading and low income works. As a matter of fact, most of our parishioners employ Burmese migrants in their farms for a wage which is less than the minimum required by the Thai law. So, this weekend, we saw that the message of Christ helps build bridges among people; it creates new relationship based on love, respect and justice among people. In fact, it was really beautiful to see Thai and Burmese people chatting with one another in a friendly way, praying for one another, praying together, playing together and sharing meal together as children of the same family...Yes, we are indeed children of the Same Father.
World Mission Sunday was thus for us as parish an opportunity to rediscover Burmese people as our brothers and sisters in Christ by listening to their struggles, fears, hopes, dreams, faith experience ( like us they are looking for happiness, fulfillment, God) and to express our love and sympathy for them. We were very happy to hear some of our young parishioners telling us "father, we would like to go to visit them and all the Burmese refugees in the camp" and also to hear the young Burmese people saying to us "thank you for loving us".
The experience of this weekend dedicated to mission reminds us once more that the Holy Spirit is really at work in the heart of people despite our limitations and our difficulty in speaking well the Thai language. It encourages us to continue journeying with the people of God as their brothers, friends and proclaiming with our community life (a community which is made of people from different age, culture, race) the beauty and the joy of knowing Jesus; in fact Saint Francis of Assisi or one of his disciples or fans once gave this precious piece of advice to some missionaries "preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words".
Thierry Kengne, sx
Galleria fotografica
