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 COMMUNION OF MY CHRISTIANS

    I insert here three unpublished writings on the same topic. I wrote them in 1979, 1986 and in 2000.

    When I have to celebrate the Eucharist in front of a mixed congregation of Christians and non, I always feel uneasy. The non-Christians in fact are always respectful and devout. If they come to our church or to our Mass it is just because they are deeply religious. Particularly for the Hindu it doesn’t matter how and where you worship. It may in a temple or in church, singing a bhajan or attending Mass, calling to Christ or to Krishna; all these factors are relative: we can reach God by hundred ways.

    Just for these reasons I feel embarrassed particularly at the moment of distributing communion.

For example I celebrated the Mass in one of Mother Teresa homes, 300 incurable or derelict people, may be thirty of them were Christians. We celebrated Mass in the open in front of a statue of Our Lady.

Ma be, some of them came out of curiosity or just for a change. But when I was saying “The Lord be with you” I was meaning all of them, and, I am sure, in their suffering they were all with the Lord.

But at the moment of communion, the Sister-in-charge gave the announcement that the communion is only for Catholics. I felt that the others, who took part to the whole Mass and prayed sincerely, now they felt excluded. It is like to invite a crowd for a tea party and when the cake is cut, tell that it is only for those of the family.

    When we go to a Hindu temple the pujari offers prasad to everyone present. That is why I appreciate very much what my Christians in Janata Colony do.

    During the month of May, in the evening, they say the Rosary, all together, in the chapel, without any priest. So they can celebrate by themselves and make their own prasad. By shift, every family, every evening, carries to the chapel a pot of boiled grams, and, after the Rosary, out of the  Church they distribute them to the congregation an to all passer-by This is a real offering and communion.

    I learned the lesson; another step in conversion.

    Now when I celebrate to a mixed congregation I arrange for two kind of offering: the hosts and some other thing which is divisible: a bunch of bananas or a coconut. At the end of the Mass we distribute bananas to all. To all I say “the Lord is with you” to all I give a banana.

    I leave the choice of the medium for transmitting his grace to the good Lord. When I say “take and eat, this is my body” in front of me both are there: the hosts and the bananas.