SELF-SACRIFICE TO SAVE A LIFE

Sunday the 3rd of February 2008 was, it seemed, just another normal Sunday. The market was open and the churches were full of the faithful attending Sunday Mass. All of a sudden, at 9,00 local time, a dreadful noise was heard. Large buildings, markets and churches suddenly collapsed. Many seriously injured people lay on the ground amid the debris. People tried to flee in panic to save their lives. But where could they flee to? An earthquake measuring six on the Richter Scale had just taken place.

This scene took place in the town of Bukavu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. The earthquake also extended to the neighbouring countries of Rwanda and Burundi. The epicenter was located, according to the National Seismic Observatory, roughly 20 km north of the town of Bukavu. The local authorities called on the people to leave their homes and keep at least 200 m away from any buildings. People had to sleep outside, exposed to the elements.

Suddenly, rich and poor found themselves rubbing shoulders with each other, not through any feeling of compassion, but because they were forced to do so by Nature, for everybody had to spend the night sleeping out in the open because of the continuing aftershocks. There were no longer any barriers between the two groups, rich and poor. God had shown his almighty power. The luxury villas had collapsed and been instantly abandoned. The high security walls of the rich peoples’ houses had fallen down. At that moment I personally recalled the final document “Aparecida 2007” drawn up after the fifth general conference of Latin American Bishops, which had been held from the 13th to the 31st of May 2007 at the shrine of Our Lady in Aparecida, Brazil. The full document is divided into 554 sections and covers various themes, but number 65 discusses the theme of Poverty and the Poor: “ We must look in the faces of those who are suffering: the poor, the excluded, the immigrants and the marginalized, ….”

Now the so-called rich also had suffering faces. A member of the local Young Franciscans found an original way to express this change of circumstances by adding a verse to the Canticle of Brother Sun by Saint Francis of Assisi: “Praised be you, Brother Earthquake, for bringing together the rich and the poor!”

What could these members of the Young Franciscans offer at this time of suffering, anguish and despair? They too were destitute but, acting on the initiative of three Franciscan girls - Sifa Kalenga, Francisca Nanci and Isia Fabiola- they decided to go down to Bukavu General Hospital to give words of comfort to the seriously injured and to give blood. In short, “AN ACT OF SELF-SACRIFICE TO SAVE A LIFE!”

Bukavu, February 9th, 2008
Jean Francis Isia Amundala.