恩典之路

Navigating Through the Winds of COVID-19 

Saint Alberto Hurtado, S.J. once said: “If these are bad times, then we should be better that the time… We are the time, and God is with us”.  I think this has been the experience of our Fatima community in Macau during these months: learning how to navigate through the winds of COVID-19, using them as our strength to move forward. Let me share some of these experiences using the four UAPs as a framework.

This time of pandemic has helped to strengthen our community life and our capacity to pray, discuss, share, discern and celebrate together God´s presence in us, Macau, China and the World. Due to the lockdown, this year was the first time we celebrated the Holy Week and St. Ignatius Feast together in the company of our closest collaborators. Besides having our monthly community meetings, we also started to have monthly “round table conversations” around one topic of apostolic interest. We also have monthly “open house dinners”, inviting a guest to share with us different aspects of the Macau social reality.

This has also been a time to learn how to walk closer to those who suffer. Each Friday we decided to save electricity and food to donate money to help two hospitals in Indonesia to fight the pandemic. We also invite a group of Indonesian Catholic migrant workers to have their gatherings and Masses in our house. On one occasion, we worked together with Caritas to deliver milk to the Filipino migrant workers from our community premises. As for our work in China, Casa Ricci continues its service to leprosy affected people, adults and children living with HIV-AIDS in our different centers in spite of many difficulties.

Our two schools have learnt how to journey with our students and their families in their experience to have online classes at home. They also worked hard to create a safe and warm environment to welcome them back to school in May. Finally, this year they will celebrate together their 65th anniversary. A special year that will end with a special celebration.

The pandemic also helped us to grow in our desire to care for our common home. Since the beginning of the year, we started to recycle part of our kitchen garbage and leaves from our garden to make compost for our plants. Three of us has joined a group of lay collaborators to form a team which meets every month to learn how to apply the teachings of Laudato Si’ to the Macau social reality.  Finally, the Macau Ricci Institute (MRI) has organised at the University of St. Joseph a forum to present and discuss government environmental protection policies. Finally, echoing the call of Pope Francis and Laudato Si’, in October the MRI will organise for the first time an international online Symposium titled “Toward a New Paradigm of Economics”.

The winds of COVID-19 reminded us that we are members of an universal apostolic body. Three of our companions have received new mission to serve the universal Church, the universal Society and the province. Dominique Tyl has been missioned to Palau, Emanuel Lim is going to go to Rome, and Vincentius Lim has received a new mission to serve at the Holy Family Church in Taipei. Indeed, this has been for us a year of big challenges, but also of abundant blessings. “We are the time, and God is with us”.

Fernando Azpiroz, S.J.

Macau 02/10/2020