STANDING ON HOLY GROUND

Mission to East Timor

By Sr. Mae Janet MacDonell, OLM
Summer 2001

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In this new century, declared by some to be an “apocalyptic era,” the people of East Timor struggle with the practical aspects of the end of a world in which they have historically been victims of exploitative colonization and invasion of their country.

L-R: Sr. Mae Janet MacDonell and Sr. Yolanda Cadavos, Our Lady’s Missionaries serving in East Timor.

It is now their challenge as a free nation to build a new world for themselves where they may live in peace with justice and dignity.

For Sister Yolanda Cadavos and myself, who watch the history of this newly independent nation evolve, it is an exciting privilege as well as an event not without fears and questioning. In this country that now numbers less than one million people, there is great diversity of social organization and language (13 different dialects and two official languages, Tetum and Portuguese). This is found in a setting of densely forested mountains rising out of the stillness of the seas which surround them.

There is much talk of reconciliation and justice which must become cornerstones for the building of this new nation. How this will come about belongs ultimately to the people of East Timor.

As missionaries graciously received into devastated Timorese communities less than a year ago, both of us have become increasingly aware of one thing: we are standing on very holy ground.

It is ground made holy by the death of one third of East Timor’s population in a 25-year war of resistance to Indonesian occupation.

It is made holy in the shrines erected over the sites of the deaths of many martyrs in the September 1999 post-referendum massacres.

It is made holy in the skeletal frame of the burnt out church in Suai, testimony to the death of three priests and 200 lay people who knowingly risked their lives rather than forfeit their right to vote for their freedom.

Mourning for the martyrs of Suai, East Timor. This monument has been constructed as a traditional chief’s house with cloth draped at the side.

It is made holy in the martyrdom of two Canossian Sisters, two seminarians and a journalist as they courageously attempted to deliver food to people hiding in the mountains. This is a story of heroic faithfulness told and retold by the people of Los Palos.

It is made holy in the shooting of 50 people in the police station in Maliana because of their work in favor of independence. Their memory is kept alive by their widows and children who regularly place flowers at the door of the police station.

It is made holy in the over-100,000 East Timorese refugees still being held under intimidation by Indonesian militia in camps in West Timor. Thousands more of the hunted and disappeared, during the scourges of these many years of struggle, mark the history of East Timor’s priceless and exceedingly costly victory of independence. It is a cost that continues even now in the post-war chaos which still affects all layers of society despite much that is being done to recuperate this country.

Still the presence of a God who has sustained this struggle is very real. The Timorese people affirm and confirm it in prayer, song and dance as well as in their daily struggles to rebuild their lives and bring closure to their past. Freedom from fear and persecution has brought rejoicing that almost vindicates the horrors of that past. God has become the context in which they, having proven their worth, are determined to bring this drama of the sovereignty of life to an ending worthy of the holy ground on which we stand.

As we walk into this 21st century, I pray that all of us may become ever more conscious of the immense graces offered to us by those whose fidelity to the Paschal mystery pierces again and again the darkness of greed and exploitation.

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