Carlo Torriani

SWARGA DWAR

The conversion of a catholic missionary

presented by

Card. Simon Pimenta

PIME Publications, PIME Regional House, Eluru - 534 0-07, A.P., India

BREAKING THE C0C0NUT: A EUCHARIST.

Letter No. 26, Bombay, February 1985

Dear Friends,

    First of all I must thank all those who answered my last letter. Your letters are always an incentive for me. One letter had this comment: “I was surprised by your sentence: the last will be the first. I felt very miserable, maybe because in my life I had too much and I never realised it.” I am glad that some people find matter for reflection and glad to know that our correspondence is a mutual incentive for action.

    Some time I refrain myself from writing letters because I have the impression of being accepted like a beggar. Also if I do not ask anything, people keep sending donations. But when I realise that writing becomes a spiritual exchange, then I feel happy.

    Swarga Dwar, (SD)does not want to be only an occasion for alms giving, not only a hospice or a rehabilitation centre. SD is an ashram: a place, a space, an occasion of reflection, of prayer and of dialogue. SD has a message for all those who are sensitive to it.

    The following incident can be an occasion for it.

It happened yesterday, when the plumbers came to lower a pump in the bore-well. In India nothing is started, nothing is done without having a puja, that is a propitiatory ritual of breaking a coconut.

Last year also, when the well was bored they asked me to make a puja. At that time, thinking that it was just a Hindu superstition, I declined saying that I pray in the morning when I celebrate Mass. Later on when the masons were going to start the casting of the roof, they compelled me at least to break the coconut, they did all the remaining rituals and they put also the tikka on my forehead. I could not refuse, also because in this occasion the owner has to give prasad (distribution of sweets) and bakshish.(a tip).

So slowly I got involved and I had time to reflect. They know that I am a priest, a man of prayer. If they ask me to pray with them, in their own way, why should I refuse. Breaking the coconut is a way of thanking God and of sharing. The meaning of the Greek word Eucharist is just thanksgiving.

    Yesterday when the plumbers came to lower the pump in the bore-well I was ready with a coconut, agarbatthi,(incense sticks) and peda for prasad. Not only I did the ritual following their instruction, but I made clear my intention with a prayer. “Almighty Father, you gave to mankind the precious gift of water, we thank you for granting us to find it in our field. We pray you to bless and give success to our work, so that we can enjoy an abundance of water and we can always thank you for your gifts, through Christ our Lord.” All of them answered Amen although they were Hindu and Muslims.

    I broke the coconut, I shed the water over the well and I remained there with the two halves in hand. Then one worker took a piece of white lining broke it in pieces and threw them in the four directions, “Because, he said, God is everywhere” and gave a piece to everyone to eat.

    I reflected a lot about it. These words  “broke it”, “shed it”, ”gave it” were very familiar to me.

Jesus took some bread,  “broke it”, “gave it” to his disciples… He took the cup, “gave it”…”it will be shed for you and for all”. If Jesus were born in India he would have had no choice.

Is it not our duty to help him to inculturate in India?