'Reverse Mission' from "Gracias: A Latin American Journal" by Henri Nouwen


" As I was trying to find an answer to the  question: "Does God call me to live and work in Latin America?   I gradually realized that the word "gracias" that came from the lips of the people contained the answer.  After many centuries of missionary work during which we, the people of the north, tried to give them , the people of the south, what we felt they needed, we have now come to realize that our very first vocation is to receive their gifts for us that live in the illusion of power and self-control.  It is the treasure of gratitude that can help us break through the walls of our individual and collective self-righteousness and prevent us from destroying ourselves  and our planet in the futile attempt to hold onto what we consider our own.   If I have any vocation in Latin America, it is the vocation to receive from the people the gifts they have to offer us and to bring these gifts back up north for our own conversion and healing.   The Maryknoll community of Peru speaks about "reverse mission" suggesting that the movement God wants us to learn is the movement from the south to the north.  In the Latin America where countless martyrs  have made the suffering  Christ visible,
a voice calls us anew to know with heart and mind that all that is, is given to us as a gift of love, a gift that calls us to make our life into a unceasing act of gratitude."

Y en Español.... 
"Como yo trataba de encontrar una respuesta a la pregunta, '¿Me llama Dios a vivir y trabajar en latinoamérica?' poco a poco me di cuenta de que la palabra 'gracias' que salió de los labios de la gente contenía la respuesta.  Despuès de muchos siglos de misiones durante los que, la gente de norteamérica, intentamos darle a la gente del sur lo que creíamos que necesitaban, ahora nos damos cuenta de que nuestra vocaciòn es recibir sus  regalos y decirles 'gracias'.  Un tesoro està escondido en el alma de latinoamérica, un tesoro espiritual que debemos reconocer, un tesoro para nosotros que vivimos en la ilusiòn de poder y autocontrol.    Es un tesoro de gratitud  que puede ayudarnos a proromper las paredes de nuestra moralidad individual y colectiva, y  evitarnos destruirnos a nosotros mismos y a nuestro planeta en el intento vano de sostener lo que consideramos nuestro.  Si tengo cualquier vocaciòn en latinoamérica, es recibir de la gente los regalos que nos ofrecen y llevarlos a norteamérica para nuestra propia conversiòn y curaciòn.  La comunidad de Maryknoll (una sociedad de misioneros de la iglesia romana) habla de 'la misiòn inversa' y sugiere que el movimiento que Dios desea es desde el sur hasta el norte.  En latinoamérica donde innumerables mártires han hecho del sufrimiento de Cristo algo visible, grita una voz que necesitamos oír  siempre.  Nos llama la voz de nuevo a conocer con el corazón y  la mente lo que todo eso es un regalo de amor, un regalo que nos llama a hacer en nuestra vida  un incesante acto de agradecimiento."

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