The majority of people in Indonesia are Muslims, more than 90 per cent. Christians/Catholics, together with Hindus and Buddhists, form a minority. In most areas, people of different religions live side by side harmoniously, hopefully, yet in some areas, there still exist prejudices, which from time to time, will explode, as one of the causes of anarchy. Yet it subsides quickly due to the timely handling of the police.
In our monastery (Gedono), we have workers from the neighborhood, and they are almost all Muslims. We have no difficulty. We appreciate Muslims and their religious customs. For example, on Fridays, they stop working at 11:00 to go pray in the mosque, which is very close to our location. They resume work at 12:30 after the prayer service has concluded. Almost all the nearby areas have their own mosque or langgar (similar to chapels). To call people to prayer, they either sound a gong or announce the prayer time through a microphone, which resonates throughout the entire area.
Instead of complaining that the loud sound is deafening or disruptive, we view it as a helpful reminder for our prayer time. This practice helps unite our hearts with the Muslim community as they engage in their prayers.
What connects us with the other is the spirit of being together, the spirit of respect for others. We can appreciate each other’s presence.
As a clear example, we have the poor and the rich. Although there is a gap between the poor and the rich, we live by the principle of our country, which is UNITY IN DIVERSITY.
We have been confronted by the richness of their lives of poverty, as Pope Francis convinced us that the poor are the Church’s treasure. While we should be more conscious of the poverty of our lives of comfort, we should also learn from the poor. They are our teachers of hope; they are our living hope. Our prayer life is embodied in hope, yes. When all is dark, we hope that one day it will be bright.
Approaching Lebaran, the Muslim holiday, Id’ulfitri, our friends, the Lay Cistercians
-Gedono, organized a distribution of rice to our poor neighbors. They announced the opportunity for each household to obtain a package of 10 kg of rice, paying half price at 70,000 IDR. They can have it per house. The list of inhabitants, or better, the list of houses, was very carefully prepared by our bursar, so that we can trust everybody. People came in turn, village by village. Each came prepared with their slendang, or tablecloth, so that they could carry their 10 kg rice easily.
There were 11 villages, a total of 435 houses.
People were content and grateful, because they could hardly buy rice in the market. Our Lay Cistercians and their “rich” friends were very happy to be able to help the poor. They learn from the smiles on the faces of men, women, and children, as a token of gratitude for the gift they have received.
Thus, we experience communion with our neighbors. This experience made me look up at the window pane of our church, which symbolized COMMUNION. Communion in faith, in Jesus Christ. As Pope Benedict XVI teaches us, Faith is a light that leads society to truth and goodness.
As we prepared for the Dedication of our church, we decided to renew the large window pane behind the altar. We were very happy when the old window was replaced with a circular design with a motif that signifies COMMUNION; it was exactly what we had envisioned. Communion!!
I particularly remember Psalm 66, which expresses our inner HOPE, our deep conviction that God embraces us all; that He will not delude us.
Psalm 66:
O God, be gracious and bless us
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth
and all nations learn your saving help.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and exult,
for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness, you rule the peoples,
you guide the nations on earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its fruit
for God, our God, has blessed us
May God still give us his blessing
till the ends of the earth revere him.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Every time we sing this psalm, I have this idea in mind. A HOPE that one day God’s ways be known upon earth and all nations learn his saving help. I am confident that one day all the peoples will praise God, the one God who made heaven and earth.
I can share with you some small anecdotes as examples that this hope has become real in our lives, in communion with our Muslim neighbors.
One day, when we were preparing some children from our village (Catholic families) as flower girls to join the procession of the Blessed Sacrament on the solemnity of Corpus Domini, a man, Mr. B, who used to be one of our workers, was waiting for me at the entrance of our church. He is a Moslem. He approached me at once and introduced me to his little granddaughter and grandson, who had come to join the procession, to be flower strewers. Now, his daughter, a young woman, mother of these children, told me that she became Catholic because of her husband. Her father wanted to give her in marriage to a man, a Moslem. But to his amazement, she refused. And she explained why. She told her father that she wanted to marry a Catholic, because in a Catholic marriage, you marry only once, ‘until death you depart’, while matrimony in the Muslim way can happen several times. People marry, get divorced, and remarry. No, she resolutely wanted to marry a Catholic man!
And the father could not understand that fully, yet he had no objection. I wondered how she could possess such conviction? Surely, it must be the Holy Spirit guiding her and giving her light! Praise be to the Lord!
The wedding took place in their small town, not far from Gedono. The matrimonial Mass was held in their parish church and attended by the local parishioners, her father, and the entire Muslim family. It was like a miracle. The ceremony went on smoothly, without any disturbances, and the entire family was very happy. Afterwards, every Sunday after Mass, her daughter, son-in-law, and two siblings visited Mr. B in his home near Gedono. He was aware of their weekly visits, and nothing made him happier.
Another significant experience for us was how our neighbors supported us during times of sorrow. We held funeral Masses for two of our sisters, Sr. Assuntina and Sr. Agatha, six weeks later, both at 11:00 AM. People from our five neighboring villages—about 400 in total—came to our place after their prayers at the mosque. Men and women, young and old, gathered solemnly, waiting for their turn to enter the church and pay their respects to the deceased by saying their goodbyes around the coffin. Most of them did not know the sisters personally; they only knew that they were part of the Gedono Sisters and thus considered part of their family.
Before the coffin was closed, the close relatives of Agatha (all Catholics) gathered around and prayed together. Beautiful! Then our workers, all clad in uniform, gathered around the coffin and said their prayers in their Muslim way. One led the solo prayer in Arabic, and all responded in unison: AMIN. Beautiful! It was very peaceful. Everybody respected everybody else. How can this happen? Different religions praise the same God in different ways.
Then, in a long, long line, and each of them greeted the sister lying in the coffin, without any prejudice, while our community was singing a Song to Our Lady: thousands of times, until the line was finished, then the burial and the covering of the vault and petals thrown over the coffin.It seemed endless, but finally all 400 people gathered outside our gate, where we had prepared chairs for them and provided a box lunch for each. That’s how the funeral came to a close.
So we live our monastic life in enclosure, but our hearts reach out to the world, the world that needs God’s mercy and love. The world that points forward to the next world where all is one, where the Good Shepherd is leading us together, fulfilling the hopes and desires of all God’s children, and praising his name together forever and ever. Amen. ◼