Szczucinsk – Kazakhstan, 21.09.2022
When St. John Paul II was in Lowicz in 1999 – I sang in the choir. It was a great honor and joy to be so close to the successor of St. Peter. But during the last rehearsal, the day before the solemn Mass, the platform on which we were standing collapsed. We landed on the ground. The entire choir, the orchestra… We could hardly see anything, worried whether we would at least be heard…. I thought: after all, the Holy Father is here for all of us – for Christ’s sake. His pilgrimage, hardship, illness, suffering – all for His sake. So we too are here not for fame, recognition, but for Christ’s sake, for the sake of love for His Church. So we sang with all our hearts, standing on the soil of Lowicz, behind a curtain of hands, banners and flags…
It has been a week since the arrival of Holy Father Francis in Kazakhstan, and I am still overwhelmingly impressed by the recent events and his words. Maybe it is because I was able to attend these meetings “close by”… And it is not that I was standing a few meters from the place where the papal car passed and it seemed to me that Francis just smiled to me, not even that the other day, during the meeting between the Holy Father and the clergy in Astana Cathedral, I was able to play the organs… THIS “close” gave birth to my awareness and joy of “being a small Church.” Holy Father Francis said that this is where the grace lies: instead of showing off our strength, numbers, structures and all other forms of the humanly significant, we let ourselves be led by the Lord and humbly stand beside people, experiencing the joyful and sad events of the society in which we live, in order to serve it from within.
On September 14, 2022, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, people from remote areas of Kazakhstan came to Nur-Sultan for Mass. Some traveled more than 1,500 kilometers. There were also believers from other countries: Russia, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan: almost 10 thousand people. And although it is still a “small flock,” a “small Church in the steppe,” it is no longer possible to speak of the Church in Kazakhstan, as it was during the years of persecution, that it is German or Polish. Church members include not only the faithful from traditionally Catholic nations, but increasingly the local Kazakhs as well… The Holy Father noted this, saying: I am happy to be here among you, to meet a Church built from so many faces, histories and traditions, and all united by one faith in Jesus Christ.” And further: no one is a foreigner in the Church, we are one holy people of God, enriched by many nations! And the strength of our priestly and holy people lies precisely in making diversity a richness by sharing who we are and what we have: our smallness is magnified if we share it with others. He strengthened us missionaries with these words. He reminded us for Whom we left everything: our own country, loved ones, binding ourselves to another culture, mentality, language, another nation…. I was reminded of the Pope’s words today in a taxi. Since I had to get to the Polish embassy very quickly I colluded with the local “Uber”. We exchanged greetings with the driver and the conversation took a less formal turn. I learned that he had come from Tashkent to earn some money to pay off his loan, support his family, his home. So that, he said, there would be enough to live on… He asked where I was from, because I did not look Kazakh 😉 … He smiled, hearing my Polish accent, and boldly turned the conversation to recent “papal” events.
– I could not be in the square where the Mass was, but I watched everything on TV, he said….
– Only now I saw how many of my Brothers (Kazakhs), at the risk of leaving the Kazakh family, community, come closer to the Christian faith…. I myself also come sometimes to your cathedral… I like to sit there just like that, to listen…
He asked why I do not drive around Astana on my own, since I have a car. I told him that I am still afraid to drive to places I do not know… and he: Put Mary in your car (statue) and drive – She will take you everywhere! And who is evangelizing whom here!? 🙂
At the end of his meeting with the clergy at Astana Cathedral, Pope Francis said, I am close to you and I encourage you: live this heritage with joy and bear generous witness to it, so that those you meet can see that the promise of hope is addressed to them as well.
And so be it, Holy Father! May it be so!
Sr. Kazimiera Wanat
