During the last year of seminary and the next year of diaconate, I was in our English mission, in Eastleigh. Last year, just before my priestly ordination, the Fraternity asked me to leave for a new European destination: Hungary. Therefore, after the celebration of my ordination with eleven other brothers and a brief period of vacation with my family, in August, I arrived in Budapest.
During the trip, I thought: “Now I’ll have to study one of the most difficult languages in the world and I’ll be forced to spend the first two years in a monastic sort of way: prayer and study!”. Instead, the first Sunday after I arrived, Carlo, the responsible of our house in Budapest, who has been on mission in Hungary for 10 years now, introduced me to a few young families of the parish. Marci, a young father, greeted me in exceptional English. We began to speak and he told me that, actually, many young Hungarians now learn English at school rather than German. But he added, at the end of our brief dialogue: “However, if you want to touch the heart of the Hungarian people, you have to learn their language.” This phrase has often kept me company in the past year. What does it mean to touch the heart of the people? Or to be sent as missionaries? Is it possible to be a missionary from the very beginning, when one is still learning the language?
Since September, in reality, beyond attending language lessons, I began to accompany Michele -the pastor of our mission- to the weekly moment of catechism for children. Every Wednesday evening, we meet to have a snack together, to sing and play games, to listen to a brief lesson or have an activity that has to do with the theme of the week. I usually smile a lot, and seek to listen and stay with the children, who obviously do not know other languages.
I have been sent to bring the gaze of Christ
One day -when winter had already arrived- we were seated in a circle to sing together. One of the kids was passing out song sheets and I did not get one. I turned to the girl seated next to me to ask her if I could share her sheet but…I realized that after three days I didn’t even know how to say a simple phrase of survival: “Can we look at the song sheet together?”.
The following morning, during our daily hour of silence, I reflected on the past months here in Budapest and I asked myself what I had done. I was illuminated by the awareness that, in reality, mission does not begin when I am capable of expressing myself and speaking like a Hungarian. I have been sent here to be with the people, with these children, week after week, to share with them the gaze of Jesus who looks at every person inserted in the great plan that He has prepared for all. I am there to walk with them to discover that life with Christ is something beautiful.
From that moment on, I no longer lived weighed down by what I was able to do. Rather, I began to notice that the children really hold on to the fact that I keep coming and they even try to teach me some words in Hungarian. A reciprocal affection began to grow between us. Despite the fact they would speak and I would not understand them, they knew that I would come back every Wednesday. Then I began to note with gratitude that there was also Michele who was leading the catechism, who was always available to help me and would translate everything just for me. Another six months passed: at the end of June, we went to a summer camp with these children with whom we had done a year of catechism. It was six days spent together in the woods, in which we ate, played together, and spent two evenings around a campfire. I was beginning to understand the children when they spoke and I was able to express myself at their level. Even with a linguistic capacity that improves day by day, I want to retain in my heart what I have understood. Touching the heart of the people, being a missionary, does not begin with speaking but with the conviction that I have been sent to bring the gaze of Christ. This can be communicated immediately, with a simple but faithful presence, to the people to whom we are sent.
