JULIEN, AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE
For our modern sensitivity,
our good Julien Vézina* is not quite the type of missionary to imitate. Anyway,
he is inimitable.
In the mountains of South
Honduras where the climate is very hot and where life is very rough, he is the
freest man of the world. He does not sleep, eats very little and never stops. He
is a man whose passion is to be with the ordinary people, to make them happy,
to serve them. He plays cat-and-mouse with the children, he extracts teeth, and
if no midwife is available for delivery, he is the one who plays the role of
«mid-husband». No unemployment.
When we are Julien Vézina, we
enrol in the Eucharistic Crusade the babies still breast feeding and communion
is given to them just like with adults. We direct the brass bands at all the patriotic
celebrations and we play any musical instrument. We use the typewriter at the speed of
lightning and we create documents. For those thousands of people who have no
papers and need a baptism certificate so as to have the right to exist, but
don’t have one because the archives were burnt or stolen, Julien, with closed
eyes, produces the so desired document without fuss, «authenticates» it by
stamping it with the seal of the parish and turns it over to the new citizen, saying:
«Next! » It’s free.
His catechesis is at the
forefront of technology. The exterior walls of all the chapels – already
whitewashed – are used as screens for the projection of films that are unique
in the whole world. The material is being carried in the mountains by a caravan
of seven or eight mules, including Anselma, his pet mule. Julien himself edits
his films with sequences «borrowed» (to use a euphemism) from other movies of
his impressive collection. He pastes them to one another according to a
surrealist framework of which he only has the secret. Short scenes about Jesus
and Mary are shown here and there between the adventures of Mickey Mouse and
are followed by other topics as essential to salvation as the most beautiful
goals of the CH of Montréal in the series of the Stanley Cup, or excerpts of
the family rosary with Cardinal Léger, without omitting the Max Brothers and
the apparitions of Fatima… Each time, a huge success!
One day, in Cuba (he was
missionary in the Philippines and in Cuba before ending up in Honduras), Julien
is going his way wearing a white cassock when two braggarts ask him what kind
of woman is he to go out with a dress on. Without a word Julien grabs them together
by the neck, lifts them at full arms and knocks their heads against one another
like in the best movies of the already mentioned Max brothers.
The strength of our Tarzan
is legendary. The gloomiest military men and the most roguish prisoners bow in
front of him out of respect. When he speaks, people listen to him, and even
though the stories he invents are unbelievable, everybody believes in all he
says. For example, to urge the parents to bring up their children in a good
way, he does not hesitate to tell that when he was in Cuba, Fidel Castro was
his altar boy. He tells them: «How many times have I warned the mother to send
her son to catechism, and since she did not listen to me, well, he became the
devil who is making the world tremble!».
Not only does Julien
impress by his physical strength and his stories, but also by his kindness and
his tenderness. Under the shell of a boxer, Julien has a child’s heart. His preferred
weapon to open hearts is the candies. At all times, he has a bag of them handy,
and he distributes them on his way. To the young girl who stick to him like
glue, to the grandmother who looks at him as if he was God, to the policeman
armed to the teeth and who struts like a peacock, and to the toughest one who
hates the whole world, it takes only a candy to become great friends. Jesus
said: « Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth»; this beatitude,
Julien lives it out by dint of candies.
At the time, it was
forbidden to priests to celebrate more than one mass a day, except in very rare
cases. Julien himself would nonetheless celebrate up to five masses a day, each
one at a different place, by using the host and wine consecrated in a previous
mass. Everything goes on in an
impeccable way and with an atmosphere of perfect piety, especially as, from the
sign of the cross at the beginning up to the final blessing, the mass would
last hardly ten minutes, hymns and homily included. No one complains.
If you are a confrere of Julien and live under the same roof, do not be
surprized when things from your bedsheets, your towels, your shorts, your
shirts, your pants, your altar linen, your cassock and your surplice disappear
like magic. It is the “invisible hand”
of Julien that is taking away from you everything
that can be useful to the poor.
From this indescribable
companion, I learn that we can cheerfully open the way to salvation with Jesus’
gospel in one hand and dynamite sticks in the other hand, throwing up in the
air everything that in the troubled geography of the country was an obstacle to
the passage of the holy jeep of the missionary.
I even learned from the
mouth of some pious country women that it was not the pope who wrote the Bible
– as claimed by ignorant people – but by Padre Julián…
In the jail of Choluteca,
the Padre Julián is not only the chaplain but also the greatest of the heroes.
Today, the jail and its chaplain are awaiting hastily the official visit of the
First Lady of the country. In the hope
that she will demonstrate her generosity toward that institution which wallows
in misery, Julián personally organizes the reception. He carefully teaches his
friends – a great number of them are known murderers – how to welcome the
august visitor. From the moment that the prisoners see Doña Alejandrina enter solemnly
arm in arm with Julián, a clamour reaches the heavens. But instead of «Long Live
the First Lady», what bursts out from all over is «Long Live Padre Julián!” The
face of the good Julián turns to a red beet. As a good catholic, Doña
Alejandrina amuses herself. It seems that on that day a bundle of lempiras came
out of her purse. Did this help in improving the life conditions of those
unhappy prisoners? We have to ask the administration… One thing is sure: if
that money had been put directly into the hands of our good Robin Hood Julián,
there would not have been any question asked.
Julien was not a “Curé
d’Ars”, nor a new Moses, nor a Che Guevara, nor a Mother Teresa, neither the
most up to date version of a 21st century missionary. He was only the « Padre
Julián », the unique Padre Julián. And then, one day, he passed away. Even
though he and I were as similar as day and night, I had much affection for him.
I was really saddened by his departure. I had the feeling that a great marvel
had just left us. If the delinquents and all the underprivileged whom he loved
and served during his life had accompanied us during his burial, I am sure that
we would have heard them crying as far as the end of the world.
Eloy Roy
Translated
from the French by Jacques Bourdages
JULIEN
VÉZINA, p.m.é 1913-1983
Missionary in The Philippines :
1941-1945 In Cuba : 1945-1956, in Honduras :
1956-196. Died in LavaL, Québec,
Canada: Feb 14, 1983
Comments
Post a Comment