austraLasia #1874
Fr Shirieda's moving story of conversion
ROME: 12th June 2007 -- Fr John Bosco Shirieda is reported on www.sdb.org to have died at the age of 75, at the UPS in Rome, on 10th June. The outline that follows however, is from his own hand, and signed in Tokyo, 1998. It is a moving story, one which needs to be abbreviated here for obvious reasons.
"Japan, 15th August 1945, the end of World War II. I had lost everything: my father, an infantry commander, had died in the camps in China back in 1937. Our home in Kagoshima was burned to the ground under the furious final American bombardments. At one point I dreamed of following my father in a glorious military career, but this dream was long since dead. I also lost a best friend at Hiroshima.
The task was to rebuild life modestly, and that had to start with somewhere to live. There was wood aplenty in Japan after the war - but no nails! One day I tried taking a handful from a Catholic church in Miyakonojo, being built with the help of American soldiers. On the one hand I disliked stealing. On the other it was absolutely necessary and then again, to steal from these hated foreigners (and more so from Catholics), who had destroyed my life's dreams seemed almost a good thing.
So there I was with more nails than I could carry - all going well, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was a white man, a priest. I imagined myself, hands and feet bound, shut up in prison. I immediately thought of my mother who had called me 'Masayuki', the 'just one', and who had taught me to be honest. My worst thought was what this theft would mean to her, so I cried out, spontaneously, 'Sir, do what you like with me, but don't tell my mother'! As a response the man put his hands in the drawer where the nails were, gave me some and sent me off without a word about Christianity. All he said was 'If you need more, come back'! I went home flabbergasted. That night I saw his face in my dreams teaching me to GIVE - in that post war period when everyone in Japan was taking.
So the day after I returned to find the priest. I told him I was putting aside thoughts of being a general in the Imperial Army and instead wanted to learn to be like him. I would never have said I wanted to be a Christian though! But what I saw in him was a teacher of life. He was a witness to it.
I did receive baptism at some point after that, without understanding much at all of the Christian mysteries but for one thing - the Christian is one who looks to God alone who is love as Christ was. He offers his own life for the salvation of others. That missionary's name was Fr Adino Roncato (from Venice) and I am in debt to that life of grace.
During a fire in Tokyo (our own technical school) he rushed into the flames to save a friend of mine, and died amongst those flames, embracing the young Japanese he had gone to save. Don Adino was reduced to a handful of ashes. He used say, when he was alive, 'Masayuki, I would like to become a part of your Japanese soil', and that's what he became, literally. That was when I saw, for the first time, the example of a life consumed for God's love.
I decided, then, to become a second Don Adino, a Salesian and priest like him. That's why I ended up in Italy, and became his mother's adopted son. Rosa died in my arms 20 years later, on the same day her son had died."
The story goes on, but to sum it up, Fr Shirieda points out that his brother became a Salesian, and priest, his sister an FMA, and his mother became a Catholic and Salesian Cooperator.
He puts it all down to the fruitfulness of one who 'did not ask what he could expect from life but what life could expect from him - and gave it'.
And now Fr Shirieda himself has followed his beloved Don Adino into the loving arms of the Father. He was in Rome from 1974/5 until his death. He was undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue for 25 years and a professor at the UPS.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org. To contact austraLasia by voice on Skype, the Skype name is austraLasia
Fr Shirieda's moving story of conversion
ROME: 12th June 2007 -- Fr John Bosco Shirieda is reported on www.sdb.org to have died at the age of 75, at the UPS in Rome, on 10th June. The outline that follows however, is from his own hand, and signed in Tokyo, 1998. It is a moving story, one which needs to be abbreviated here for obvious reasons.
"Japan, 15th August 1945, the end of World War II. I had lost everything: my father, an infantry commander, had died in the camps in China back in 1937. Our home in Kagoshima was burned to the ground under the furious final American bombardments. At one point I dreamed of following my father in a glorious military career, but this dream was long since dead. I also lost a best friend at Hiroshima.
The task was to rebuild life modestly, and that had to start with somewhere to live. There was wood aplenty in Japan after the war - but no nails! One day I tried taking a handful from a Catholic church in Miyakonojo, being built with the help of American soldiers. On the one hand I disliked stealing. On the other it was absolutely necessary and then again, to steal from these hated foreigners (and more so from Catholics), who had destroyed my life's dreams seemed almost a good thing.
So there I was with more nails than I could carry - all going well, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was a white man, a priest. I imagined myself, hands and feet bound, shut up in prison. I immediately thought of my mother who had called me 'Masayuki', the 'just one', and who had taught me to be honest. My worst thought was what this theft would mean to her, so I cried out, spontaneously, 'Sir, do what you like with me, but don't tell my mother'! As a response the man put his hands in the drawer where the nails were, gave me some and sent me off without a word about Christianity. All he said was 'If you need more, come back'! I went home flabbergasted. That night I saw his face in my dreams teaching me to GIVE - in that post war period when everyone in Japan was taking.
So the day after I returned to find the priest. I told him I was putting aside thoughts of being a general in the Imperial Army and instead wanted to learn to be like him. I would never have said I wanted to be a Christian though! But what I saw in him was a teacher of life. He was a witness to it.
I did receive baptism at some point after that, without understanding much at all of the Christian mysteries but for one thing - the Christian is one who looks to God alone who is love as Christ was. He offers his own life for the salvation of others. That missionary's name was Fr Adino Roncato (from Venice) and I am in debt to that life of grace.
During a fire in Tokyo (our own technical school) he rushed into the flames to save a friend of mine, and died amongst those flames, embracing the young Japanese he had gone to save. Don Adino was reduced to a handful of ashes. He used say, when he was alive, 'Masayuki, I would like to become a part of your Japanese soil', and that's what he became, literally. That was when I saw, for the first time, the example of a life consumed for God's love.
I decided, then, to become a second Don Adino, a Salesian and priest like him. That's why I ended up in Italy, and became his mother's adopted son. Rosa died in my arms 20 years later, on the same day her son had died."
The story goes on, but to sum it up, Fr Shirieda points out that his brother became a Salesian, and priest, his sister an FMA, and his mother became a Catholic and Salesian Cooperator.
He puts it all down to the fruitfulness of one who 'did not ask what he could expect from life but what life could expect from him - and gave it'.
And now Fr Shirieda himself has followed his beloved Don Adino into the loving arms of the Father. He was in Rome from 1974/5 until his death. He was undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue for 25 years and a professor at the UPS.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org. To contact austraLasia by voice on Skype, the Skype name is austraLasia
