Fr. Stan Swamy SJ, a Heroic Defender of Adivasi Rights in Life and Death
With shock and anguish, we
mourn the heroic death of Fr. Stan Swamy SJ. He sacrificed his life for the cause of the Tribals in India, especially of Jharkhand. He breathed his last at the Holy
Family Hospital in Mumbai on the afternoon
of July 6. At the time of his death,
the 84-year-old Jesuit priest was still in judicial custody charged
under the anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967, with
participating in a Maoist conspiracy to foment
caste violence.
The news of the death of Fr. Stan Swamy brought about by the various institutions that held him
arbitrarily in custody for over 9 months has shaken not just the ‘conscience’
of India, but of the entire world.
This incident of custodial torture and consequent ‘death’ of an 84-year-old human rights defender, suffering from Parkinson's, for a crime he never committed
shall remain a permanent blot on India’s claim
of being a ‘democracy’. Amidst all the humanly inflicted pains, troubles and sufferings his spiritual strength, willpower and unshakable trust in his well-wishers,
empowered him to live his life with great determination until the end. But what shocks all of us is why justice was not meted out to him, why his bail petitions were constantly rejected,
why he was not provided with basic requirements, why he was not allowed
to be treated in a private hospital, etc. It is a proven
fact that he was not treated with human dignity
and respect. As the world mourns this spartan
saint, whose only mission was to fight for justice for the oppressed, we are left with many unanswered questions.
A firm believer in the power
of peace and constitutional rights, he fought until his last breath against forced land and resource
alienation and for justice to thousands of undertrial Adivasis, the rights of Gram Sabhas under PESA and
release of all persecuted prisoners. He also earned the ire of the Government and the NIA for his powerful role in
solidarity with the Pathalgadi self-rule
movement and his well-researched PIL seeking the release of more than 4,000 Adivasi
undertrials across jails in Jharkhand. In his death, we have lost a great
inspiring leader whose life will ever be a great source of motivation for the present
and future generations. We express our heartfelt
sympathies to the entire Jesuit
family in India,
especially to the Provincial and the Jesuits of Ranchi Province, his close relatives
and friends. Fr. Stan Swamy was the champion and saviour of the underprivileged and the
marginalized. His humble priestly life, committed
ministry and his identification with the least and the last in society speak
volumes about his dynamic leadership
and sincere selfless service to the tribals and the voiceless class in our society.
No doubt Fr. Stan is indeed a role model for all of us, and his martyr's death will bear much fruit in the course of time. May his death be an inspiration to all of us and awaken our dormant spirits to plunge into action for the welfare of the poor among us. Let us not confine ourselves to merely a formal eulogy and expression of sympathies. Instead, let us like Fr. Stan become sensitive to the plight of the underprivileged and strive hard by contributing our share to alleviate their sufferings and pains, and also by becoming their strong and powerful voice. It is time for all people of good will to come together to demand an inclusive India in which all people are equal. It is time to demand a legal system that holds people who perpetrate such injustice in the name of the law responsible for their actions. That would be a good way of paying tribute to Fr. Stan Swamy.
PRIMACY OF PRAYER IN OUR LIFE
Prayer is at the heart of our religious commitment.
There can be no lasting religious consecration if there is no sustained and continually nourished relationship with the Lord. Rev.
Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori,
the Abbot General
of the Cistercians of the Common Observance, wrote, “The real crisis in
Christian life, and in the monastic and religious life, is not a crisis of form, but of substance. We live dissipated
not because we lack virtue, discipline, consistency, but because we lack the mystical experience in our relationship with Christ.” (Rev.
Mauro- Giuseppe, Lenten
Letter “And If God Would Give Us His Heart”, 2014).
Pope Benedict XVI put the significance of prayer in the
life of religious and priests in simple words. He said, “We are not called to be experts in anything but in spiritual life”. He shared the same thoughts more personally and explicitly with us Salesians
when he spoke to the delegates of the 26th General Chapter in
March 2008 through his letter addressed to them: “Don Bosco's sons belong among the numerous throngs of
disciples whom Christ has consecrated to himself through his Spirit with a special act of love. He has set them
apart for himself; for this reason, the primacy
of God and his initiatives must shine out in their witness… There can be no ardent
mystic without a vigorous ascesis (the practice of severe
self-discipline) that sustains him;
and vice-versa, no one is willing to
pay an exorbitant price unless he has discovered a fascinating and
priceless treasure. In a time of fragmentation and fragility such as ours, it
is necessary to overcome the dispersive effects of activism and
foster the unity of spiritual life by acquiring a deep mysticism
and a solid asceticism. These qualities nourish apostolic commitment and are a guarantee of pastoral
effectiveness, and they must imbue the journey to holiness of every Salesian.”
