I’m not trying to promote God. He may promote himself in a far better way than any single effort of mine. I’m not even trying to promote the Roman Catholic religion, which has been a tiny part of the world since a long time ago. The Roman Catholic Church believes that promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south (Psalm 75:6 KJV); it comes from God, not man!

I’d like to share with you a moment of speechlessness before this Universe and the question it might cause.

I was just ordained Catholic priest when a lady came to me and asked for my help. She has Javanese blood and Japanese proficiency so that she’s familiar also with her friend’s boyfriend, Sogo. They were working in Jakarta, and this lady became a translator for both parties. It happened that this Japanese guy revealed his intention to be a catholic, and for that reason, the lady asked me to do her a favor, that is, to give him lessons as preparatory of baptism. I didn’t have any objection as long as they could come to my city. In fact, the lady always spent her weekend to visit her family in the town where I lived. Sogo agreed with the lady to spend every weekend with her to prepare his baptism.

So, one morning, Sogo’s girlfriend, Nina, drove him to the airport, but, alas, the car crashed severely, and Nina died instantly. Sogo was rushed to the hospital, and he was getting better. Knowing that Nina passed away, Sogo called his parents in Japan and asked them to go, as soon as possible, for the funeral in Nina’s hometown on the next day. He would go ahead of them to pick them up at the airport.

In the evening, Sogo went to Nina’s hometown, and her parents picked him up at the airport. But it happened that they got a car accident on the way to the destination and no one survived. On the day after, Sogo’s parents arrived at the airport, and the driver who collected them could not speak any single word. He didn’t speak Japanese, for sure.  Moreover, he didn’t dare to reveal the story. The visitors might have asked themselves why their son did not collect them himself, and they found the answer after having noticed that there were four coffins in the house of mourning: Nina’s, her father’s, her mother’s, and Sogo’s. So, the Japanese couple came to that city to collect one of the corpses. They brought their son’s corpse with their tormented heart. 

I was not present in the scene, which happened in a blink, but every updating news about Sogo really struck me: car accident one after another in a short time in different places. The story didn’t finish with Sogo’s corpse brought home by his parents. The protagonist changed: Sogo’s mother had to deal with her husband, who had no appetite at all. He did not even utter any single word. After one week since her son’s funeral, her husband passed away… and she’s left alone by her only son and husband.

She made an inquiry: what is this, the so-called God, that my son wished to learn with great desire.

Her question reached me, but at that moment I could not answer her. I was still speechless. I could not even understand myself. Her problem was so clear to me: what is God, what is religion. The second question might be more tolerant, and perhaps the first one is simply a mystery: no one can give the exact answer!

Maybe… God is the real protagonist!