Deep Water

by Fr. Peter Major MHM

When I was a boy growing up in Skaneateles, I used to hear voices, “Go out to the deep water,  go out to the deep water.”  But I was always afraid of deep water.  Old logs and seaweed on the bottom of Skaneateles lake always frightened me, and yet I felt a strange urge to dive in as if there was a hidden treasure there. I felt somehow that in the deep water, I would find my own soul, the meaning of my existence.

     I think “Deep water” is what being a missionary is all about.   For me, the call to the deep water took me to Borneo and Beirut, Cairo, and the Sudan.  Now that my hair is getting grey, I realize that deep water is not necessarily far away.  Deep water is everywhere, even here in Syracuse and Skaneateles.  Wherever there is pain, suffering, heartbreak and wounded people, this is the deep water, the place we fear to enter, yet it is here in the deep water we find Christ.  “I was hungry, did you give me to eat?  I was in prison, did you visit me, I was a refugee, did you welcome me in?”

     But I am not the only one called to the deep water.  Every Christian is called to deep water, to leave their comfort zone, for the sake of Jesus Christ and his gospel.  But be careful.  If we want to go to the deep water we have to walk on water to get there!  We have to jump out of our boat without a life preserver and follow Christ.  We put our life in the hands of God, not in our own hands.  When we do something crazy like that, we become a light to the world.  St. Paul calls us, ”Fools for Christ.” 

     Many of our Christian children in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya wear T shirts saying ”Dare To Be Different.”  I like that.  We Christians are called to be a pebble in the shoe of the secular world, a world that puts its trust in money and power and not in God.  We have a world that is hell bent on economic development and not spiritual development.  True development means development of both body and soul.  One without the other leads to death.  Economic development without a moral conscience leads to disaster, division, and war.  It is a disease worse than malaria, or aids, and it is spreading rapidly throughout the world. 

     Deep water means not just putting our trust in God, but putting our trust in people.  In Sudan, everybody believes in God.  The Christians do, the Muslims do.  Everybody prays.  So why has there been war in the Sudan for the better part of fifty years?   When they look up to heaven they say, “God I believe in you.”  But when they look at their Muslim or Christian neighbours they say, “These people are bad.  They will never change.  Liars, animals, infidels, slaves” they call one another. Someone said once that the best way to avoid God is to become religious. It’s the best camouflage you can get.  You can even fool yourself!  As St. John said, “Anyone who says they love God who they can’t see, and hates his neighbour who he can see is a liar.”

     Deep water is about The Truth.  It’s about looking deep down inside ourselves to discover the real truth about our faith.   As Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.”  And the truth is that every person, good or bad black or white Muslim or Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  That’s why we are called to respect every person.  That’s why we believe every person can change and become a new person.  To say, “That person will never change” is like saying I don’t believe in the power of God.    To say that the world will never become a better world is like saying that the power of Evil is greater than the power of the Holy Spirit. There are many people, both Christians and Muslims who don’t really believe in God at all!  Deep water is believing in the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit. 

     Deep water is not a one-way street.  Mission is a two way street.  Something strange happens when we go out to the deep water to catch fish.  We catch the fish and the fish catch us!   I remember once in a “Pagan” longhouse in Borneo teaching the people about God and Jesus Christ.  I told them that “God is the creator of heaven and earth.”  And they all agreed.  Then I told them that Jesus said to “love God and love your neighbour.”  And they all agreed.  Then one old warrior raised his hand and said to me, “Father, we people living here in the rain forest say that not only are people our neighbours, but all of God’s creation is our neighbour.  The air we breathe is our neighbour.  The water is our neighbour.  The trees, the forest, the birds and animals in the forest are our neighbours.”

     I am a missionary priest.  But that day, an old man in a pagan longhouse in Borneo taught me something about “Love your neighbour.”  It is like Jesus told us.  “The Spirit of God blows where it will,” even amongst the “Pagan” people in the rain forests of Borneo. 

     And yes, even among the Muslim people of the Sudan the Holy Spirit is alive and well.

In August, 1998 I was living in Khartoum, the capital city of the Sudan.  One evening about 9 p.m. we heard several loud explosions.  “What was that?”  After an hour, an announcement came over the radio, “The United States of America has launched a missile attack on the Islamic Republic of the Sudan.”  It was true too.  President Clinton had ordered a missile attack on an alleged “Chemical weapons plant” located in the city.

     Understand this.  I am the only white person in the whole area.  All my neighbours are Muslims.  Many of them know that I am an American priest whose country just attacked their own country.  Get the picture?  I’m in hot water!  Any minute there will be a lynch mob banging down my door.  I waited and waited.  But nothing happened.  No one came.  They didn’t drag me out of the house and cut my throat.  In fact even when I got enough courage to go outside the next day nothing happened.  Not one person even cursed me!

     In the deep water everything is upside down.  Muslims in a “Terrorist country” teach a Christian the meaning of non-violence. An old “pagan” man teaches a priest about God. Mission is a two way street.  We give and we receive.  The same Spirit in me is also in them.  The Spirit lifts the veil from our eyes to see the stranger as our friend.

   Of course, having lived in the Sudan for over twenty years, I am not so naive to believe the Holy Spirit is the only Spirit blowing in the wind.  I’m not the only missionary in Africa.  The Devil is also preaching there.  “Save yourself, think of yourself” he says.  “Never mind the common good, think about what is good for you.  Never mind God’s kingdom, it’s only your kingdom, your life that matters.”

    And many people hear his call and follow him down the wide road to self - destruction.  The countless refugee camps throughout Africa are the fruits of the Devil’s labour.  In Kakuma Refugee Camp alone there are 86,000 refugees, all innocent victims of civil war and hunger in the Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Congo.  

     For me, these victims, these refugees are the light to the world.  They take the mask off all the lies of a world that preaches a new world order based on money, self interest and greed.  Deep water is when we follow God’s dream and not our dream.  In God’s dream, every child has the right to eat, money or no money.  Every child has the right to drink clean water, money or no money.   Every child has the right to sleep in a house and not on the street,  money or no money. 

     This is what I believe God is telling me in the Kakuma Refugee Camp.  What is God telling you?  Do you too hear a call to go out to the deep water?  Is it not there that we find life, life in abundance?  It is not there we find our own soul?