Somewhat spontaneously this morning, just before he set out on a pastoral journey to visit three remote communities, I asked the bishop whether he thought is was possible and a good idea to screen a video on the life of St. Bakhita this evening at the diocese's center in town to honor her and inform the local Sudanese a little more about her on her feast day. He responded with an unhesitating yes, and told me we could use the diocese's projector and speakers.
As it turned out, I unexpectedly became the main celebrant at the English Mass, during which the transitional deacon, Nelson, assisted and preached, and at the end of which the Speaker of the Parliament of Southern Sudan, who had come to pay his respects to the remains of Fr. Saturnino Ohure, gave a long and lively discourse. So, I was able to make the announcement and the invitation of the screening myself.
I arrived a little early to try to make sure everything would be arranged by 7:00 pm, only to find out that no one who could help me was around. Fr. Auxilio arrived at about 6:30, and we looked everywhere we could think of for the projector without finding it. We decided that as a back up plan we could use a television with a DVD player. None of that made any difference anyway, because the generator wouldn't start, so there was no electricity.
In the end a small group of young men (7-10) gathered closely around a small table to watch the video on a small, battery-powered, portable DVD player by moonlight. Although conditions were far from optimal, it worked surprisingly well. The production was fairly well done, with some beautiful cinematography of Africa and Italy, even if the narration was a bit formal and overly pious at times. The young men, though, were glued to the screen, and obviously personally impacted by the amazing story of this extraordinary Sudanese woman. At the end we had a brief discussion of how Bakhita's encounter with Christ completely transformed her life and direction, and when I asked them if they'd like to do something like this again, received an emphatically enthusiastic response. Strangely enough, huddling together around the small screen created an unexpected sense of camaraderie.
St. Bakhita also gave me the personal gift of renewed encouragement this evening. I was pretty discouraged by the time we started to show the video, but as I watched the unfolding of her story and it's transformation from tragedy to luminous hope, and watched the young men be enthralled by this, my own heart was renewed. As I was getting ready to head back to the compound, a local priest who also saw the film told me that St. Bakhita is reported to have said that if she was ever able to go back to Africa and meet those who captured and enslaved her, she would kneel in front of them and kiss their feet in gratitude, because it was they who set in motion the events that ultimately led her to discover Christ.
That is an overwhelming and almost unbelievable testimony.
No comments:
Post a Comment