The primacy and need of prayer in the life of a Salesian is presented in
unequivocal terms in Chapter 7 of our Constitutions. The first article
in the chapter (C.85) introduces the importance of prayer in our life: “The community expresses in a visible manner the mystery of
the Church... In praying, the Salesian community responds
to this call; it deepens its awareness of its intimate and living relationship with God, and its
saving mission, making its own Don Bosco’s prayer: ‘Da mihi animas caetera tolle’.”
The last article
of the same chapter (C.95)
in the last paragraph sums up the true character and purpose of our
prayer life: “His need of God, keenly felt
in his apostolic commitment, leads him to celebrate the liturgy of life,
attaining that “tireless industry made holy by
prayer and union with God” that should be the characteristics of the sons of Don Bosco.”
‘Da mihi animas caetera tolle’ is a prayer of Don Bosco. It makes us aware of our
saving mission and intimate relationship with God. It is
a prayer for overcoming activism and the risk of early burnout (Acts of the General Council
No.394, July-September 2006, p.6). ‘Da mihi animas caetera tolle’ is the motto precisely because it is a prayer that
brings about a unity of being and action, consecration and mission, love of God and neighbour, prayer and work, action and contemplation, grace and unity which is the characteristic of the apostle’s holiness in active life (Kuruvachira, The Challenge of da mihi animas, P.24).
Da mihi animas caetera tolle manifests
also a yearning for holiness. It reminds Salesians of ‘everyday’ holiness that Don Bosco
proposed to his boys and to his first collaborators. “It is God’s
will that we all become saints; it is quite easy to do so; there is great
reward prepared in heaven for whoever becomes holy” (Life of the boy Dominic Savio by Don Bosco). Don Bosco
realized his personal holiness
through an educative commitment lived with zeal and an apostolic heart. This personal holiness enabled Don Bosco
to propose holiness as the practical objective of his pedagogy (John Paul II, Letter Iuvenum Patris for the
centenary of the death of Saint John Bosco).
Prayer and work
We know well that Don Bosco’s process of beatification
ran into difficulties precisely with regard
to prayer. It was certainly due to a lack of knowledge about the prayerfulness
and sanctity of Don Bosco who remained
always in close
intimacy with God and made every act of his a prayer
so much so those who were close to him defined him as union with God. One critic pointed out, “On the subject of
prayer properly so-called, which all the founders of Congregations took greatly
into account, I find there
is nothing to say.” And he concluded: “How can one be heroic
who did so little of vocal prayer?”
We also hear it repeated
that Don Bosco
gave his Salesians very few practices of piety. On hearing this one may wonder as did the consultors in Rome. They said, “These
religious pray too little. How can they safeguard their
interior life?” It was a fact that the external aspect was missing in Don Bosco
– he did not spend long hours
in prayer like Fr. Cafasso, his spiritual director, or like Fr. Murialdo, his contemporary,
who would take up to four hours in preparing for, celebrating and making his thanksgiving
after Mass. However, though the external aspects were missing, prayer
was everywhere in his life. Fr. Barberis
says, “One can say that Don Bosco
prayed always; I saw him
hundreds of times climbing the stairs and going down, and always in prayer.
Even in the streets he prayed. On
journeys when he did not correct proofs he prayed.” Prayer was so much part of Don Bosco’s
life that he came to
be defined as “union with God”.
Don Bosco himself
used to tell the FMAs “Be Marthas
but also Marys… work for heaven; so little is required, you know. Just the right
intention, little acts of union with the Lord and the Madonna, and the effort to do one’s task well.” People
closest to Don Bosco came to know him; the more they had a chance to peep into his
personal life the greater veneration they had
for his person. We hear the bold testament of Don Rua: “I lived at Don Bosco’s side
for more than 37 years. To observe even the minutest
actions of Don Bosco made a greater
impression on me, did me more good than to read or meditate
on any pious book.”
Fr. Ceria wrote that the
specific characteristic of Salesian prayer is the ability to turn work into prayer. This is a challenge for many
among us as we are busy with so much work and run the risk of falling into activism and losing
the depth-dimension of our lives. The 26th General Chapter
therefore recommended to each Salesian to “ask God each day for the grace of
unity between contemplation and
apostolic activity and the commitment to realize it, thus avoiding the risk of fragmented and superficial activity.”
