The lives of any profound personalities have unique power and inner force that has left them undeterred to achieve their aim and goals. It’s amazing to see them articulate their unexpressed desires into action- oriented daunting task as realised dreams. One such profound personality is the man behind the religious comeback in Goa after its ban in 1835 by the then Prime Minister of Portugal, Joaquim Antonio de Aguiar as the religious orders and congregations had been banned or suppressed first in Portugal in 1834 and a year later in its colonies. The then Chaplain of St. Francis Xavier Chapel, Duler Mapusa, Rev Fr Faustino De Souza, from the famous village of Anjuna, Chinvar Grande – Goa, born on November 24, 1893 to Romualdo Salvador das Chagas De Souza and Preciosa Cristalina Ludovina De Souza, the second youngest child among the seven siblings.
The heavens seemed to rejoice at his birth, for this child would bring in change in the life of people and the Church in Goa. The Church needed more hands to collaborate in the upheaval task of catering to the spiritual welfare of families which also needed increase in the rate of literacy. This man of God was fazed seeing the plight and overwhelmed by the love of God he sought ways and means to cater to this absurdity. Ps 25: 4-5, “Show me your ways Lord and teach me your Paths” reverberated in his mind and heart. I understand this today while I reflect on his life. The realisation of the presence of God in his life and wherever he went motivated him to go ahead in his mission. For God’s love is poured out into the hearts of men and women, who are incapable on their own self-giving love unless they receive it from on high, from its divine source. Yes, goodness always tends to spread.
Rev Fr Faustino De Souza, our Founder was blessed to recognize that God is merciful and His encounter with Him was the driving force that urged and encouraged him. He experienced the richness of God’s mercy, that he is the one who fulfils the mission by revealing His tender love and infinite mercy. Reaching out to others and seeking their good seemed outside of the realm of possibility for people. While a good part of our lives is taken up with taking care of ourselves and, in many instances, being taken care of by others.
And urged by the love of Christ Fr Faustino took up the mission of renewal of St Francis Xavier Chapel. The then hillock of Duller, the place on which the Chapel was situated, where people avoided staying in the vicinity after sunset, due to thick, wild bushes that had sheltered various kinds of wild animals and snakes, Fr Faustino with few young men cleared the thick growth, filled the ditches, got the ground levelled and planted a large number of trees. He did not just stop after planting the trees but selected few girls from the six surrounding villages who would come to help as volunteers to look after the plants and to water them. As fifty years later, Mervin Mascarenhas remembers saying: “Many girls would water the trees and some of whom have become nuns.”
Fr Faustino urged by the love of Christ took up social responsibility and encouraged the simple people to use their land to make a living to relieve poverty with farming. He sought to the all-round development of the people living on the peripheries. He brought income-oriented schemes to help the unemployed to earn and save. He introduced piggy banks, handicraft, cashew-nut peeling and packing tailoring, embroidery and other home industries.
Urged by the love of Christ, as a parish priest of Our Lady of Health Church Sancoale, he took up the challenges as he was interested in the protection for the planet and its precious resources: soil, water, forest and biodiversity. This concern for the planet and the people of God was well-manifested in the incident of untreated affluent from the fertilizer factory. When the problem of environmental pollution caused by the affluent seeping into the water and caused damage to the health of human beings, animal life and vegetation, he played a vital role in restoring the ecology and sustainable living through his heroic at Birla, Zuarinagar, where he spent tireless forty years in the service of men and also shouldering the responsibility of his creation – the Congregation of the Sisters of Holy Family of Nazareth. By then, Father retired due to his precarious health but he kept in touch with the situation encouraging and guiding those who could solve the problems. For the first time, he encouraged Sisters to involve themselves in such social problems and advised them to get out and face the risks that would entail them. Such was his zeal, energy and interest. Being a visionary Fr Faustino also went through the pangs of birth as he took risks and transformed those risks into success and victories relying on Divine Providence.
On the 124th birth anniversary of our founder Fr Faustino De Souza, we pray that urged by the love of Christ all of us, whatever be the ministry may help people to “rediscover the immense love of God” in their lives and try to become an enlightening and inspiring beacon, beacon in the family, to the neighbours, at work places, in the Church or wherever we are, just as Fr. Faustino did in his entire life during his earthly journey and whose life became service and care of the neighbour in need. Lets us be alert, awake and alive to capture the love of Christ while HE urges us on, pushes us on.
