L'Effort Camerounais (English Version): Sister Rachel Hebia paves way for other African female religious

Interviewed by Sylvanus S. Binla

Sisterrachel Last August 20, 2006 the Sisters of the Congregation of “La Sainte Croix de Jerusalem” (The Holy Cross of Jerusalem) with Mother House in L’Oise-France, witnessed the Final Profession of the first African Sister in their Congregation. Rev. Sister Rachelle Hebia who hails from Douala, told L’Effort camerounais how it all started. Excerpts.

Sister, please tell readers of L'Effort about yourself.
I am called Rachelle Hebia and am the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hebia. I was born here in Deido-Douala where I did my primary and secondary education before leaving for France to start my religious life. I am the fourth child in a family of seven children. My parents are Christians and of course gave me a Christian education. Despite the fact that life was so easy and enjoyable in my family, I was very different from my brothers and sisters as I was very calm and liked a quite life and solitude.
However, during my adolescence, I broke away from this habit until the age of 20 years when I came to it, though living the life alone without someone to accompany me spiritually. So, it is only now when I look back into my life that I realise that I had been meditating with God at a very tender age.

Your Congregation is hardly known here in Cameroon!
I belong to the Congregation of Sisters of La Croix de Jerusalem, founded by Rev. Father Jacques Sevin in 1944 in L'Oise, France. Our Mother House is in L'Oise in one of the regions of Paris known as Boran. Our founder is a Jesuit priest and as such gave the spirituality of St. Ignatius, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and St. Therese of Avila, thereby making our Congregation both a contemplative and apostolic one.
Hence we have Carmelite and Jesuit spirituality. He was so focused on youths that when he was creating our institution he centred its mission on the youth's lack of denomination and religion. We are therefore educationists, which is another form of evangelisation.

How many Cameroonians are in this congregation?
I am the first African to join the Congregation of the Sisters of La Croix de Jerusalem. It was after my first profession that some Africans made their way in and today we are three of us: I and two others from the Central African Republic.

How did you know about the Congregation?
While contemplating and wandering, I met a Chadian priest who was lodging in our parish (St. Jean de Deido-Douala), who was in Cameroon for medical treatment. That is how it all started, with a series of meetings, which helped me decide between religious and marriage life. He helped me realise what my mother had often requested me to do; follow the religious life. The first day he disclosed to me that I was better suited to the religious life, I burst into tears for I could not imagine myself not getting married and living like my father and mother.
However, this priest never gave up as he multiplied strategies to get me understand that my vocation was not in marriage but in the religious life. We scheduled another meeting during which he offered me a Bible and blessed salt, enjoining me to read the Scriptures and to share the salt to all the members of my family as a symbol of me becoming the salt of the family.
This gesture still was not very clear to me, though it pushed me to reflect more profoundly on the issue of taking to a religious life. Then came another meeting during which I accepted to go in for a religious life, where he then talked to me of a Congregation in France, which he would like me to join.

How does become a member of your congregation?
Our Congregation has not got any special or particular exigencies for accepting candidates. What matters is the candidates love and will to become a religious, thanks to some discernment with the help of some persons. The passion to love God and the willingness to remain faithful to ones vocation are very important factors.
Some other congregations might have other conditions, though for me, the religious life is the means and the congregation the venue where God wants one to live the holy life. He demands of each and everyone. No one merits this life for none of us is perfect.
Only God alone can choose one to consecrate him/her into the religious life. About the duration to be observed before making the Final Profession, it is worth noting that the church has thought it necessary for some reflection time to be given to anyone who wants to live a consecrated life, to get his/her to mature before making it public.
In our congregation every candidate has to spend a year as a postulant, two years in the noviciate and at least six years of formation during which one can be sent for further studies, depending on the abilities and capabilities of the person.

What word do you have for Cameroonian youths in the religious life?
If I have anything for the youths, it is nothing more than enjoining them to turn to the Gospel, for only the Gospel can make them discover what love is and, of course, to discover themselves. It is only when they must have discovered these aspects that they can know God and what God has for them.
With this gift, every answer they will give to God's call will come truly from the bottom of their hearts and of course will be pleasing to God. In addition, youths need freedom; the freedom to do what God wants from them. It is in this light that they will recognise that God is the only provider of all that they have and of course true happiness.