Don Bosco’s prayer is
sacramental because his enormous work, activity and union with God aimed at saving souls. In this context,
the words of Pius XI are very touching, “There is indeed a secret, and Don Bosco
revealed it continually, maybe without noticing
it himself. It is the motto which he so often repeated
in his words and in his writings: Give me souls,
take away the rest! Not a programme or a slogan, but an ever-present desire,
a constant invocation, a continuous prayer
– a prayer immediately translated into action, in work! Don Bosco’s educational
system was founded on frequent confession and frequent communion and daily mass. Through this he brought
his boys into contact with God, and that is what the sacraments achieve.
Faith and Intimacy with God
Joseph Boenzi, in his reflections on Saint John Bosco's heroic
virtue of faith draws
attention to the link between his faith and intimacy with God. He cites testimonies from those who were very close to Don Bosco.
“If Don Bosco was able to inculcate
faith in others”,
said Cardinal
Cagliero, “it was because
his own heart was filled with tenderness and love for Jesus. He was a man of deep prayer. He prepared
seriously for every celebration of the Eucharist, keeping a contemplative silence before Mass, as
Canon Anfossi recalled: The Venerable [Servant of God] demonstrated his faith and devotion to the Most Blessed
Sacrament to the maximum when he celebrated Holy Mass. His attitude was grave, with his head slightly
bowed and his gaze directed toward the Holy Table. Before Mass, except
when he had to hear confessions, which however
happened quite frequently, he did not speak to anyone except when there was a
need, and then only very softly.
Once it happened that I met him on the stairs before mass, I greeted him and asked if he had slept well.
The Venerable [Servant
of God] shook my hand without answering me and continued his prayers
which he pronounced in a low voice. He never
neglected to celebrate [the Eucharist]
even when this was a major inconvenience to him, as I can confirm having travelled with him on numerous occasions.”
The Theologian, Felice Reviglio felt that Don Bosco could induce
others to raise their hearts
to God because he himself was so
profoundly rooted in the Lord. His entire life and ministry revolved around a clear awareness of God's
presence. He demonstrated that God's glory was
truly his nourishment, his life. That's why he always appeared
untroubled and serene – jovial, in
fact! – every time he was faced with dangers, insults, threats from
adversaries. He was even ready to sacrifice his life, if such a sacrifice would bring glory to his God.
Cardinal Cagliero further cites an incident from the
Servant of God's last days, when the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal
Alimonda, went to visit him before traveling south to Rome.
John Cagliero, then a missionary
bishop, was present at the scene. Don Bosco was confined to bed, but he removed his night cap and held the Cardinal's hand, asking prayers for his salvation. Then "his whole face lit up" as he asked the
archbishop "to tell the Pope that all his work had been and would
be, as was his very life, in defence of the authority
of the Vicar of Jesus Christ." Cardinal Alimonda was amazed to see him
so tranquil in spirit, so undisturbed by the pains of his illness and so filled with thoughts of God. On leaving the
room he turned to me and said, "Don
Bosco is always with God. He is union with God." Don Bosco was actually in continual union
with God. He had God at the top of all his thoughts, and the aspirations of his
soul were identical
to the aspirations of Jesus Christ
and that which Jesus taught
us to pray for in the Lord's Prayer: the glory of God's Name.
This, I repeat, was the ideal of his entire life and therefore in all his private
sessions, in all his speeches, in all his letters, he always included a thought about God, about
avoiding sin and about the salvation of souls.
Characteristics of Salesian Prayer
Like Don Bosco we are called
to be contemplatives and men of prayer. Fr. J. Aubry gives three characteristics of Salesian prayer:
a.
Art. 12 of the
Salesian Constitutions speaks about prayer life as “union with God”. The manner in which the Salesian dialogues
with God is described in the text by two typical terms: it is simple
and continuous. His simplicity in prayer emerges
from his outpouring simplicity in life. It is apostolic in inspiration; a
prayer of an apostle and an educator
who has given his life to the Lord in a commitment to the salvation of the young. At the Oratory of Don Bosco intense piety
was lived in an atmosphere of freedom, spontaneity and joy. He learnt this from his mother
Mamma Margaret who told little Johnny,
“God Sees You”. This statement of his mother made him to be always in union with God. He never sat in the church for
long time but he always spoke of prayer to his
boys. His whole system of education is geared to giving the boys a taste
for prayer; he looks for favourable occasions to promote
prayer, he speaks
of the importance and value
of prayer, but he makes sure that everything is done
with the utmost liberty and spontaneity. Don Bosco did not want to
prescribe special prayers for the Salesians,
nothing but the ‘ordinary
prayers of a good Christian’. The Salesian’s prayer is simple
in quantity: not too many,
not too long,
not tiring or boring. He firmly believed
that nobody must go to prayer unwillingly; those who are fervent can always do
more. It is simple in style: not the
prayers of an elite, not also a prayer that fuels the emotions, but ‘easy things, done with
perseverance’.
b.
