Have you been separated out to be touched by God in some special way, to have this most special experience, here, now, that others have not had?  You think about that and you know that the answer is absolutely no. 

There’s nothing that you’ve done to deserve this.  It’s not a special thing for you.  You are a piece of total life…It comes to you that you are up there as a sensing element for others…You realize that everyone is like you.  They’re all like you.  They are you. Rusty Schweickart

In 1969, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States commissioned a space flight during which Rusty Schweickart tested a portable life support system of the lunar module. He left the command module to actually walk in space.  His reflections on that space exploration speak deeply to his perspective on the earth we only see in pictures. His reflections speak deeply to me about our own mission experience.

There is nothing we have done to deserve an experience of companioning people of a culture different from our own. And there is an important responsibility we have in recognizing our oneness with all of the earth, with all people of the earth, with cultures different from our own, and to then share that experience as the sensing agents that we are, because “that experience means very little if it’s only for one person” (Schweickart).

As we facilitate an experience of such great depth and significance as mission work, I am realizing more and more the importance of helping MISEVI missionaries to, first of all, recognize that we have a common goal or purpose, accompanied by strong conviction. That common goal is part of our heritage and somehow connects to the individual vocation of each mission member.

Once we help those beginning missionaries to understand their connection to a common Vincentian charism, our responsibility continues. For as Schweickart realized looking down on our beautiful earth, “Everything is changed, for now we have seen our earth as it truly is, bright and blue and beautiful, with all of us as riders …together…brothers and sisters who know now that they are truly…brothers and sisters.” Those who engage in mission work experience a profound change that deepens their relationship with God, with one another, with all of the earth. An experience that helps us to know in our hearts as well as in our minds that we truly are brothers and sisters with each and every human person God has created. An experience that has changed us so that “we can no longer see ourselves as we saw ourselves before” (Schweickart). An experience that confirms that we have “played a part in the changing concept of humanity, a relationship that you’ve assumed all these years” (Schweickart).

Each and every person does play a part in the ever-evolving concept of humanity. St. Vincent DePaul was wise beyond his time when he focused on this mutuality of all relationships. Mutuality calls us to recognize our own growth as we respond to the call to serve and to be served.

As MISEVI it is, indeed, a privilege to have the opportunity to share in the formation of those who are called to mission work, and these opportunities help me to realize the holy ground that we all share. The holy ground of each person’s individual vocation. The holy ground of those we are called to serve, to be in relationship with. The holy ground of cultures different from our own. The holy ground of a world that is already one, but a world that so often experiences a disconnect from our oneness. The holy ground of that presence of God in one person (or community) meeting the presence of God in another.

Henri Nouwen speaks to this in an experience he had with a companion on his journey:

And as a deep peace filled the empty space between us he (his friend) said hesitantly, “When I look at you it is as if I am in the presence of Christ.” I did not feel startled, surprised or in need of protesting, but I could only say, “It is the Christ in you, who recognizes the Christ in me.” “Yes,” he said, “He is indeed in our midst,” and then he spoke the words which entered into my soul as the most healing words I had heard in many years, “From now on, wherever you go, or wherever I go, all the ground between us will be holy ground.”

May we all experience that holy ground in our day to day Vincentian calling to evangelize and as we are evangelized by those who are living in poverty. And let us name that holy ground between us.