VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
As an immigrant child who grew up in a war zone, I often felt nervous and fearful. When we wanted to visit family, our passes and other documents were inspected before we could cross the barrier. One day, a Japanese soldier came to my mom, spoke some words and pointed at me. Someone interpreted for my mom that he wanted to carry me because I reminded him of his daughter. Thus, I was carried, sung to and began to feel comforted. Another soldier did likewise. It was the sense of calm and tenderness that I felt from these strangers, the enemy, that melted the experience of fear I had gained from my mom. Today, I work at seeing the other as being loving and caring and the face of a loving God.
Of my 59 years of religious life, I spent almost half of them in Peru, South America. I became immersed in Liberation Theology, the orientation for pastoral ministry in areas without ordained clergy, education, vocation-formation ministry, and adult education. I also strategized and facilitated bridge-building between correct civil behavior and actions for just causes of organized groups. The simple, poor families began to gain their voice as church in study groups on the Vatican II documents.
One midnight, the silence of the moonlit mountain in the village where I was working was shattered by a series of explosions — dynamite! The Sendero Luminoso, “Shining Path,” were after the few policemen. I stood looking out my bedroom window seeing the shadows of people running.
As my thoughts raced, they brought home the reality that the enemy would come to our house for medical supplies and the community vehicle. As the knock on the door grew louder, I was startled by a hooded man with a submachine gun on his shoulder. How does one look at danger face-to-face? With calm! What do you talk about with a terrorist? You listen to his philosophy of revolution and then you share your views of revolution for the common good of all with the participation of all without shedding blood.
As my Peruvian community faced other physical and natural, environmental challenges such as earthquakes that claimed the lives of an estimated 60,000 persons, floods and military coups, I learned from them the deeper value of living as a faith community. This was marked by hospitality, the giving and receiving from one another and working together for a better life for all. In the midst of danger, we sheltered one another in God’s embrace, opting for life, to choose life and not death. To choose God.
Since my childhood days, the image of my mother with her head bowed and talking softly to someone, remains. She did this every night and morning, and in fearful moments. I was too young to know then that this was her prayer time with God.
When we were reunited with my father in Honolulu, I saw my father form the same gesture. My siblings and I often followed but in our own time and way. It was this sense of God’s presence that grew as my vocabulary and experience grew, and prepared me for ministry to see the face of a loving God in those I meet.
Sister Francine Costello is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondolet. She is 60 years professed and resides at Hoomaluhia Community in Moanalua.
