It was June 30 and we were celebrating the martyrdom of Saint Paul, our patron.
I now no longer live, Christ my Lord lives in me.
Christ forever my joy, I must walk in his love.”
The hymn based on St Paul’s famous statement flowed from the chapel and resounded in our hearts.
Paul had grown from a persecutor of Christ’s followers to an ardent apostle of Christ. He had discovered the treasure of the crucified Christ. Hence he considered all his knowledge as rubbish, for the knowledge of Christ was richer than everything that he had.
I have sung that song umpteen times. It is by heart for all of us because we sing it so often. Yet on that day, it pierced my heart and tears began to flow from my eyes. My heart ached thinking of the nun who was gang raped ten days ago in Raipur . Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh, is just 300 kilometers from my place, Nagpur, the summer capital of Maharashtra state.
I shared her agony after learning that she was still in trauma. I felt the anxiety of her sisters who related the tragic incident to me.
One of them told me, “After hearing the incident we could not even speak to one another for a week. We were crying.”
Another said, “All of us in the congregation observed a day of fast and prayer. Only prayer can strengthen us, strengthen her.”
The Church protested in different ways against the incident and the slowness of the government in booking the culprits.
In Nagpur, the archdiocese organized a candlelight prayer where more than 2,000 people from all religions attended.
A young Buddhist woman participant asked me, “Sister, there are nuns among Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. But only the Christian nuns are attacked. Why? Is it because you are standing for the poor and marginalized?”
I did not answer her because I could not find an answer.
Instead I questioned myself: Why are the Catholic nuns engaged in the service of the down-trodden face such heinous attacks?
The Raipur attack took place in a maternity home that the Salesian Sisters were managing for poor women for the past 45 years.
The incident was the second rape of a nun in three months. A 74-year-old nun was gang-raped in Ranaghat in West Bengal state, some 1,300 kilometers northeast of Nagpur.
Are the attackers the same people we serve?
Jesus asked Paul, “Why are you persecuting me?” when he was going after Christians in Damascus. He had just endorsed the stoning of St Stephen.
The persecution continues. The history is repeated.
The attacks on nuns are attack on the Church. It is not on a woman or a nun. The weakest link is under threat.
The sisters in Raipur have closed the maternity home. The policemen are investigating the event.
“The chief minister has promised help. Sadly no help has come so far,” the sisters recounted. Are they empty promises?
“The police harass us daily asking irrelevant questions. It is not a stray incident. Many things are happening in Raipur. Nothing is reported. They are now checking the files in the maternity hospital? What do they find in them?” Sisters ask.
One Sister said she felt sorry for the people who were used by others to do such crimes. “They seem to know us and our hospital schedule,” she added.
Archbishop Abraham Viruthakulangara of Nagpur, who visited the victim, immediately after the incident, said she was in trauma and crying. “She is a living martyr, a saint. She has undergone the crucible of pain,” the prelate added.
For Christians in India this is a time of feeling helpless. They seem to be caught in a sinister plan to eradicate Christianity from the country. But whatever be the hidden plan behind all these attacks, Christian missionaries refuse to call it quits. Instead, they are going ahead with full steam. More and more priests and nuns are opening centers in interior and inaccessible villages to serve those on the margins.
If their attackers’ intention was to intimidate Catholic missionaries, they have failed miserably. Nothing seems to intimidate the Sisters and priests who are determined to spread Christ’s message of love and service. They explore more ways to serve Christ in them, as they travel on roads less travelled.
They believe Christ is leading them and nothing on this earth can stop them. St Paul’s words, “If God is with who can be against us,” ring in their hearts always.
“I now no longer live, Christ my Lord lives in me.”
I also realize that no iron bars, doors or security people can protect us. The only safety I find is God alone.
The nuns move on because it is Christ who is reaching out. Because only Christ can heal, renew life.
As my tears dropped on my prayer book I remembered a Sister in Assam who manages a small dispensary in a village. A man from Arunachal Pradesh came to her dispensary after trekking seven hours. He was sure of healing because a “lady dressed in white” had directed him. He had a leech growing in one of his nostrils.
The nurse sister tried her level best to get the insect loosened from his nostril. As the last resort she asked all her community members to pray before the Blessed Sacrament while she attended to him. And God worked a wonder. The leech came out of his nostril.
I thought of another Sister, who works for economic advancement of the Garo tribe in Mendipathar, Garo Hills, Meghalaya. She was miraculously saved from the kidnappers one night. Recognizing her yeoman service to the people and the lurking danger on her path the Meghalaya government provided her with security day and night.
I thought of the two nuns murdered in Mumbai 25 years ago. They were house parents to the street boys, sacrificing their safety of the convent.
I thought of the sister languishing in a jail in Assam falsely accused of murdering her sister-in law. Her family was upset that she had embraced Christianity.
I thought of Mother Teresa and her sisters. In spite of the sacrifices they go through to make the life comfortable for the poor, abandoned children, the aged, the sick, they have been criticized constantly.
These are only a few.
Attacks and criticism aside, the nuns move ahead with their Master Jesus, singing with St Paul:
I now no longer live, Christ my Lord lives in me.
Christ for ever my Joy, I must walk in his love.