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From Xaverian Mission Newsletter by Fr. Lino Maggioni, s.x.Dec. 1, 2010
To Save, to be Saved: Fr. Lino with a mother and child
Sometimes hard fast assumptions about the way we see things
changes. I happen to have an experience of this when I thought that the
missionary goes to mission to give their lives to save others. Well, it took one
afternoon in the African sun to change that.
I walked to the airport in the middle of a group of Muslim women who accompanied
their husbands leaving for Mecca. Near me there was a young Muslim friend by the
name of Irene. She confided with me along the way: “I would like to become a
Christian”.
While listening to Irene, a van suddenly fell on the group and I found myself on
the ground with pain throughout my body. Around me lay six others who were
carried to local hospitals.
After some days Father Sergio Marchetto told me: “You know that you would be
dead if it were not for Irene who saved your life? As the van was falling, she
pulled you in just enough time to avoid the disaster.” A Muslim woman did not
hesitated to put her life at risk to save me. I realized that being a missionary
is not only giving of oneself, but receiving as well, to save and be saved!
During the months I spent recovering, I thought back to the many experiences in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Burundi, Africa. I considered the
dignity of the people in the villages on the mountain that I baptized, the
commitment and enthusiasm of the people to promote human rights, the young
victims of AIDS I accompanied to enter into paradise, street kids that we helped
to helped to grow and learn a trade, to have a small house and a family all to
themselves, and the generosity of many friends that contributed in all we did.
My meeting with Irene who risked her life to save mine would also be my farewell
to Burundi as I had to return to my homeland in order to recover fully.