Secondly the Salesian is aware of the need of constant
prayer. The Rule, echoing the words
of Jesus (Cf. Lk 18,1), says that the Salesian feels the need to pray ‘without ceasing”. This coincides with Fr.
Piccolo’s testimony concerning Don Bosco: “He
always prayed. In him union with God was uninterrupted” (BM XII, 266).
Salesians have very few practices compared to other religious
congregations. However, they are explicitly prayers rich in content. One who takes seriously the daily practices of piety finds
ample possibilities to pray and nourish oneself spiritually. In the
Constitutional text of 1864
Don Bosco had already said that the Salesian prevented from making mental prayer by some urgent calls of the
sacred ministry “will make up for the deficiency
by more frequent ejaculations, and by directing to God with fervour and devotion
those particular labours which are thus hindering him from the ordinary exercises
of piety.” For Don Bosco every activity
done for God is a prayer.
c.
Thirdly, accomplishing everything for the love of God the Salesian
becomes like Don Bosco
a contemplative in action. Immersed in the world and the preoccupations of pastoral
life, the Salesian
learns to meet God through
those to whom he is sent. The need of God felt in the apostolic commitment, leads
him to celebrate the liturgy of life, reaching
that untiring activity, sanctified by prayer
and union with God, making
it a contemplative action which must be the characteristic of the sons of St. John Bosco.
Prayer in our Personal and Community Life
Our Salesian Constitutions
invite us to “experience” God, i.e., not only to live an interior and spiritual life but to have a conscious awareness
that we are in relationship with God in our daily life. The Salesian way of living in
the intimate presence of God is the way Don Bosco lived it. His experience of
God was extraordinarily fervent and still an example for us even at the present day. With absolute
confidence Don Ceria was able to write: “In Don Bosco the spirit of prayer was what the martial spirit
is to a good army officer, or the spirit
of observation to a good artist: an habitual
disposition of the soul, readily activated with constancy and great delight” (E. Ceria, Don Bosco Con Dio, p. 105-106).
We must realize
the need we have for personal as well as communal prayer.
The simple but fundamental reason for this is that in the Church
and in the Congregation each of us is, before
God, a unique individual different from all others, a son with distinctive features,
but at the same time a member of the People of God and of the Salesian community.
If the question is asked as
to which of the two forms of prayer should be given priority at the level of principle, the reply is clear:
communal liturgical prayer is “the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed and the fount from which all her power flows.”
On the other hand, there can be no
communal prayer without personal prayer. In practice since the supreme law of charity is realized in full conformity to God’s will, the Salesian will respond to God who calls him to pray with the community or “in
secret”: through the Rule, the circumstances of life or the exigencies of the apostolate. Various articles carry points applicable
to the two aspects and some
make explicit reference to personal prayer: meeting with Christ in the tabernacle (C 88), Sunday as an an enriching experience for the Salesian (C 89), commitment to conversion “on the part of each member” (C 90), retreats and
spiritual exercises “for each Salesian”
(C 91), Marian devotion for more convinced “personal imitation” (C 92), and
finally, the entire article 95 is
written from the point of view of the individual Salesian whose “need of God keenly felt in his apostolic commitment, leads him to celebrate the liturgy of life, attaining that
‘tireless industry made holy by prayer and union with God that should be the characteristics of the son of Don Bosco.”
The Constitutions which are our best and sure guide
strictly unite communal prayer with personal
prayer. Let me conclude with Fr. Vigano’s words which explain beautifully the importance of personal and community prayer:
“How are we to explain
the lack of interior life? I am becoming more and more
convinced that it stems from a lack of application to ‘personal prayer’, or in other words to the contemplative
dimension which is at the root of every religious heart.
Personal prayer has this indispensable primacy or importance: it is at the foundation of a convinced and well-fostered community prayer.”
