Laity and the charism of Betharram

Every year, for seven days, high school students of the betharramite schools in Argentina take the path of a mission ad gentes in a rural and isolated area of the Northwest of the Country. In their overnight bag: presents for the children of the villages and their families, willingness, smiles, a little concern in front of the unknown awaiting them and an open heart ready for listening. The very word “charism of Bétharram” is not written on the schedule of the week, but it is there as a seed of incense which silently releases its pleasant fragrance to draw the people of God together.

For the last few years something interesting for the young has been under way in the schools in the Argentine-Uruguay Vicariate and known as Solidarity Mission with Santiago del Estero. The entire Educational community can take part in it throughout the whole school year from the elementary classes right through to final years with the parents, past pupils and teaching staff. But only the pupils in the last two years at the lycee actually leave for the Mission in the rural province of Santiago, accompanied by adults. The invitation is made to all and nobody is excluded. Each one can be a participant. Although there is no obligation almost all the pupils want to take part. Some even have to give up their place to allow others to have their first experience!

For this Mission of Solidarity on the ground the young collegians are divided into groups. Each group is incorporated into a Christian Community in the Santiago del Estero Province, situated to the north east and one of the forgotten regions of Argentina where Father Sergio Gournalousse scj has been performing an intense missionary activity for the last few years. Once they have arrived in their host community the students try to contact the local population by means of two fundamental activities: small groups for the school children in the mornings and visits to the families in the evenings. After several days of life together the experience ends with the Eucharistic celebration followed by a fiesta with dinner and a ball typical of the locality.

Here is an account given by some pupils who took part in the latest edition:

“It was a unique experience, rich in emotions. For my part I was deeply involved and it greatly touched me. Here I discovered the affection of the child who gets attached to you very quickly and is something beyond comparison. It is similarly true of the kindness and trust of the families who in greeting you make you feel at home at once. It was an incredible week!”  Javier, 16 years old

“During this Mission week I experienced something I had never felt before. With all those who were with me we were able to see the best we could offer and express it to the best of our ability. I got to know another fact and was able to put myself in the place of the inhabitants of Santiago del Estero by listening to them and spending time with them. Finally I felt I was accepted and appreciated by all the love given us by the children of the school of Sol de Mayo”. Maria, 16 years old

“On arriving I was full of apprehension. I had no idea what was going to happen; I was tense. On the Monday the children arrived and I started emptying my back pack to distribute and leave all I had brought. As the days went by I seemed to be giving more and more things! Soon I realised that my back pack was getting heavier and heavier and that it wasn’t I who had carried out the Mission: I had gone out to meet others and yet I had benefitted by their mission; the children taught me more than I had taught them. I was happier than I have been in my whole life.”  Juan, 17 years old.

“Sharing, instructing, living out the Kingdom, fullness, meeting.”  Agostina, 16 years old.

The Solidarity Mission is one way of embedding the charism of Betharram because it gives the opportunity of absorbing the cultural meeting; you don’t go on a mission because you are a “good guy” having everything and then giving our surplus to the “poor”; we go because we are faithful to the attitude consisting of “being on the same level” as the others, to have a look at each other, to meet, to share, to explain, to evangelise, and be evangelised by them. It’s not a matter of drawing down blessings from on high but to share life “horizontally” and let God purify it. It is a matter of being one with “God’s People”, of being part of these individuals, of this history and of this land.

Sebastián García scj

The word of God also invites us to recognise that we are a people: “Once you were no people but now you are God’s people” (1 Pet 2:10). To be evangelizers of souls, we need to develop a spiritual taste for being close to people’s lives and to discover that this is itself a source of greater joy. (Evangelii Gaudium 268)