I.
Christ's Choice Vineyard: The Vietnamese Community
There are great possibilities and urgent needs among Vietnamese
Catholics. What are these needs? How urgent are they? Could it be
that finding them out and trying to answer them tomorrow will be
too late? We can easily give in to complacency, looking at our
communities superficially and ‑ seeing no obvious conflicts ‑ come
to believe that there are no inner turmoil. Seeing our churches
crowded we can think that their faith is strong, looking at our
families coming to church in packed cars we may think they enjoy
togetherness and harmony at home, watching our young physically
present in the community, we can conclude that they believe and
that their charming smiles reflect true joy and inner peace.
In the following observations I don't want to focus on the extreme
cases of excellency or degradation among our youth. It wouldn't be
fair or helpful to brand youth in general because of the
misdemeanours of a handful or let some exceptional leader actively
involved in most of the pastoral activities represent the majority
of the youth conspicuously absent from them. I wish to focus my
attention on the majority of the Vietnamese and try to discover
the tendencies, qualities and needs present in most of them. I'll
put the emphasis on the most urgent needs, which affect great
numbers of young Vietnamese.
By the way, it is possible that the extreme cases of misbehaviour
may be acute cases of conflicts and maladjustments often present
but kept, more or less successfully, under control in many
Vietnamese homes. In this case a better understanding of the needs
and conflicts of the community will help us find the roots and
remedies of serious misbehaviour in some of its members.
If we want to discover the needs and the potential of the
Vietnamese community it is also important not to approach it with
premeditated programmes suited to our personal talents, likings
and experiences. These are the projects for which we may feel that
we are better prepared. If we approach the community with a
premeditated project we will look for those needs or aspirations
which fit our projects, regardless of their urgency. We might
remain deaf to the vital needs of the majority around us. Even if
we can succeed in our personal projects, the greater service of
God and the welfare of our brothers and sisters prompts us to be
sensitive to their more urgent needs, being ready to elaborate
projects which will serve them better, although these new
endeavors might not suit our preferences or specialization.
We may find in this openness to the more urgent needs of the
community one aspect of the "preferential love for the poor" to
which the Church and the Society compel us, following the
footsteps of Jesus. This is the love for the lost sheep, which
moves us to leave the ninety‑nine at home to venture in the quest
for the lost one. This apostolic availability demands deep
detachment from ourselves, putting our hopes in God's grace more
than in our own talents, and is motivated by the love for our
brothers and sisters rather than by the natural desire to work in
projects we like.
Furthermore, we need God's light to see in depth and discover
behind the apparent vitality of our communities the loneliness and
emptiness of young hearts, the lack of communication in families,
the discouragement and fatigue of our leaders, the faith crises
compounded by false images of God, misunderstandings about Divine
Providence and lack of personal religious experience. We have to
look at the community through Jesus' eyes and love. Then we will
see a vineyard ready to be harvested, threatened by imminent
storms. We have to open our hearts to Jesus' love and zeal and
find out, before it is too late, what serious problems we have in
our communities.
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