During the last days of the old lunar year, we seemed to be absolutely dumbfounded by the painful death of Dominican Father Joseph Tran Ngoc Thanh, who was murdered in Vietnam while hearing confessions. The killer, who is reported to suffer mental disorders, slashed wildly at his head. Countless people are still mourning his passing.
Death highlights the weak and fragile nature of human life, and the young priest’s death exudes shepherds’ beauty and identity.
Most people have dreams to rise in the world as it is a basic need. Many are committed to the ideal of securing positions of authority and power, others opt for a peaceful life to avoid entanglements with others, and some decide on a life of affluence and being served and respected by everyone. However, among those various good ideals, there are people who choose to live a life of love and service.
In Catholicism, the identity of every Christian is love. Each person is called to be a witness of love in the heart of the world. Jesus’ words that are always imprinted and resound in Christians’ hearts are: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
That invitation reminds us that, no matter what our vocations are, we are always called to love and tend to one another, including our enemies. That is why those who do not share the Catholic faith often call Christians “crazy” to love enemies.
Certainly, looking at the death of Father Joseph, a good-looking, gentle, virtuous and talented man, many people ask questions as to why such a good man followed the path of service, the path of poverty, and the path fraught with dangers. Countless other questions are raised to satisfy each person’s cognitive needs.
As the Lord’s priests, they are called to be like Christ, who voluntarily gave his life as a ransom for all people
A Vietnamese saying goes that “If you love one another, you will conquer all mountains, rivers and passes.” When we are in love, we always pour out our hearts to and live for that love. No matter how many difficulties, dangers and obstacles, people always covet that love.
It is right that Father Joseph’s death was also out of love as he devoted all his life to capturing that love, which is not the romantic love in marriage nor the love of family but love for other people, of service and forgiveness.
From the Catholic perspective, priests are chosen from the flock by God so that they can represent him in this world to give all blessings and intercede with him for the flock.
Therefore, priests are the image of Christ living among humanity and reflect his virtues to people. As the Lord’s priests, they are called to be like Christ, who voluntarily gave his life as a ransom for all people.
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Father Joseph painted Jesus’ life by his own life. He took love as a guideline and reason for his priestly life. Wherever he served is filled with love, peace and forgiveness.
His blood mixed with Jesus’ blood on the top of Calvary will water and bring forth many other seeds for the world. And the culmination of his painful death is to forgive those who hated, slandered and killed him.
He was murdered while performing the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in which he was called to love and forgive penitents’ all sins. Believing that, perhaps the first thing that came to his mind at the time of his murder was: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Forgiveness creates Catholics’ essence and identity, leading us on the path of love that gets us closer to God.
Today the shepherd shed the blood of love and forgiveness, which has caused a great loss and grief to his family and Dominicans and the local Church. However, that blood brings us joy and hope in Christ. The joy is to serve our brothers and sisters with friendly and generous manners, and the hope is to share the passion of Christ to be with him in the eternal heavenly kingdom.
Hopefully, Father Joseph’s death is a guarantee of love and hope for people today so that we can become Christ’s witnesses among the world, bringing love and forgiveness to all people.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News. This article was summarized and translated by a UCA News reporter from a Vietnamese article published by dongten.net here.
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