Indigenous people expand a missioner's perspective

I first arrived in Bolivia over 30 years ago to study Spanish and later Aymara at the Maryknoll Language Institute in Cochabamba, a young missioner with a task and a cause. One bad habit I had was starting out conversations in any language with the questions or requests I had in mind. The language professors and later the people I accompanied in Peru were always polite but firm in insisting first we greet each other then get to the business. I have to admit it took me a few years to get over my haste. Today I manage to hold my questions and statements in check about 90 percent of the time. I have come to appreciate that the other person I am encountering is more important than my questions or my project. This is an example of the understanding that the Spirit bestows on us. The Spirit presents us with experiences, struggles and people who accompany us in those efforts. The understanding of how things really are comes in time if we are open to the insights the Spirit plants in our path each day.

I have been privileged to live and work in different cultures during my missionary career. My first mission was among the Aymara of Peru in the rural altiplano of Puno. This was a very different experience for me, having been raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. It challenged me to appreciate a very different pace of life and the connection that the Aymara have with nature and in particular with the earth. It took me a long time to understand and appreciate their rituals, cultural expressions and sense of time; to realize that what appeared to me to be superstition was actually profound faith. Later, living in the city of Lima I was confronted with the very different reality of the migrants who were uprooted from their traditions, beliefs and way of life in the countryside and planted in the hectic and constantly changing city. Again, the challenge was to be open to the perspective and values of the people I was accompanying in mission and not grasp at what I thought I understood from my rural experience.

The gift of understanding that the Spirit offers is basically the ability to be open to the other, to God's presence in our lives. It is to allow us to be questioned and challenged, which is much easier said than done. We do not have to live in a different culture or country for this to happen. But I must admit that usually the differences are more obvious and less easy to deny when we move beyond our comfort zone and the situations where we think we are in control and we think we understand. God is present in our lives and experiences, and through the gift of understanding the Spirit enables us to sort out God's presence from our own wishes and idols. It enables us to see ourselves and the other person as we really are; it makes it possible for us to come to know God as God is.

After many years in Peru, I find myself back in Cochabamba, Bolivia, at the Maryknoll Center for Mission, this time as the director. The students are from many different parts of the world, all ages and usually in a hurry. They are here to learn a language and experience a new culture. I constantly must remind myself and the students to slow down, to be open and to trust that God continues to be with us in both the good and the difficult experiences. I have to remind myself and them to listen and to try to see things as others see them. To go beyond, but not necessarily to discard, my narrow point of view and to include the perspective of a new culture.

The gift of understanding is available to all of us, if only we have eyes that can see, ears that can hear and hearts that can feel. If we are open to the experiences God puts in our path, open to live those experiences in a reflective manner, the Spirit will gift us with understanding. Whether we are at home or immersed in a different culture, the Spirit will guide us to see and know ourselves, others and God if we allow it to happen.


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