FRONTIERS • VOCATION

MANY SETBACKS AND A BIG DREAM

Until he was 11 years old, he did not set foot in a church. An aunt enrolled him in a catechumenate and he was baptised. His five siblings followed him; his father and mother did the same. Then he was attracted by the idea of becoming the fourth priest in his diocese, but the prospect of being an evangeliser to the world took over, and he embarked on a missionary adventure. He encountered many obstacles, with no end in sight, but he has never given up. Today he flies on eagle wings

BY FR DONALD MARIPE MAGOMA MCCJ | DOBA, TCHAD

I WAS born in 1979 in Masikwe, in the diocese of Witbank, South Africa, the eldest son in a family of six children: three boys and three girls. Going to church was my father’s exclusive business. Although he was a pastoral assistant in one of the thousands of ‘apostolic churches’ in South Africa, he never bothered to take his children with him on Sundays. Our mother, on the other hand, did not belong to any church, nor did she practise any religion. The situation changed in 1990, when our parents left us in the care of our maternal aunt Jane, who was a staunch Catholic. For her, taking us to church was the most natural thing in the world. So, at the age of 13, I found myself enrolled in the catechumenate of the neighbouring parish. My first sister did not want to be outdone, and she joined as well. Two years later, we were baptised and confirmed. After us, the other brothers and sisters wanted to follow the same path. One day, much to our surprise, Mum also decided to become a Catholic, and Dad did not take long to follow her. When I think of those years, I cannot help but think of the Gospel passage from Matthew 5:15, 16: “You are the light of the world…[…] Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven”. In our case, the example and testimony of one convinced and attracted the others. This is the first task that Christ has assigned to each of those who believe in Him.

I would be one of those ‘crazy’ people who leave everything to go out into the world to announce Jesus and His message

From a narrow…

Shortly before my baptism in 1994, the diocesan promoter of vocations came to our parish to talk about the various vocations in the Church. He insisted on the urgent need our diocese had for priests. He told us: “Our diocese covers an immense territory, inhabited by so many people, but it has only three local priests”. I swear that I did not fully grasp the importance of his speech, but I came away from that meeting with the idea that it was important that someone should become the fourth priest of the diocese of Witbank. So, soon after baptism, I began to attend all the vocational workshops organised by the parish, always driven by a half-hearted desire to be the fourth priest of the diocese. As chance would have it, the diocesan promoter of vocations left South Africa soon afterwards, recalled to his homeland by his superiors, and it took a long time for the bishop to find a priest to take his place.

… to a wider perspective

During that long wait, by pure chance, I came across a magazine published by the Comboni Missionaries in South Africa. The title struck me: Worldwide. The content of the articles and the perspective that I could grasp in the many testimonies reported in it, surprised me deeply: it was no longer a question of finding priests for a diocese, however vast and poor in personnel, but for the whole world, infinitely larger. It was immediately apparent to me that the world’s need for heralds of the Gospel was far greater than that of the diocese. I soon asked a sister who worked in the parish if she knew the address of the vocation promoter of this institute.

She wrote it down on a piece of paper, but while handing it to me, she said: “Know that the missionary vocation is much more demanding and challenging than a call to the diocesan priesthood. You will have to leave your home, your country, your nation, and go where God sends you”. The challenge excited me: I would not be the fourth priest of my diocese, but one of those ‘crazy’ people who leave everything to go out into the world to announce Jesus and His message.

A journey full of obstacles

I wrote to the vocation director of the Comboni Missionaries. Within a few months, the decision was taken. In 1997, I entered their postulancy in Pretoria, as a pre-postulant. Two years later, I started the postulancy proper. It was very hard. Philosophical studies were not easy for me. In fact, they seemed to me an insurmountable obstacle. Halfway through the first year, I was tempted to give up everything, but the two formators encouraged me to hold on. I survived the first year and managed to complete the second with great struggle. In 2001, I entered the novitiate in Lusaka, Zambia. It was the first time I had been outside my home country and I was the only South African among the group of novices. Fortunately, the new environment seemed very welcoming and I adapted immediately. The official language was English and the local language, belonging to the Bantu family of languages, was understandable to me without much effort.

To hell with the French language

The two years of novitiate went by without a hitch. In April 2003, I made my first religious profession. Shortly afterwards, I joined the Comboni scholasticate in Kinshasa, DR Congo. Here the difficulties were numerous and nerve-wracking. The language was French, the atmosphere was French, everything tasted and smelt of French… and I could not adapt. I lasted only two years, and then I gave up and decided to return to South Africa, with the intention of abandoning the idea of becoming a missionary altogether. The provincial superior of the Comboni Missionaries and my former formator during postulancy, however, did not intend to lose me: they encouraged me, told me to be patient and not to rush any decision. They invited me to live in the Comboni community of St Peter Claver Parish in Mamelodi, a township of Pretoria. There, in a welcoming community and surrounded by my own people, I recovered and regained confidence. Two years later, I returned to Kinshasa with a renewed spirit. I resumed my theological studies, which I completed in 2010. On 7th August of that year, I made my perpetual profession in Glen Cowie Parish, Limpopo Province, South Africa. On 22nd August, I was ordained a deacon, and on 12th February 2011, I was made a priest in my parish at Masikwe. I only asked for two months’ family leave and, in April, I reached my new destination, Chad. I remember leaving South Africa when it was bitterly cold and I was wrapped up in a heavy wool jacket. I landed in Ndjamena with a temperature of 40º C. I felt as if I had landed in an oven.

I don’t like giving up

Since then, I have worked for a year and a half in a mission in the diocese of Lai, then another year and a half in St Francis of Assisi Parish, in the diocese of Doba. In September 2014, I was posted to St Michael’s Parish, in Bodo, also in the diocese of Doba, where I still am. There are two main challenges: the climate (in Chad, when it is hot, it is really hot, and when it rains, it pours) and the language. In both Zambia and DR Congo, I had managed quite well, because the people spoke Bantu languages. But in Chad, apart from French, which has always given me severe headaches, people speak different languages, all belonging to a different language family. In the first parish I was assigned to, there were four local languages: Besmé, Marba, Khabalayé and Ngambayé, all very difficult and different from each other. As you might have already guessed, I am neither a linguist nor a polyglot. Never being able to speak a local language like a native is still my biggest handicap, but I have learned to live with it. I can make myself understood and I understand people, partly because I also ‘listen’ to them with my eyes and heart. We can communicate as much as we need, using the language of love, closeness, solidarity and sharing. In this, we do not need a very rich vocabulary, long speeches and endless sermons. What is needed is a constant presence and I love being with people. It seems to me that they, too, enjoy being with me.

At the service of others

And so, here I am engaged in the fields of first evangelisation, human promotion, training of local leaders, and the common effort towards the self support of the local Church. I like being here. I feel that I am where God wants me. There is no greater joy. The difficulties of the past—and they have been many—appear to me today as small pearls set in the crown of the Church of Africa, of which I feel a humble servant. Every evening, before going to sleep, I read two very short passages from the Bible. I feel perfectly reflected in them. The first is a verse from the Gospel of Luke, which quotes some words that Jesus said to His disciples, which I now feel are addressed to me: “When you have done everything you were told to do, you should say: We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty” (Luke 17: 10). The second is from Isaiah: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint” (Is 40: 31, 32). O you, who read my article, let me tell you: if you want to embrace the missionary life and be faithful to the commitment you have made, you must never get discouraged, but continue to hold on to the vocation to which you have been called.