The Vietnamese Cardinal Văn Thuận became a prisoner for 13 years after the Communist take over of Vietnam and 9 of them in solitary confinement. As a bishop, he spent many years in pain and despair without being able to minister to parishioners but was able to convey the message of hope to many in the outside world. Even in prison, he lived a life of reconciliation with God by meditating and praying, memorizing Bible verses, offering the Mass with three drops of wine, using his hands as the altar. The prison he was in became his Holy Land. We can be holy if we meet God there and experience Him.
The write read a short essay "Sparrow" by the 19th-century Russian writer Turgenev and realized that instincts must be sanctified. The hunter, in the essay, returns to his house, the hunting dog finds a young sparrow that fell from its nest. Suddenly, the mother sparrow flies from the tree and sits down in front of her chick, crying, attacking the tip of the nose and the mouth of the dog, shaking her head. Surprised by the mother bird, the hound starts to hide its tail and retreats. The mother of the sparrow, who struggled to save her baby, could not win.
Turgenev later recalls, "I learned from mother sparrow that love is stronger than death, or fear of death." The desperate act of the mother bird who is trying to save the nestling even if she sacrifices herself is the moment when she is taken to the world of holiness. This is the 'holy instinct'. When parents show their sacrificial love for their children, the DNA of holy instinct appears.
However, the love of a child instinct can also turn into something selfish and self-serving as was seen recently when a father who was a teacher in a prestigious high school gave the answers to exam questions to his twin daughters. We can be the owners of selfish instincts and need to learn from the holy instinct of the mother sparrow.
The writer can't forget Dr. Takashi Nagai who was a Japanese Catholic literate and an apostle of peace who truly showed what a holy life was. His gravestone says, "We are ordinary servants, we have only done our duty"(Luke 17:10).
As a radiologist, he experimented with his own body to find out how much radiation patients should be exposed to with X-rays, suffered from Leukemia and experienced the atomic bombing of Nakazaki and was bedridden for many years before death. However, despite his condition, he wrote dozens of books and gave comfort and hope to those who were in despair. Certainly, God shows us through Dr. Nagai that he is the one who accomplishes His will through weakness. This holy life of Dr. Nagai, who lived only for the glory of God, shines in this age.
The holiness of God is expressed in sacrifice, devotion, and service for others practiced in daily life. Ultimately, this means concern for others in what we do daily. A condition of being holy is to realize that the neighbors we meet daily are connected in a "network of life". In God, we have a need to have a sense of social responsibility for the lives of our neighbors.
