Joy In My Heart

It was a great surprise to me. About 9 hours before jumping off at 2:00 in the morning of February 10, I was told to join the medical mission for “Odette” victims in the Diocese of Maasin, Southern Leyte. With the limited time to pack up the necessary things to bring such as raincoat, umbrella, and sleeping bag, I had full trust and confidence in the Lord, who calls every Christian to go out from his comfort zone. I know that God wants me to respond to this challenge as He offers a lot of surprises and awe.

I started to feel the joy deep within me as the wish to go to Southern Leyte is slowly realized. At the outset, I could see that the Lord has gone before me with His presence in the midst of people who were hit by super typhoon “Odette”. Deep within me, I could feel that the Lord always makes His love felt by the people through the ministry manifested in the church. As a member of the Body of Christ, the Church, I found this invitation as an opportunity to extend my talent, treasure, and time.

My joy increased when I saw the spirit of volunteerism among those who joined the team. As one among the volunteers, I realized that with the limited time given to me to prepare, this does not mean rushing out aimlessly into the world. Rather, this is a time for me to slow down from my routine and listen to others. Pope Francis said in Evangelii Gaudium to “slow down, to put aside our eagerness in order to see and listen to others, to stop rushing from one thing to another and to remain with someone who has faltered along the way” (EG 46). He further exhorts us to “to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all of the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel.” Indeed, the entire team, composed of medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, cooks, youth, seminarians and priests, worked together as one in different committees.

Joy surpassed the slight difficulties and discomforts I encountered. The long hours of travel, the great number of people who flocked to the site, the unfamiliar floor for our night sleep, all of these I was able to address with maximum flexibility. I am inspired by Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians “to live in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing in every good work bearing fruit.” (Col. 1:10).

As I did my task as a member of the debriefers, I became an instrument to listen to the agony of the people. Some of them do not yet have electricity, water and a house of their own after “Odette” washed them out. As I tried to bring them the only one message of joy, that joy returned to me. Their smile was a smile of those who long to see the brightness of hope. As I tried to be a starter of looking for the future with full trust and faith in God, that joy that I hoped to bring to them returned to me. In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis wrote, “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness, and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew” (EG, 1). This joy that is not superficial is born in me as I listened to their experiences. I felt that joy in becoming a partaker of the mission of the Lord to communicate to them in the midst of their sorrow because of the devastation they face.

As a member of the Church of Davao, I hope that my presence with the people in Southern Leyte, through that medical mission, may become a sign of being a missionary Church, a Church that feels with the people. I hope that my presence with them may become a prolongation of the presence of the Lord as I aspire to become “alter Christus”. I am convinced that “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). Here my joy is anchored: in partaking of the missionary nature of the Church, the duty and privilege of every Christian. “We cannot be disciples without being missionaries” (EG. 120). (Bro. Soren Abellanosa)