Jamaica Mission Trip #1 - “Give them some food yourselves.”

This week, Seminarians from the Saint John Paul II Seminary will be going to serve with the Mustard Seed Communities in Jamaica during our spring break. The next five Semantics posts will feature some aspect of the trip, each written by a different seminarian. First off is Stephen Kirby, discussing what it is like to prepare for such a trip.

“Give them some food yourselves.” This impossible task is proposed by Jesus to his Apostles directly before He miraculously feeds 5,000 of his followers. With only five loaves and two fish available to them, the first twelve priests of Jesus Christ had no way of knowing how their resources would benefit so many in need. 

Like the Apostles, we seminarians are blessed to spend a lot of time getting to know Jesus, both on the intellectual level in our classes and personally through prayer. We have been praying for the success of our trip and for the residents we will encounter, and our mission team is eager to serve the Lord in our suffering brothers and sisters.

Yet in the face of all the excitement and enthusiasm, every person going on this trip is bound to encounter a certain apprehensiveness. Although some may struggle with this more than others, anyone who wishes to serve will be confronted with the fear that whatever we do will not be enough to really help anybody in need. In the eyes of the world this fear might be considered well-founded; the manual labor we will provide could be done by anybody, and the 20 suitcases worth of donated supplies we will bring with us cannot last forever. 



It remains, then, for us to accept Jesus’ invitation to a more supernatural outlook, recognizing with humility that we are not, in fact, capable of feeding people—either physically or spiritually—without Him. Each of us going on this trip is responding to a call from the Lord to allow His love to overflow from our hearts into others, and likewise to accept the love that He gives to us through them. In the end, the visible service as well as the love we give and receive are based in Him, and without Him we can do nothing. This week, I will be taking to mind and heart the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux: “but as for me, whatever is lacking in my own resources I appropriate for myself from the heart of the Lord, which overflows with mercy.”