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

THE CATHOLIC CHAPEL

 Letter No. 42, February 1993

Dear Friends,

In Swarga Dwar we have two places for prayer: a catholic chapel with all Christian symbols and an ecumenical chapel with symbols of the different religions.

 In the catholic chapel there is a big wooden crucifix of human size (made in India ), hanging directly on the wall without a cross.

Somebody told me that it looks like a Protestant chapel as there is no tabernacle; but there is a reason.  I am Milanese.  In Milan, there is the Ambrosian Rite.  In the Ambrosian Rite, on the Fridays of Lent we do not celebrate the Eucharist, but we make the Way of the Cross-.  These days are called 'A-liturgical Fridays'.  Not celebrating the Eucharist is like an eucharistic fast which compels us to concentrate on the other types of presence of Christ, like His presence in the poor and the suffering.  He said,

" Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me."

 This is what we'd like to take place in Swarga Dwar: to become sensitive to the presence of Christ in the poor and suffering. 

 The chapel is on the first floor and below is the hospice.

Upstairs there is a wooden crucifix. Below there are 8 crucifixes in flesh and bones.  The one and the other are complementary.  The wooden crucifix is without a cross directly attached to the wall. The walls of our institution can be the cross of Jesus.  As Jesus is nailed to the cross, He and us can be nailed to our institutions.  Our crucifix is without a cross, but it is surrounded with thorns, big thorns, elephant thorns, which we got in our garden. 

 A crucifix among thorns and 8 deformed leprosy patients create an atmosphere of suffering and redemption. 

 Above the beds is written the phrase that the letter to the Hebrews (10:5) applies to Jesus: "You do not want sacrifices and offerings, but you have prepared a body for me...........Here I am to do your will, O God."

 The leprosy patients read that phrase and live it everyday.  Our body and their deformed body, like the body of Jesus have to become the means, the vehicle, and the sacrament of our redemption.

 The chapel on the first floor has the root on the eight beds of  the ground floor.

 When the patients of the ground floor climb to the first floor to pray, they find the explanation and the inspiration.

The guests that pass from one floor to the other experience the secret and the meaning of redemption.