In the not too distant past the celebration of the feast day of Saint Joseph, Patron Saint of our Mill Hill Missionary Society, was regularly marked by the oath taking ceremony of our Mill Hill Missionary Brothers. In fact, several of our Brothers, now in retirement here at St. Jozefhuis in Oosterbeek, commemorated the anniversary of their perpetual oath today.
Lay Missionary Associates, on the other hand, are a later addition to the Mill Hill Missionary fellowship – largely inspired by the renewal process initiated by the Second Vatican Council. Involved in mission in a wide variety of situations and capacities their contract is limited in terms of time, but open to renewal. Some serve ‘on mission’ for one or two terms and subsequently return to their homeland, not infrequently finding alternative ways of giving concrete expression to their missionary calling. Others feel called to continue their association with the Society renewing their contract at regular intervals.
And so it happened that today we witnessed the renewal of contract of Ko Klaver, the current rector of St Jozefhuis in Oosterbeek, and Jan Laarakker (95), currently resident at the Rosa de Lima Care Home in Nijmegen. Both Ko and Jan served for extensive periods in various capacities in East Africa before returning to The Netherlands.
No longer able to read or sign the contract himself the renewal of contract of Jan Laarakker was largely symbolic, yet hugely significant at a personal level. His daughter and loving carer, Hetty, did the honours on the occasion. Jan’s radiant smile said it all.
Heartfelt congratulations to Ko and Jan!!!
Fons Eppink MHM
Homily.
These are difficult words: faithful and wise.
They are words just like the word truth, of which Pontius Pilate
sighed: what is truth?
What is wise and what is faithful?
We thought we knew when we had our lessons in moral theology at Mill Hill, but later nuances came through the renewal courses we followed and through our own desire for a well reflected moral life by reading a lot about these subjects.
I myself have obtained many answers through the writings of Bishop
Ernst, an ethicist who went further than his own time.
But that was also more than 40 years ago.
The nice thing is that these two words are now linked together: faithful and wise.
It gives an image of what we also like to see in Saint Joseph.
Was it also wise to flee to Egypt in his faithfulness to Mary?
And so you can ask a few more questions about the little we know about him.
Probably each of us has his/her own image of those two words
faithful and wise in connection with St. Joseph. We carry that image with us and it would be unwise to tamper with it.
Faithfulness to each other, we can continue with that but it also has gradations.
Our faithfulness to each other makes us pull together, even though we come from so many different directions. Reason but also feeling tells us how we can remain faithful to each other.
Reason can also get confused by circumstances, but despite this we can continue to pull together with colleagues who have chosen a
different path.
For we have drunk from that one source, which gives us life, which
inspires us, which makes us go on to distances we do not know.
Some of us have made final vows, the perpetual oath.
Others only get the chance to follow these promises periodically,
although the desire has probably transmuted into a perpetual promise. It is therefore my and your joy that Ko and Jan want to renew their promises or their contract for another five years today.
Jan finds himself in a special situation. His daughter Hettie will vouch for him, because Jan belongs to us for eternity, as he also belongs to his family.
Ben Engelbertink MHM
