A few days ago, I finally managed to find time to visit Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
It was not just out of curiosity that I visited it; I went searching for the grave of a Vietnamese woman who would have been 101 years old if she were still alive. Her name was Dinh Thi Hiep, a name of no particular importance you would say. But if I told you she was the mother of Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, the cardinal of Saigon at the time the Vietnamese War, who spent 13 years in prison?
Yes, Cardinal Van Thuan’s mother and father are buried here in Sydney. What a beautiful surprise!
Van Thuan’s book ‘The Road of Hope’, is a collection of the letters he wrote during his interment. That book, together with the historic fiction ‘Libero tra le sbarre’ (‘Free Behind Bars’, currently not translated into English) were a great comfort and companion to me in this year of Covid lockdowns. Who better that Van Thuan could have taught us how to face these long periods of restrictions? For me, he was a powerful witness to being faithful to one’s vocation, whatever it is, during such difficult circumstances, and how these times are not an impediment to the mysterious project God has for us, no matter how impossible this may seem.
I could not resist going and praying on this woman’s tomb; wife and mother, just like me.
I wanted to thank her for being a primary example to her son of Christ’s love, this son whose story brought me so much hope in this period.
I also brought with me the prayers and gratitude of all those who, like me, have met Van Thuan through his books and books on him. I was greatly moved by the privilege of being at the foot of his mother’s grave. Discovering that Van Thuan’s mother was buried here in Sydney, a short distance from the school where I work, was for me a sign of the Lord’s presence, another of those small ‘coincidences’ which He sows on my path over recent years. A sign for me, as I think of and miss my own mother who is in heaven, whose tomb is thousands of kilometres away and I cannot bring her a flower.
I am sure that the Lord has arranged my meeting with Van Thuan and his story, together with the events of my own life, so that I would find myself exactly on that day at that time on the grave of his mother; so that she could be also a mother to me, and an example to me, a mother too, on how a life can be radically changed when lived in the certainty of Christ’s presence among us in every moment.