IN SILENCE, YOU WHISPER TO MY EAR; IN TROUBLES, YOU KNOCK AT MY HEART
I believe that we all have an inspiration in our lives through someone’s life and experiences. An inspiration of someone that, leads each of us to reach our destinations.
Here I am going to share with you someone who inspires me, teaches me, and leads me to walk in the path of Christ without fear instead of lovingly following his footsteps. Yes, he is Father Ramon Zubieta. He inspires me by just listening to his life story and the experiences that he had gone through. How do I get the inspiration?
Four years ago in formation house, our mother general Sr. Raquel Gil visited us in Macao. After three days staying with us, she shared to us about the life of our founder Fr. Ramon Zubieta and, I was moved by her explanation about this image of Father Ramon:
Life in a new reality
The Moment he made His first option to be a Missionary Dominican, He was open to God and his fellow brethren, to the needs of the poor and the possibilities of those who like him. That openness to life, to the future, to others, always pushed him to walk, collaborate, take initiatives and commit himself.
Zubieta reminds us of Abraham: leave your land, your house, and go to the land I will show you “, ” you will be a blessing to them ” Life is a permanent move, a missionary life which one goes on preparing the way, it is built up and concretized by the daily life in new realities, new social facts, new times; everything drives us always to move forward. Life on roads that costs, need generosity that is relying on the God who goes before us. Missionary vocation is formed each day in our work, in the changing realities, new encounters that enrich and open horizons. In his life we can see the temptation, cost, danger, and sacrifice, all these he followed relentlessly until the end.
Today we globally face this new reality in life. I would like to talk about my country India. It has a 1.3 billion population. Today India lies in a very bad condition. Doctors and nurses are helpless because, it is the first time that the oxygen, ventilators, and ICU beds became the ordinary thing and India is struggling to provide oxygen, ventilators, and ICU to all the victims of the coronavirus.
It is a very critical situation that we cannot say what will happen tomorrow? And the question arises in our minds, will we be able to see new life? This is a very challenging time for all of us. This time is a challenge for us to accept the pain of losing our loved ones and many people are facing hunger, joblessness, anxiety, and fear.
Our father Zubieta always had faith in God in times of challenges and difficulties. He surrenders to God all his joys, discomfort, and suffering. He reminds us of the very presence of God in our life in this condition.
A letter to the sisters: he writes “I do not speak on the prayer of stillness, that is for contemplative spirits, quiet and subdued; my soul, tempered in the sufferings and all kinds of tribulations, is content to join God fulfilling his divine will, even at the expense of all the sufferings; I am content to see God in everything and act on His designs with blind faith in him and his works; willing always to give one’s life for God and the salvation of souls which he redeemed with his precious blood. Thousand times I’ve exposed the life to imminent dangers, if God has not accepted it and has pulled me out of the bottom of the River, he will know why he does it.”
These words of Msgr Ramon Zubieta give us new hope and encouragement to dream for a better world, to have faith in God for the end of this Pandemic. It also gives us a mission to pray for the victims of the deadly virus; to console and comfort the thousands of families who have lost their loved ones. Let us not lose hope in God as Gospel of John 14:1 says “Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; and also trust in Me.”
By: Priyanka Kumariya
Novice of the Province of St. Mary