Brother Eduardo Freitas, a Portuguese Comboni missionary, recounts his missionary experience in northern Uganda, where he has lived for more than ten years.
I left for Uganda in February 2013, just weeks after taking my perpetual vows as a Comboni missionary. I was ready to offer my life to proclaim Christ through my hands and my heart. I was filled with dreams and expectations.
I was assigned to Matany, a mission in the north of the country, in the heart of the Karamoja region. There, I spent six years serving the people, working in the hospital pharmacy. As a nursing Brother, I accepted the role because there was no pharmacist, and the hospital needed someone to manage that department. There, I truly felt like a brother among brothers.
Those years were dedicated to discovering the richness and complexities of relationships, and how deeply intertwined they are with each person’s inner world. I grew in faith and gained clarity regarding my dreams and expectations, spurred on by the reality of living in a multicultural environment; in that setting, I discovered a passion for interiority and the field of psychological and spiritual accompaniment – for the relationship of otherness and empathy with the “other” who is distinct from, yet connected to myself.
I have nurtured – and continue to nurture – this deep desire for a genuine encounter with the other, free from masks. At Kalongo – another hospital in northern Uganda, where I spent the last four years – I experienced something of this dynamic. At the midwifery school in this small Ugandan town, I learned that active listening, living in the present moment, and remaining connected to myself, to God, and to others constitutes a challenge to which Jesus invites me as a Christian and a pastoral worker: to live in God’s presence and to remain connected with others and with humanity.
I remember well meeting Jacinta, a midwifery student. As she shared her feelings and the challenges, she faced in continuing her studies, she told me: “When I was 17, I became responsible for my family. My father suffered a fall and had to have an arm amputated; my mother had respiratory problems so neither of them could work in the fields. Being the eldest, I had to take care of the home, the work, and my siblings. Every morning, I would sit with my parents, and we would decide what to do.”
She added: “There wasn’t a single day I didn’t cry, and not a single day I didn’t pray. I knew God was with me and felt Him very close – it was as if I could touch Him. I could sense God’s closeness and presence so vividly.”
Jacinta struck me with the intensity and unity of her human and spiritual experience – an experience that I, and each of us, are called to live. Tears mingled with prayer; an expression of feelings and an experience that fosters wholeness and healing. Pain that calls for surrender and trust in God.
It is to this energy, freedom, and strength that Jacinta invited – and continues to invite – me. We can always choose the attitude we adopt in the face of life’s circumstances and difficulties. The First Book of Samuel states: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). I ask for the grace to see as the Lord sees – looking at the inner self, at the heart – while embracing my own responsibilities.
Being a space where others are heard and accepted, just as they are, brings about transformation. Interiority is a journey of humanization that transforms life. God’s love becomes present in the people with whom we live and share our lives. It means feeling and experiencing everything – for emotions move us – in our encounters with God and others.
I want to embrace interiority so that I may be a witness to the Kingdom of God. Life must be unified, not fragmented or distracted. What are my priorities? What is my centre? As Jesus tells us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). And as Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince says, what is truly essential is invisible to the eye.
