Review

Francis Xavier Nguyen   Van Thuan, Testimony of hope: The Spiritual Exercises of John Paul II, Mumbai: Pauline Publications, 2000, pages XXII + 226, ISBN: 81-7176-455 X.

            Francis Xavier Van Thuan was a bishop in Vietnam who suffered the brunt of communist rule in his country. He underwent sufferings that were unheard in the history of humanity except in the Nazi concentration camps. He spent 14 long years in jail. A man who saw both sides of humanity the good and the worst speaks in this book a synchronization song of hope that helped him in his sufferings.

            This book is written in the background of the third millennium. This book is written at the request of his holiness Pope John Paul II for the spiritual exercise Roman Curia and for himself. Thus the book is not written in an autobiographical format nor is it a series of reflections. It is not a book that explains his difficult moments to evoke sympathy from the readers. Instead, it is filled with reflections drawn from the Holy Bible and enamoured it with the life experiences of the author. Thus the book unfolds the story of human wickedness and its potentiality. It adds the boundary of grace too. Author says how the man under the Episcopal duty was sustained by God through Sacraments and word of God.

            This book is divided into 21 chapters. In which it is further divided into 6 parts. The first three parts deal extensively with God’s grace and its direct reverberation in the life of author. He raises the question that how much of us are moved with the grace of God and how many of us asked for it.

            The fourth and fifth part deals with the dimension of hope in the lives of people. It speaks of the importance of hope in the lives of people. Author spreads a handful of experiences and explains the challenges he had to the reader to challenge there life, their own limitations and to walked with God by receiving graces from him.

            In short the book deals extensively with the role of God and his essentiality in the life of men. It is not easy to be in fidelity with him always. Thus strength and weakness of our faith shows how much more we need to rely on grace of God. Love for God is not evoked in one day. It is a trophy of struggle day after day. Author questions with his own life the rest of the world to be more devoted to Holy Eucharist and to Word of God.

            In my own opinion it’s worth reading this book. Many things are undervalued in a life of comfort and lack of challenges. People take for granted that the challenges in life are only when the luxurious car gets punctured and when the lift is not working or when the salt is extra in the food. This book says that it is not so in the lives of many people and it challenges us to understand what the real problems of life are. It’s easy to be in fidelity to God when I am in the midst of comfort. However, it is also true that one realizes the real blessings in life when he misses it. Yet there are some things that are so precious to miss. This book is all about these precious things.

Cl. Thykkattu Christy Joseph S.D.B.