The paper cranes

By Fr. John Carten, S.F.M.
September/October 2009

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Years ago I had the pleasure of working in the city of Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu in Southern Japan. I was in the parish of Yoshizuka, established by Monsignor John Mary Fraser, founder of Scarboro Missions. One of the many activities that I enjoyed was taking communion to the sick. I still remember my visits to a committed young Catholic who took her faith very seriously. She was in the Kyushu Regional Hospital. She shared a room with five other women, all of whom were non-Christians. With each visit I got to know them better. After I left, the women would pepper her with questions about how she knew me, why she prayed with me, and what we were doing when I gave her communion.

Things were going along fairly well until one day I got a call from Canada informing me that my mother had had a stroke. I quickly decided to return to Canada in two days time and stay for a while. The day before I left Japan, the young woman’s mother telephoned and said that her daughter really wanted to see me before I went back to Canada. In the midst of rushing around to make final travel preparations and feeling a bit perturbed that I had to squeeze in another visit to the hospital before leaving, I went to the Kyushu Hospital once again.

When I walked into their room, the six women presented me with a thousand paper cranes that they had made. The cranes were of various colors and tied together. In Japan the crane is a symbol of long life and peace. Legend holds that cranes live for 1,000 years. Folded paper cranes are often placed at memorial parks to symbolize peace and are given to those who are sick. It is said that 1,000 folded paper origami cranes makes a wish come true.

So here I was visiting the sick and it was they who were ministering to me and to my family. I thought of the amount of time it took these six women to fold one thousand pieces of paper into cranes and then to tie them all together. With each one a prayer was offered for my mother’s recovery. And five of these women were non-Christians.

Before going to Japan I thought God was only present to Christians, but through many experiences like this, my eyes were gradually opened to experience the presence of God far beyond the walls of our church. Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God as being in our midst. In his time, he did not limit God’s activity to the Jewish community. He was often moved by the faith of those outside the Jewish community, for example, by the faith of the Roman centurion and the Syro-Phoenician woman. In fact, Jesus said that “Nowhere in Israel have I found such faith.”

Part of our role as missionaries is to recognize, celebrate, and proclaim this presence of God and to help others to do so as well. How blessed I was to have been the recipient of the generosity of these women whose example has stayed with me for more than 35 years. How blessed I was to see the presence of God beyond our church. Remember, the Kingdom of God is in our midst.

Fr. John Carten returned to Canada in 2002 and serves on Scarboro’s General Council and as Treasurer General.

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