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Churchill Aguilar

FRIENDS and family were shocked to learn that I gave up my consultancy career to help the Columban Missions in Mindanao. On my end, it was actually an easy choice. It may not have been the most practical as my former career was pretty much lucrative, but I came to the point that while it is worthwhile to help improve systems of different organizations such as local governments, what really matters most at the end of the day are the personal encounters of people from all walks of life trying to live out their faith.

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I still give trainings to government agencies on my off days upon invitation. I think that is an apostolate in itself too where transformation gets institutionalized, but the bulkier part of my commitment now lies in witnessing how Christ reveals himself in the different cultures and the different dimensions  of sociality.

Who then are the Columbans in the Philippines? Well, they are missionary priests, sisters, and lay partners from the different continents around the world who not so long ago where the ones who established parishes from far-flung areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. They also initiated interfaith dialogues with our Muslim brothers and sisters as well as with the Lumads. Only recently that they were forced to have their apostolates in urban cities since being foreigners they had been easy targets for kidnapping especially here in Mindanao. If they had it their way, they would not have minded such threat in their lives as it come with their job description but, of course, our government as well as our local church would not want that.

What really moved me about this group of religious people was their genuine love for our indigenous people.   They build communities, not structures. They work more for respecting diversity of beliefs and culture than on converting. They give stress in “being” as much as “doing, ” and by this it means sometimes the best thing they do is just to be with the community and not change it in anyway. Their gift of presence has enriched so many lives in the communities where they were. They refused to be defined by a certain specific apostolate, they just march on and respond to the specific need of the community they are in be it as an institutional support for the hearing impaired community, a shelter for the homeless, a companion of people in prison, a mediator of warring tribal families, a teacher in the barrio or even just as a friend.

In the simplicity of their lives lies the richness of their cause. And when communities are established and it’s time to go, they leave everything behind and sail on again on another land and another community.

2018 marks the 100 years of their existence. They have traveled far and wide and have changed over the span of the century. Now, they are old and the tides have changed in the Columban Society as well. This time, we Filipinos are now sending missionaries in their lands. We are now journeying with them as partners in mission. We are now the ones hitting the road and embarking on our journeys for a cause. And this is something that Columban Society celebrates. With our new breed of Filipino missionary priests, sisters and lay partners, we march on as sinners on a crusade, not as soldiers of the inquisition, but as living witnesses of the love of Christ in our culture and our lives.

So why again did I shift careers? Well, I found meaning in St. Columban’s “Christi simus non nostri” which translates as “we belong to Christ, not to ourselves.”

If you want to be part of this new mission, we can be reached at columbanmindanao@gmail.com.

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