139. Fregona: The Silence of the Hills

If you are a member of a Religious Order, or in some way more committed to your Church more than a normal lay person is,  you have no difficulty in knowing which side you are on and you even have a love and affection for all that concerns the Church and the liturgy.  I have seen the priests, deacons, catechists of the various parishes react zealously, with ardour and genuine enthusiasm at the passage of the statue of Our Lady on this her pilgrimage.  We expect that, from such committed members of the Church but when it comes to the man who a moment ago was digging his field, putting mortar on bricks, or the woman who took off her apron and left the dishes in the sink to come and join the procession with a deep smile of joy and gladness, that is something to make one think because I know not everyone reacts like that at this event.  

I’ve heard some say we villagers have all gone out of our wits, credulous weak creatures who will find anything to believe in to fill our empty, drab lives, that in these days, civilisation had receded a hundred years or more, and that I, being a reasonably intelligent person cannot possibly have been dragged along to believe in all this almost superstitious and brain washing rituals.  And these people who have said this to me are intelligent, nice and affable people.  

Of course I cannot agree with them because I have seen with my own eyes the transformation that has taken place in those who have gathered to pay their homage to Our Lady on her pilgrimage and it is genuine: it is not manipulated to induce people to believe or to arose the crowds as you would at a football match- it’s simply just not the same thing.  The Church does not put a counter on the crowds, if one or a thousand come it’s the same, actually it only takes two, and there you will find Christ among them, saving that you believe what He said and you gather in His name not for a football match, that’s something else. 
 

That’s why in this article I would like to emphasize the words used in the title “The Silence of the Hills” because the statue had no one coming to greet her where she went on this occasion, no one thronged the streets, no one carried shoulder high the image, no indeed, the Pilgrimage Statue of Mary went to the most forgotten places among the aged, infirm and those who seem to have no great importance in the world of business, politics and other such matters of consequence.  And when you see the faces I publish, don’t anyone come and tell me these old folks have been brain washed because when one is old one has more brains and commonsense that one is given credit for, certainly tons more than those smart alecs whose only interest is to look down wards and have no idea what it is to look upwards to a world beyond the tip of their nose.   

The pilgrimage of the statue continued to a nursery and then placed for the night in the obscurity of a church lost in the hills with only a handful of parishioners in welcome.  The Pilgrimage of the statue also included this, away from the crowds amidst the silence of the hills. 

Having said all this, since our village saw the statue off with bicycles, the Franciscan Father turned to me and said, “The teachers told me that the kids who would accompany the statue to the next village on their bikes, would not have  to do any homework!” Well, I guess you have to allow for some incentive at times...

Sarmede says Goodbye