He was the top man for Jesuits for more than 20 years. He is a man of deep spirituality, though the position he occupied was for life time, he stepped down citing his ill health and the need for young leadership for Jesuits.
Once a journalist asked him about his experience of working at Syria, since the government is very suspicious of priests. How did he manage to survive in a country that is not so friendly? Fr.Kolvenbach recollected his pleasant memories of the country and then finally said, “Ya, sometime it is challenging. The Government used to send spies to monitor us and report about what we preach during the mass, but it was not a big problem since we know exactly who the spies were”.
The journalist was surprised and questioned, “Do you mean to say that you had ‘counter spy system’ to identify the spies?” Fr.Kolvenbach replied, “No, nothing of that sort, usually people sleep during the sermon or when we preach, only the spies listen to it intently, from this we come to know who the spies were.”
Though I have never said it, intuitively I have always known that it is the good and innocent students who sleep in my class.
Though I have never said it, intuitively I have always known that it is the good and innocent students who sleep in my class.
Interesting answer by Fr.Kolvenbach.........but i dont remember anybody sleeping in your class..........infact we were always very eager to listen you.....thanks to your superb knowledge and humour...
ReplyDeleteHi Pawan, Here I refer to the batch for which I taught at 9.00 am. It was years back. You know it that students are extremely busy at night, and go to bed only around 5.am. Many come to the class without even taking breakfast. And only after breakfast they literally gain consciousness and come to the land of the living. Till then whatever Prof may say, their readymade answer was 'So what'. This is the reason I stopped taking morning classes (certainly not at 9.00 am). Of course your batch was extremely receptive; it was joy sharing ideas with you guys.
ReplyDeletelovely post Father. but is that the reason, to why we had classes after snacks time ?(especially, the movie sessions and 2 continuous classe) :) we were all awake n full of energy then! :)
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