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Lời Ṭa Soạn: Trong một chuyến đi thăm cha Dominici tại Rome, đầu
năm nay 2002, Đồng Hành có dịp hầu chuyện cùng cha. Dưới đây là bài
ghi lại câu chuyện hôm ấy. V́ ráng giữ tính cách nguyên vẹn của
những điều cha chia sẻ, Đồng Hành xin phép được đăng nguyên bản
tiếng Anh. Nếu có nhu cầu, chúng tôi sẽ dịch sang Việt ngữ trong số
báo tới.
Xin mời độc giả cùng theo dơi những tâm t́nh, và cũng là phương châm
cho cuộc sống của cha.
Q:
When you were in Philippines, for what you fought against, your life
was threatened many times until you were forced to leave. At that
time, you could be killed anytime; facing death then by the
authority, and now by cancer, what is the difference?
A:
In Philippines, the threat was my fault. I had just come from
Indonesia; there, the refugees were treated better, so I was very
upset with the Filipino. My reaction was strong and they were not
happy. I reacted against injustice committed by the officials of
the camp. For example, I asked them to solve some problems (e.g.:
outside the camp, the Filipinos were operating prostitution. In
Bataan, the refugees were studying English to prepare for going to
the US. In the evening, the Filipino teachers were inviting the
students to their houses for business. I worked to stop that and
received letters threatening my life.
Four years ago,
I just returned from the US, and found out that I have cancer. Now
I understand that my superior’s decision of calling me back to Italy
has saved my life. If I had stayed in the US, I couldn’t have
discovered my cancer early enough because in the US, health care was
so expensive and then there would be also the issue with insurance.
I spent $250.00 seeing a doctor in the US, but they found nothing.
I was in pain more and more. Thus, I feel the love of God because
my life was saved. For any of our pains, cancer or heart attack, if
we have faith, we will feel the love of God.
I had a
personal retreat, on the Passion of Jesus; I understood that the
greatest love of God was not in saving my life but in the cancer
itself. Because in October 1998, during my personal retreat, I
heard the voice of God saying �let me love you my way, not your
way.’ The way God loves us is totally different from the human way
of loving. My mother, my brother, my sister and my relatives saw
God’s love in not letting me die. But, with God it was different.
For us, the greatest grace is that the life is saved. To the
Father, the greatest grace is to be similar to the Son, the Jesus on
the Cross, at the time of feeling of forsaken. To become like him
is the greatest grace. Now my first concern is not my health but
how to exploit this sickness in order to share my similarity with
Jesus. I feel loved by God. At the beginning, it was hard for me.
First there was colon cancer, then liver cancer. I accept the
possibility of death. I am at peace. If I die it’s ok. If I
survive, it’s okay. To follow the will of God is the best thing to
do. Life is the sign of the love of God.
When I worked
in Galang, new refugees came to Mass upon arrival to thank for their
lives. Then they asked what about those didn’t survived, were they
not loved by God? But in deed, everyone was loved. We are to become
like Jesus, both in spiritual holiness and apostolic life. We are
called to be saints. There is one holiness - the Jesus on the Cross
- we see in the Passion, Jesus was so weak, but weakness became
omnipotent for us. Then weakness was out of love for us. So, this
weakness is the greatest of love in human history.
So, when I feel
weak, even I am to die, I accept that out of love for Him. I join
with Jesus in his Passion. I entered the Society of Jesus to be
sent to mission. For 30 years, I worked for the Vietnamese. I was
very active. Now, God stopped me. I see Fr. Thành he is so very
busy. I have no work now, nothing. But, I feel happy because I
still feel I am in missionary. Jesus spent three years teaching and
spent 30 years not working. But he saved the world in a few hours
he was on the cross. So, if I have my pains, I am more so in
missionary than I was in the US. I feel joyful and peaceful.
Q:
You were sharing how you have taught the catechists and the
youngsters about the faith, not using the laws through the Gospels,
A:
I feel that the way to teach children, catechists and even the
adults in preparation for marriage. We usually teach about the
notion of God (like we teach mathematics or history). I think it’s
not a good method. The Gospel is about faith. It’s life. It is
not notion. Notion can be necessary but we have to connect it to
life. While teaching we should teach how to live, to put the Gospel
into practice. Teaching love. Learning what love is and how to love
is necessary to life both here and after life, i.e. our happiness
here and happiness then. The school, the civic society teach sex but
do not connect it to love. They teach techniques but don’t teach
people how to live with sex as a sign of love. Sometimes even
within the Church, we are thinking just like those without faith.
For them, love is affection. Affection is good but it’s only an
element of love, not the essence of love. Love is self-giving.
If love is
based on attraction, after a few years living together, attraction
wears out; both become aware that they are full of defects and
shortcomings. It makes life difficult to live. If they know what
love is, as self-giving, both can accept each other as he or she
is. Then they can stay together. Otherwise, divorce. I think at the
wedding day, after the celebration is over, if the bride and groom
says to each other, from now on, I want to live only to make you
happy, not to make myself happy. Their marriage will last.
Why did God
create the world? That is for God to live together with mankind. It
seems to me men refused that. But God cannot be defeated. He sent
Jesus as a man for the same purpose. The Margi, what did they see?
Joseph, Mary and between them Jesus - Jesus was born to realize the
dream of God that is to live among us. He came down to found the
new humanity in which God is present among man.
What is
apostolic work? What is evangelizing? It’s not to bring people to
church. Evangelization and apostolic work mean teaching people to
love each other in order to know the presence of Jesus among them.
Take this religious community as an example, we are Jesuits; each
community is part of the Church. But is each community the kingdom
of God? We are not sure. It’s not automatic. If we love each
other with the love of God that is ready to die for each other, then
it is. Otherwise it’s a human club. I think this is one reason why
there is lack of vocation. For the young people, if there is no
love, there is no life. Dong Hanh should be like that. Otherwise,
it’s useless. Family is the same. This simplifies a lot of
things. We stress ourselves so much. - It’s useless. The only
thing needed is to teach how to love each other.
Q:
About couple, rate of divorce is so high now. What can we do?
A:
Nothing except, from the childhood, teach them love one another as
Jesus love. That is Christian life. The sole commandment is to
love one another as Jesus love. That means we are to be guide for
each other.
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