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| Jean-Marie Bamutaze |
It has been a journey, travelled though aluta
continua! It is worthy commemorating my first contact with the Missionaries
of Africa; it started at an informal level, we, while at Jinja College, knew
Lavigerie House for plenty of sweet oranges that we used to pick every Friday,
surely no one dared to stop us though we were strangers. This was the very
first contact which came through a friend who used to fetch these oranges
earlier before I joined the group. It was after a couple of times that I got
some friends in the house who told me about the community, the society and the
like. Nonetheless I had visited other congregations before but I had not
applied in any yet. Knowing about the White Fathers, I applied, great thanks to
Mutekanga Ivan Major who guided my first motivation and inspiration to this
level.
I attended the “come and see” sessions,
they were inspiring and later made it to Jinja. I could hardly imagine that the
oranges led me to a place so nice to be, Lavigerie House! What I initially used
to take illegally, I was put in charge! I scarcely believe that I lost the
appetite for oranges and increased that of the House. It is now a voyage of
three years that I have made with the Missionaries of Africa.
The three years have been a time so
fundamental in my life, I have come to tell that a formation house is a place
of not only spotting one’s weaknesses but also where one is helped to grow out
of this faintness and to be himself, thus, bringing out the adult in someone as
Fr Paddy said it. I feel changed; I have grown spiritually, intellectually,
physically and socially. The aspects emphasized as we develop and grow in the
four formation pillars (academics, spirituality, pastoral and community life)
have been profound to me, these include; Freedom, Maturity, Responsibility
Always! This means in everything I do, I take into account these aspects; not
one at a time, all go synchronously. I feel these aspects in my life. I now
feel formation has conventionalized a kind of an inexplicable freedom that sets
me always to act but soberly henceforth able to always reflect on my needs
before actualizing them.
Community life has been a very
instrumental element; the solidarity with my classmates, teammates, and
community members at large have prompted my acknowledgement of Lavigerie House
as a home, and that we have lived in a family. The formators have been;
formators, friends, brothers as well as parents to me, God Bless them and the
community at large!
Honestly, I have gone through both joys
and sorrows, but I know all have been for a reason, what I remember always is
“The Beauty of Pain”. All these instants have helped me grow into whom I am
today. I have learned to live like a tree; even when people stone at the tree,
no matter the injuries, it will drop down fruits for the perpetrators to enjoy.
This is what I learnt to be in my years; no matter the hardships I encounter in
life; the natural law remains core in me; do good, avoid evil! A good
act for a bad one is one way I can help others learn from me. Then I can say
these have been years or a journey of self-actualization: in my potentials,
strengths, limitations and other life skills.
With these I feel prepared to face and
happily live any kind of life God has set ahead of me, discernment continues, I
keep praying that: He opens my eyes to see him more clearly, illumine my mind
to know him more deeply and grace my heart to love him more dearly. Lavigeire
said a missionary should be a person of prayer, but I say this is for all
humanity if we are to answer the ultimate call to humanity.
At this moment I feel after the three
year, I have been on “the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35)”. I have been
journeying and I have gone a step. There are times within this period when I
only had a blur of the Easter Jesus in my life, when I really needed him to
reveal himself to me but seemed far and perhaps sometimes he seemed not
anywhere for me. Indubitably, I now trust these are the times he has been
closer to me than ever! Just as the disciples recognized him at the breaking of
the bread, I also needed the daily Eucharist, spiritual direction, meditations
among others relevant moments for me realize him. Now I know, he is always with
me, he never abandons his people, he said, “I am with you until the end of
time!”
I can barely fully summarize what these
years have been to me in just a few pages and feel satisfied, but all in all am
happy and proud of every moment I have had, the people I have encountered
within and outside community, my pastoral placements, the celebrations and
sorrows we have shared in the three years, have strengthened me in various
ways. I just do not wish to miss the community of Lavigerie House; formators,
students and supporting staff, for I will always cherish and carry them in my
heart, so they will always be close to me.
Lord, Aluta Continua, endure in
inspiring me, may your will reveal itself and be fulfilled in me, for the
battle belongs to you, I am only a clay, and you are the potter, mold me to
your own will so that I become the instrument your own love, peace, hope and
faith in you!
Jean-Marie Bamutaze