Call to action

03.08.2009

Fr Shay Cullen has definite ideas on the role and training for missionaries.

When I made my decision to become a missionary I never thought one day I would be documenting the torture, abuse and inhuman conditions of children in prison with hidden cameras, and taking legal action to rescue them and give them a new life free from abuse and the heavy hand of authority. Nor did I expect to be making undercover contact on the streets of an Asian City talking to prostituted women and children and working to help set them free from brothels, traffickers and pimps.

Some Catholics were shocked when they heard of such work thinking that a missionary priest was to be seen only in church. Celebrating the supper of the Lord and absorbing the meaning of His commands for us to love one another as He loved us even to death on the cross, is the most essential of all. What He wanted to be remembered through the Eucharist, was the work He began, to transform the world and for us to continue it. From His self-sacrifice we are inspired and strengthened to be able to go out and confront evil and do good. How well we are doing that is the measure of our success. 

Becoming a missionary is a life-long process and is a call to action that gives idealism an opportunity of action where the desire and spiritual commitment to serve and help can be fostered and strengthened by doing it rather than talking about it.

That's why I advise missionary training to be less scholarly and monastic and more of a practical apprenticeship in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth. He was a man of action and wasted little time. St Columban was the same. He left the monastery and went on mission to confront and change the evils of the world. He never hid away from a challenge. He was a doer more than a talker.

It is hard for young people to be cloistered for seven years while the planet burns, the refugees starve, the children are abandoned and abused.

The temptations to such a life of scholarly ease are many.   

St Paul has always been an inspiration to me. He tried to be "all things to all men." He went to the places where the leaders of the day gathered to convince them that through a commitment to Jesus of Nazareth and his teaching, we could transform the world from slavery and injustice to one of freedom and equality, respect and dignity.

That was my hope and dream when I joined St Columban's Mission Society. Being in the slums, prisons, and on the streets are just a few of the many adventures that came my way when I found a purpose and mission reaching out to others.  That's the key to happiness - forgetting our own desires and using our abilities, talents and gifts to be helpful to others without asking or expecting a reward.


Fr Shay Cullen is the Co-Director of PREDA (Peoples Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance) in Olongopo City, Philippines.