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Throughout his correspondence with Hélène, Schweitzer was trying to decide what was to be the form of his service to humanity. He tried to organise the education of orphans and foundlings, but was prevented by bureaucracy. Many of his letters talk of great despair.
Finally the decision was made when he happened to pick up the magazine of the Paris Missionary Society, with an article entitled “The Needs of the Congo Mission”.
Schweitzer was not interested in the kind of missionary who simply tries to convert as many souls as possible in the Third World, but he and his father had always had a great respect for the Paris Missionary Society. Somehow he knew that this was the sign he had been waiting for – and that this was work in which Hélène could and would share.
There were difficulties – his views on Jesus were not orthodox enough for some of the Society’s Committee members. But his intention was not to preach to the Africans, but to try to repay what the white, Christian races owed to the blacks for the damage they had done to them. This he could best do as a doctor. So, in addition to all his other activities, he embarked on a seven year course as a medical student – and promised the Mission Society that he would be “dumb as a carp” about his religious views.
His decision, kept secret from all except Hélène, was a great shock to his family and friends when he finally announced it. How could he abandon a great career as an academic to do something so humble and so far away, in a land where life expectancy for whites was only about five years? But Schweitzer was tired of talking and writing. He felt that truth could only be found in action, and that he could only live with himself if the action was humanitarian.
Before he made his announcement, he preached a fine sermon on his understanding of the true purpose of missions. It is the key to his decision and to his life’s work. |
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