Idiomas
FR. GERARD´S MESSAGE <---- Menú
From the Gospel according to: Mt 5, 13-16
You are like salt for all mankind. But if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it.
You are like light for the whole world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one lights a lamp and puts it under the bowl: instead he puts it on the lamp stand, where it gives light for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.
“You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world”. These are the main ideas from the Gospel above. But we know that to light a lamp it has to be connected to the source of energy and to give more taste to our food, first we have to produce the salt. When I meditate upon it, a little child shows up in my mind. He was 3 years old when a strange illness started paralyzing his body. When he was 5 years old he couldn’t walk and move his hands, but he was mentally healthy. Lying on his bed his mother was sitting down at his side crying for him. And he said to her with a big mature: “Don’t cry mom, don’t cry. I have still a heart to love my mom, to love you”. I share this story, because in the missions we have light, salt and love, it means we have enough courage and eagerness to proclaim the Good News. We have a heart to love our people. But at the same time we realize that to light we need energy, to be the salt we have to dig it up and to love the heart has to beat. As I said, we are not deprived of the enthusiasm and eagerness in the jungle. We have them enough, but sometimes we can’t make use of them because we have no resources to go forward.
At the end of November 2004, I got sick with hepatitis. The sisters, who are good friends of mine in Lima, wanted to help me thinking I was really seriously sick and they started making arrangements to send a helicopter in order to evacuate me. Our Mission Station is located 8 hours away from the nearest city traveling in a 4-wheel drive vehicle. I could not accept this crazy idea thinking of our poor people. First, I was not so sick to be evacuated. Second I found it like the action movie, when Rambo was evacuated from a Vietnamese Jungle. I did not like to be the hero. Third, we can’t spend so much money on the helicopter just for one priest, while some sick people of our Mission have to beg for help or die, because of lack of money for their treatment. Probably this is one of many causes, which doesn’t allow the priests or lay people to be as a lamp-stand shining for everyone in the missionary house. I mean in the Missionary Church: the fury of nature, long distances from one place to another, lack of electricity, hygiene and bathrooms, humidity and sweat, mentality and poverty of people, danger of getting some tropical illness and facing the wild animals like snakes. The pastoral problems are the same there and here. Maybe there is one more discomfort that makes a difference between us: the permanent economic dependence of many missionaries on foreign kindness and their humiliation in looking and asking for financial support. But the Scripture says: “Cry, and the Lord will answer; call and he will say, “I am here”. And we know: the baby, who doesn’t cry, doesn’t receive the mother’s milk.
Three years ago I had a visit from 3 priests. We had studied together in the seminary. I showed them our mission with its villages, indigenous people, sailing up and down the rivers, horseback riding, tracking through the jungle, and swimming in the clean waters under waterfalls. I wanted them to experience the beauty of our work and Mission. In spite of those attractions and adventures, two of them said before they left Peru: “I would be foolish leaving my job in Poland and replacing it for your work in Peru”. It looks like they didn’t find anything calling their attention in our people. But the thing I like about our communities is that there is no necessity to make an appointment to visit them. You are welcome any time and you are not going to surprise anyone if you show up in their homes suddenly. Their houses are always open, maybe because they have no doors. The things I don’t like are the big families with numerous kids. The parents are not able to give all of them a good education. But we can’t reduce the birth number if there is no electricity in the villages. The nights are very long and very hot.
There was an intersection of 3 roads in front of an isolated village. The signs were showing directions. One of them led to the village, the second one to the coast and the third one indicated the road to no-where. None of the villagers had ever taken that way because it led to no-where. But there was a very curious little girl, who could not believe that the road had no destination. Every road has a destination; she tried to explain to the adults. In spite of warnings, she decided to take this road and go in an unknown direction. She walked the whole week through hills and valleys, forests and meadows without seeing any signs of human life. When she repented and was about to resign, a little dog showed up in front of her giving her hope to find someone. Following the dog, she got to a beautiful park with a big and wonderful mansion, which was inhabited by an old and very kind woman, who invited her to come in. Once she entered, she saw the whole house filled with treasures. “All this was waiting for you. It is yours. Take what you want and how much you can. It is your reward for being the first one, who had courage to take the road to no-where. When she came back with her treasures, the villagers were astonished and took the road to no-where hoping to find a house full of gold. When they got there, the house was empty and they didn’t find anybody. So, they went back home disappointed and angry calling a little girl a liar.
This story contains different messages. It describes also a condition of the Church in the missionary and developed countries. Many Catholics think that practicing their faith is going no-where, because the Church can not offer them anything. It doesn’t give them bread, job, salary and insurance. Everything they have is a fruit of their own effort, so they are totally independent of any institution. And if they approach the Church, they do it expecting some kind of social support. On the other hand they reject an evangelical journey with Christ, because it is a long, challenging way and full of sacrifices in order to get some spiritual and moral treasure. The same could we say about our economic support for the Missions. The missionaries tell us extraordinary stories about their work or situation, but we don’t really know the destination of our money. Thinking in human way, we send our gifts in unknown directions, but trusting in God, we believe that they are going to be multiplied and converted into material or spiritual treasure for us. They also are going to serve as energy to illumine those “who are in darkness and to change their shadows into sunlight.”
There was a blind man walking at night with a lantern. Everyone, who met him, made fun of him asking: “Man, why do you use a lantern if you are blind? You can’t see the way even carrying a light.” “I don’t take it to find my way”. He answered. “I need it, so you and anyone else won’t crash into me. Yes, we are like a blind man. Often we don’t see our own way, we don’t know the future of our faith, the future of the Church, we don’t see, I mean we don’t understand the mystery of God and go in an unknown direction. Sometimes we can’t be a light for ourselves, but we can be a light for others.
On Christmas Eve 1994, before the death of 7 monks in Algeria, their monastery was visited by rebel troops. The commander demanded money, medicines and wanted to make phone calls, but the superior denied him everything. They put a gun to his stomach threatening: “You have no choice”. And then every one heard an answer which is repeated today by monks knowing what happened two years later: “I have always choice”. And we know today that they chose to die.
Yes, you have a choice, too. Not to die but to help the missions in Peru become “the light of the world and the people seeing your good works, will give praise to your Father in heaven.” I am ashamed to say how much we need. We spend every year about 15,000 US $ just to administrate our Mission. We want to finish the construction of new Pastoral Center and we have two very noble projects to achieve in the future, but they cost a great deal of money. Thank you for your generosity and for your prayers. May God bless you always.
P. Gerard Tyralla
hatlanger@gmail.com