You could agree or disagree with him. He would never let the human quality of friendliness, kindness escape the conversation. His love for Goa – better said for a verdant and quiet, calm Goa – was relentless. No one and nothing could vitiate him from that passion for Goa, not even the dreaded fear of being sanctioned or of losing his priestly ministry, not the threat to his life, nothing. Goa came above all else, and why not? He had dedicated his life to the service of God as a priest. A God who was to be met in the ‘anawim,’ the poor and disenfranchised, the marginalized in society. Indeed, Bismarque met his God in God’s creation – nature, and those who suffered due to adverse, greedy, exploitative human dealings with nature.
Bismarque’s priesthood was at the service of the creator God, whom he served through God’s creation. God without creation was an incomplete, if not a deficient equation to him and rightly so. He feared God and no one else, none whatsoever. His only possession was a profound relationship with God through the universe of created living beings. He was never selfish, always selfless, imitating Jesus Christ who gave his life for humanity. He might have been sanctioned in functioning as a priest, but his priesthood was a living testimony. Though not a functional priest towards the end of his life, he was a true priest (in every sense of Christian priesthood) offering himself over and over again on the altar of the disadvantaged and voiceless humanity. He sacrificed himself for no selfish gain… except to save and maintain the pristine beauty of Goa for future generations.
Bismarque’s profound understanding of his priesthood and priestly commitment led him to the altar of the masses to break himself consistently for those disenfranchised by the mighty and well-connected. He offered himself ‘to be broken’ for those broken by injustice and exploitation. He ‘broke’ himself with a smile, with kindness, with compassion, with a certain restlessness that even Jesus exhibited in the Temple turned into a marketplace with urgency, as the situation demanded, with simplicity and intelligence and with communion, by forging a communion of the masses.
Bismarque was a true missionary witnessing to Jesus to others around him. That is why to all his Christian and non-Christian admirers and followers, he continued to be, continues to be and forever will be “FR BISMARQUE”. His priesthood was not confined to rituals only. His priesthood was ministerial, ministering to the poor, the voiceless, the uneducated, those deceived by politicians, builders, powers that be and those in cahoots with powers that be. His was humble service, finding the way to challenge wrongdoings by the powerful, educating the masses, emboldening them, inculcating and enhancing their love for Mother Nature and their desire for preserving pristine the natural beauty of our beautiful Goa. That is why, when his priestly ministry was sanctioned, he did not collapse under the sanctions. He lived the next day after the sanctions just as the day before the sanction, breaking himself for the people of God, immaterial of which faith they professed. His kindness manifesto was not affected with the official sanction. In fact, his kindness blossomed unfettered. He could be himself, free of any ecclesiastical oversight. He was sanctioned to function at the Altar (understandably so, as the Church’s Canon Law automatically came into force) but freed to serve at the altar of God’s creation. And, Bismarque did so passionately with no more fetters around him.
Jesus was a response to human sin and transgression against God. Jesus assumed the responsibility to leave the heavenly Altar and condescend upon the altar of humanity, to redeem humanity and restore it to its creative goodness. Jesus assumed the ABILITY for a RESPONSE to human degeneration when he descended upon the earth in human form. Bismarque lived this “ability” to “response” in imitation to Jesus. He felt it responsible of him to harness his ‘abilities’ to provide a counter-‘response’ to human/political transgression of human beings and their living conditions and/or of mother nature. His priesthood was lived in communion with his fellow-pilgrims denouncing sin, human greed, exploitation and injustice, and in asserting and enhancing self-belief and the rights of the poor and marginalized… Bismarque’s priesthood was exercised by being an incarnation of a savior for the poor, those deprived of land and rights, of nature, of the beauty and tranquility of our lovely verdant Goa.
Fr Bismarque has left unto us Goans, the baton of responsibility to harness our ABILITY to forge a prompt and adequate RESPONSE to the ills plaguing Goa. Rest in Peace, you faithful servant of God and a true Son of Goa and bolster in every Goan the courage to awaken our inherent ABILITY to courageously and fearlessly offer ourselves as a truthful, selfless RESPONSE to preserve Goa for the next generations.
(The author holds a PhD in Theology, currently working in London. He is a Goan and a friend of Fr Bismarque Dias.)
