I just returned home from reverse carolling in the Philippines early this morning. It was an intense 10-day period of activity so far from my normal life that I felt I was in another dimension where space and time expanded to condense a year's worth of living in that period.
Because it was my second time in three years, I knew what to expect, and yet, I feel that I gained more in terms of insight for familiarity allowed me a more incisive perspective. Reflection yielded revelations of breadth and uncommon depth.
First off, there was a sense of homecoming as I slipped into community life with the four Institute for World Evangelisation ICPE missionaries and with six other volunteers from Singapore.
The faith dimension (daily mass, regular prayer, evening sharing and spiritual journalling) transformed the outreach, turning it from self-serving social work into a constant flow of grace, where the hand of God was visibly present.
More than just visiting disadvantaged families to sing carols and leave them with a Christmas food hamper, reverse carolling was an invitation to each of us who participated in this outreach to open our hearts and enthrone the Christ child, and let Him work through us.
So that with each family we visited, we were able to personally bring God's love to them as we prayed with them as fellow brothers and sisters.
Without this openness to the Holy Spirit, then we were merely on a feel-good mission trip that gives us something to talk about when we returned home to our comfortable homes, to tell people, "I did something good for the poor this Christmas!"
Without the continual focus on Jesus, I would have fallen into cynical despair or callous indifference for there was just too much ugliness, deprivation and injustice before my eyes.
The contrast of the beautiful fresh faces of the children with the prematurely aged, dull-eyed adults was stark.
The dark, bare hovels we visited reeked of suffering and hopelessness.
No one deserves to be dumped like garbage and forgotten, as these people were in Montalban, or to be ignored by the rich who lived side by side the poor in Tagaytay.
The words of Pope Benedict XVI in defending the need for the service of love in societies and the need for the additional social principle of gratuity rang true:
"There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable."
My ultimate challenge is to continue to respond to the cries for help and for consolation around me, wherever I am, abroad or at home.
I am grateful for the lessons reverse carolling have taught me this year and I thank God for meeting me wherever I was on that journey, whether in darkness or in light.
Because it was my second time in three years, I knew what to expect, and yet, I feel that I gained more in terms of insight for familiarity allowed me a more incisive perspective. Reflection yielded revelations of breadth and uncommon depth.
First off, there was a sense of homecoming as I slipped into community life with the four Institute for World Evangelisation ICPE missionaries and with six other volunteers from Singapore.
The faith dimension (daily mass, regular prayer, evening sharing and spiritual journalling) transformed the outreach, turning it from self-serving social work into a constant flow of grace, where the hand of God was visibly present.
More than just visiting disadvantaged families to sing carols and leave them with a Christmas food hamper, reverse carolling was an invitation to each of us who participated in this outreach to open our hearts and enthrone the Christ child, and let Him work through us.
So that with each family we visited, we were able to personally bring God's love to them as we prayed with them as fellow brothers and sisters.
Without this openness to the Holy Spirit, then we were merely on a feel-good mission trip that gives us something to talk about when we returned home to our comfortable homes, to tell people, "I did something good for the poor this Christmas!"
Without the continual focus on Jesus, I would have fallen into cynical despair or callous indifference for there was just too much ugliness, deprivation and injustice before my eyes.
The contrast of the beautiful fresh faces of the children with the prematurely aged, dull-eyed adults was stark. The dark, bare hovels we visited reeked of suffering and hopelessness.
No one deserves to be dumped like garbage and forgotten, as these people were in Montalban, or to be ignored by the rich who lived side by side the poor in Tagaytay.
The words of Pope Benedict XVI in defending the need for the service of love in societies and the need for the additional social principle of gratuity rang true:"There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable."
My ultimate challenge is to continue to respond to the cries for help and for consolation around me, wherever I am, abroad or at home.
I am grateful for the lessons reverse carolling have taught me this year and I thank God for meeting me wherever I was on that journey, whether in darkness or in light.
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