25 Years of Witnessing to the Word in Thailand 127 In the first few years in Thailand, I felt as if life was meaningless, being far from loved ones and the place where I spent my youth fighting for the people’s rights. Sometimes I felt like the exiled people described in Psalm 137: “By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps” (Psalm 137:1-2). I felt like someone sitting by the river of Babylon, longing for Zion—the Holy Temple. There was no singing because of the emptiness, or more precisely, the feeling of being hollow. Growing up in a traditional parish, attending Mass and praying every morning and evening with my parents, suddenly one day, I found myself far from home and everything familiar. Many people were swept up in the struggle to survive, while others felt lost when night fell. People buried themselves in work or other relationships to stay busy and forget “who I am.” It’s not surprising that some, upon leaving their homeland, also drifted away from the Church. Conversely, some felt a deeper yearning for a home and sought a place to belong.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQ0MTI=