Author: ANTONINO

Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade
(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

The world is grieving for the Notre Dame Cathedral. What happened was not just a building being burnt. What happened was a huge library full of history and full of little and significant stories. This could be one of them.

The Bishop of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris during the early part of the last century was a great evangelizer who tried to reach out to unbelievers, scoffers, and cynics. He liked to tell the story of a young man who would stand outside the Cathedral and shout derogatory slogans at the people entering to worship. He would call them fools and other insulting names.

The people tried to ignore him, but it was difficult. One day the parish priest went outside to confront the young man, much to the distress of the parishioners. The young man ranted and raved against everything the priest told him. Finally the priest addressed the young scoffer saying: «Look, let’s get this over with once and for all. I am going to dare you to do something and I bet you can’t do it». And of course, the young man shot back: «I can do anything you propose, you white robe wimp!». «Fine» said the priest. «All I ask you to do is come to the sanctuary with me. I want you to stare at that figure of Christ on his cross, and I want you to scream at the very top of your lungs, as loudly as you can. «Christ died on the cross for me, and I don’t care one bit». So the young man went into the sanctuary, and looking at the figure, screamed as loudly as he could: «Christ died on the cross for me and I don’t care one bit.»

The priest said: «Very good. Now do it again». And again, the young man screamed, with a little more hesitancy:

«Christ died on the cross for me, and I don’t care one bit». «You’re almost done» said the priest. «One more time». The young man raised his fist, kept looking at the crucifix, but the words wouldn’t come. He could not look at the face of Christ and say those words any more.

The real punch line came when after he told the story, the Bishop said:
«I was that young man! That young man, that defiant young man was I. I thought I didn’t need God but I found out that I did.

Happy Easter.

Love and Peace,
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade

(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

SILENT PROTEST

There was a doctor in Paraguay who was very active in protests against the military. He spoke out repeatedly against its abuses of human rights. Local police took their revenge by arresting his teenage son and torturing him until he was dead. It was a horrible crime. Townsfolk wanted to turn the funeral into a huge protest march. But the doctor chose another means of protest. The father displayed his son’s body in the local church. However, he was not dressed in a fine suit. And the funeral director applied no make-up. The father displayed his son’s body as he had found him in the jail: the son was naked, his body marked with scars from the electric shocks and cigarette burns and beatings. It did not lie in a coffin but on the blood-soaked mattress from the jail. It was the strongest protest imaginable.

See Christ hanging on the cross, showing all marks of cruel torture.

I am afraid of «beautiful» crosses. I am afraid of «beautiful» Easter plays. They look so cute but they say nothing about real torture. The death on the cross was an ugly scene and beautiful crosses say nothing about the reasons why Jesus was tortured and killed. The death of Jesus on the cross was horrible. Jesus was condemned to the ugliest and most horrible kind of death. Beautiful crosses and beautiful Easter Plays say nothing about the reasons why Jesus was killed.

People in power always put the law above the suffering of the people. Power has no heart. For Jesus, human dignity and the suffering of the people were always more important than any law. Jesus was killed because He was a law breaker. He always broke any law that was against human dignity.

Trying to help a family in poverty and suffering, I confronted a social worker. She said that the laws were made to be obeyed. My answer was that the soldiers of Hitler in Germany, the soldiers of Maduro in Venezuela, the soldiers of Herodes in Bethlehem and finally the soldiers who arrested Jesus in Jerusalem and killed him also said the same thing. But that didn’t excuse them of committing the atrocities that they committed.

Jesus didn’t come to the world to die. Jesus came to the world to live and bring life to the children of God. And all those who try to do what He did take the same risks like Saint Oscar Romero from El Salvador, Martin Luther King from America and Gandhi from India and it can be any one of us.

