I will live forever, each day, in the daily offering, day by day, in the simple and in the extraordinary, spending everything, my youth, everything, nothing less than everything, so that through this offering, not only of my life, but also the lives of those around me will be coated with the salt of eternity.
My name is João Wesley, I am 27 years old, missionary of the Shalom Community since 2014. We arrived in Taiwan as community in July of 2022, in the middle of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Community, to begin our mission in Taiwanese lands.
At this time, making my Definitive Promises as Life Community here, I make a real commitment to God, to the Community, and to the people to whom I was sent. This is the people that the Lord entrusts to me. From the smallest things, I can touch God’s deeds in them. I feel compelled because He makes me the unworthy bearer of a treasure, of a Charism, which is being planted in the hearts and on this land.
In the Eucharistic Celebration, where I could make my definitive promises, I was surrounded by the Taiwanese people, with the young people, with the families, but also with the whole community, with my missionary brothers and sisters here. Also, with priest friends, brothers and sisters from different congregations, people of different nationalities, all together casting our gaze and our life Heavenwards. We were all letting our hearts be set on fire like the disciples of Emmaus, when the Risen One came to meet them and gave them that strong experience with his resurrection.
My experience with God took place about 11 years ago in a Eucharistic Celebration , in the Shalom Community, when I heard Jesus telling me for the first time: “This is your place, remain with me, I remain with you.” In this Eucharistic celebration of the Definitive Promises, I asked the Lord to give the same experience He gave me to all the people presente there. I could indeed feel it, how God touched them, marking them deeply, as we sang, as we celebrated and then as we listened to their sharing, and experiences during this celebration.
It was, in fact, an experience of deep union, a ‘yes’ given forever.I did not feel alone at all: as if I was the only one making those promises. Indeed,I felt like I was making the promises united to a body that together said a great Yes.
During the celebration, we were one people, one body, we all sang and celebrated in one language, the one of Praise, as Spoused Souls, in the local language, in the native language, in the language of the heart, planting our Yes as a Community on this earth, in order to let the Lord, in the favorable time, harvest its fruits.
I am sure that what we live here today is not even comparable to what we will see one day in heaven. But Eternity already begins here, my anchor is cast and anchored in heaven, that is where I am going to. And I don’t want to go alone, I want to go with the people the Lord entrusted to me to reach the gates of Eternity and all together sing, celebrate and enjoy Eternity. Life overcomes death, and together we can say: It was worth it!