THE GOOD SHEPHERD IN «BICA DA CANA» – One Story In Five Pieces
1. «Bica da Cana» is a place located in the largest plateau of Madeira Island called Paúl da Serra. During my childhood, Paúl da Serra was always associated with hard work and suffering and sometimes even with tragic deaths. It had almost all the characteristics of a desert even if part of the year it was green with a special kind of fern called «feiteira». Especially during the month of August, the farmers used to spend days, nights and weeks in Paul da Serra, cutting «feiteira», letting it dry and, carrying it home pulled by cows. Usually these small farmers ate very frugally and the access to the water was very limited. It happened to me, to my father, my brothers and my neighbours. This was the farmer’s kind of life during Summer time.
2. Some people used to cross Paul da Serra by foot to go to the northern part of the island (Porto Moniz) to buy potatoes, carrying them on their backs. Sometimes it was foggy and they would get lost and some tragic deaths happened in Paul da Serra.
3. Around 1955, when I was still a seminarian, I decided to add some fun to that wonderful part of the island that had been a symbol of suffering and work only. I invited a group of five people (including me) and we made our first trip to Bica da Cana. Since then, once a year, the «Trip to Bica da Cana» became more and more popular and «mandatory». When I used to come for my Summer holidays, the way many people greeted me was with this question: «When is our trip to Bica da Cana?». Each year the crowds kept growing. After my Priestly Ordination in Africa I came to Madeira to say my first Mass. One of them was in Bica da Cana. Attending that Mass there were lots of people seated and standing on the hills. Besides these popular trips, when I was a student, together with other students we used to walk through Paul da Serra carrying our tents and camping for days and weeks.
4. Many years passed. When I celebrated the 50th anniversary of my ordination, the Most Reverend Bishop of Funchal, António Carrilho, offered me and other priests who were celebrating their jubilees, the statue of the Good shepherd. I kept that statue in my living room for some time. But I realized that the statue of the Good Shepherd is too symbolic to be confined to a private house. It is hard to believe that in Madeira there are thousands of statues of Saints, of Mary, and saints in churches and in private homes and I have never seen a statue of the Good Shepherd. I consider the story of the Good Shepherd narrated by Luke, chapter 15, the heart of the message of Jesus. It is a story of a Shepherd who had 100 sheep. When night was falling he counted all of them and one was missing. He was very sad with the absence of that one. This shepherd left ninety-nine sheep in the sheepfold and went looking for the lost one. When he found it, I am sure it was bleeding and trembling with cold and smelling like feces and urine. But he was so happy that he found it. He put it on His shoulders and came home.
5. BLESSING AND INAUGURATION:
On Saturday, September 12, at 11:00 AM.
The Bishop of Funchal, D. Nuno Brás, will go to Bica da Cana, along with the civil authorities to bless and inaugurate the «CANTINHO DO BOM PASTOR». ALL ARE INVITED.