Love and Peace,
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade

(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

One the highest moments of my first trip to England (when I was invited by my friends Neil and Dena Spence last year) was my visit to Powis Castle in Wales. It is impossible to believe that place has been a family residence unless someone tries hard to convince you. Now, of course, it is a museum with a fascinating garden. Inside the Castle there are many big things and many little things. But all of them are a symbol of grandiosity and wealth.

One of the things that constantly called my attention were signs located in different places close to different objects that said: «To preserve me don’t touch me».

Every time I saw one of those signs I thought «I wish I could go around the world and put a sign on every person, especially on the poor, on the homeless, on every child and on every unborn child, on every elderly person, on every saint and on every criminal, on every nun and on every prostitute, every farmer and on every politician, on every prisoner no matter the cause of his imprisonment, on every race, colour and religion, on every insignificant human being… but with the opposite message: «If you want to preserve me please touch me».

«If you want to preserve me hug me, let me cry on your shoulder, feed me even if I look dirty, smell bad and look like a bum. Please touch me, alleviate my pain, free me from this horrible misery, walk with me until I am free from my addictions, teach me about God. I know that I am insignificant and you feel embarrassed before your friends if they see you talking with me or having a cup of coffee with me. But… please touch me. Please don’t just say that I am like this because I want. That hurts me and doesn’t help me.

My dream is that one day you will find a person who feels he or she is insignificant and you invite him/her to come to church with you and sit at your side.

I am planning to ask our Bishop permission to say a Sunday Mass, weekly or monthly, especially dedicated to the homeless but open to all people, with this slogan:

«Come as you are».

Yes! No matter how insignificant you feel you are. Just come. If you are wearing the same clothes for one year without taking a shower, just come as you are. If you are smelling like urine or anything else, please come as you are. If you have no shoes and long toenails come as you are. If your hair has not seen a comb for one month or more, come as you are. Come and sing even if you don’t know how to sing, come and pray even if you don’t know how to pray. If you come late or leave early don’t worry, but please come as you are. If you are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or Hindu or no religious affiliation, just please come as you are.

Love and Peace,

Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade

(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

Portugal celebrates Father’s Day every year on March 19 when the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Joseph, husband of Mary, Mother of Jesus. It can fall on a Sunday, just as it can fall on any day of the week. We thought that it would be a good idea to celebrate Father’s Day on the Sunday after the Feast of St. Joseph. That’s why… Happy Father’s Day.

«MEN DON’T CRY»

I had never left my country until I said good bye to my parents, my family and my Island, entered a boat called “Funchal”, and disappeared into the infinite blue of the Atlantic Ocean. The boat started navigating and I could see my parents standing on the harbour. At a certain point they looked so small and finally they disappeared, and I disappeared. I felt so lonely even if there were many people onboard. It was March 1st, 1964, when I went to Africa (Mozambique) for the first time.

Dressed in my black cossack from neck to toes, I knelt and cried and cried. I knew that I wouldn’t see them for a long time. It was then that I realized that being a missionary had always been a fascinating dream for me, but it was not as romantic as I thought it would be. It was really hard to leave my father and mother, brothers and sisters and go to a land I knew almost nothing about.

One day I came home on holidays. At this time, I already came by airplane. When I disembarked at the airport of Madeira, many members of my family were expecting me but there was one whom I really didn’t expect to be there. It was my father. Because I didn’t expect him to be there I ran to his arms and said: «Oh father… I didn’t expect to see you here waiting for me». His answer was: «I was missing my son so much». He didn’t say «I was missing you». What he said was: «I was missing my son so much…».

Maybe it doesn’t seem that different but for me «you» and «my son» seemed so different. We fell in the arms of each other and started crying, but then we stopped, turned our backs to each other and kept crying. We both were feeling a little embarrassed because «men don’t cry».

From that day on, I decided to break this myth. On that day I decided that it is OK to cry. And the most interesting thing I discovered is that tears can have more power to strengthen relationships than smiles and laughter. Thank you my father for all the times you laughed with me and all the times you cried with me.

Happy Father’s Day!
Fr. Bernardino Andrade