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The Southern Cross, Page 8 Faith AliwJ Thursday, November 9, 2000 Missionary territory 21st-century style ,Wiechec CNS Photos, By Dolores R. Leckey Catholic News Service M .odern mission “lands” are many and diverse, from hospital spaces to cyberspace. Recently, I witnessed the good news incarnated with her children and grandchildren “for whatever time the Lord grants me.” The spirit of jubilation was ev erywhere. I’m told my experience of the oncol ogy nurses is, by and large, the children in stressful circumstances can locate reservoirs of resilience within themselves if a caring adult can guide and encourage them. There are echoes here of Jesus’ style of heal ing. Invariably Jesus would ask of the petitioner or the troubled person, “What do you want?” The question was a way of empowering a person, igniting a slumbering faith in one who until that moment had given up. Our schools are filled with children who need the steady presence of adults who will help them examine that question — “What do I want?” — and help them find the answers. Class rooms, libraries and after school programs are contempo- the good Television, of course, is singularly in fluential. Issues of truthfulness, eth ics, and balance are therefore crucial in this medium. With the Internet, Web sites offer vast opportunities to convey messages of hope, faith and truthful informa tion. The Vatican Web-site is an excel lent example of this modern mission ary style. But for many, books are a primary means of formation. I speak here not only of explicitly religious books, but those stories, essays and poems which convey, through the power and el egance of the word, aspects of tran scendence. I think of poets such as Mary Oliver, essayists such as Lewis Thomas or novelists such as Reynolds Price or Jean Sullivan. The latter, a French lassrooms, libraries and after-school programs are contemporary sites for spreading the good news.... With the Internet, Web sites offer vast opportunities to convey messages of hope, faith and truthful information. 55 in a cancer treatment center. I went to Florida to be with my sister-in-law, a widow who lives alone, during one of the cycles in her chemotherapy. I didn’t know what to expect in the treatment room as the chemicals dripped slowly into her veins, as they did for the half dozen other patients. I confess to apprehension as we en tered the room. What I found were two competent and dedicated oncology nurses who put everyone at ease, knew everyone’s name. These nurses created, by their presence, a climate of trust, hope and palpable love. Even I, a visitor for a day, was made to feel that I mattered to them. They praised their patients for not losing weight. (Imagine!) They con gratulated them for small victories. Laughter was in the air. So was quiet prayer. These women of mercy were alert to their patients’ every twinge. That day I witnessed total atten tion. I also witnessed the kind of love (“caritas”) — that was so much a part of the healing transactions between Jesus and those who sought his aid. At one point a former patient dropped in to let everyone know the good news: She had been declared cured. She thanked the nurses with tears and hugs, and announced she was moving home to Cleveland to be All contents copyright©2000 by CNS norm. As people enter cancer centers they usu ally are frightened, their faith may be shaky, their hope tenuous. These modern bearers of “good news” share with the ill the power of their own faith and hope, as well as their skills. They call into being, for a little while, a community of common cause as they encourage patients to help one another. With an aging population, health care centers of all kinds are surely one of the arenas for modern missionary work. So are schools. ■ ■ ■ The daily work of selfless teachers in Catholic schools is an obvious site. But I’m thinking, too, of those public school teachers who constantly go the extra mile for students whose lives at home may be troubled, whose re sources may be limited, who may not be able to imagine a different horizon. The New York Times Magazine had a story about a teacher who began an after-school program, on her own, for children in her elementary school class in East Harlem. What began as efforts at enrichment (trips to muse ums and live theater) evolved into deeper relationships. When one boy’s family was evicted from their home, she provided a tem porary home for the boy and his older brother, for example. Others would call her for advice during times of crisis. What this teacher tried to do was to build self-esteem and faith in youngsters, to teach them by her care and her love, that they, too, had inner resources. This teacher demonstrated that rary sites for spreading news. Perhaps the most pervasive con temporary mission territory, how ever, is the field of communication. FOODFORTHOUGHT priest-novelist, once wrote that he did not write about prayer but hoped that someone read ing his work might be moved to pray. To the extent that we have appropriated the Gospel in our own lives, we will be able to share it with others. It will light up our work, our homes and the spheres of our civic en terprises. Perhaps that is what St. Francis of Assisi meant when he said that we should preach the Gos pel at all times, and some times use words. (Leckey is a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University.) Jesus “taught in the marketplaces.... Jesus risked speaking eternal truths in ordinary language, ” Canadian Bishop Raymond Lahey of St. George's, Newfoundland, said in a 1997 address in Rome to a Synod of Bishops. The bishop’s point strikes home for me, an editor. For, it is the job of editors to communicate in ways that can be understood. And we learn from experience how easy it is to be misunderstood. The challenge when communicating the Gospel is twofold, Bishop Lahey said. The Gospel must be preached “in language that is faithful, but also in language that can be heard.” It is tempting to take for granted that the special terminology of the field of religion is clear to everyone. My work would be easier if the manner of communicating were less challenging. But Bishop Lahey cautioned against simply “repeating religious language the culture finds meaningless.” This, he said, leads people not so much to reject the message as to regard it as peripheral in importance. Punctuating these points, Bishop Lahey commented that Jesus “was rejected only when his hearers had understood him all too clearly.” 39 David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!