Columban Fr. Frank Hoare shares an excerpt from his diary:
January 18 2009
I am back in Naleba – the rural settlement on the second Island of Fiji where I began, in 1975, my missionary journey. After seven years away I feel the need to refresh my Hindi language here.
Last evening I visited Salen and his wife Natasha. Salen, despite never attending church services, gave me a great welcome and we drank yaqona1 and chatted until late in the night. This morning as I breakfasted with them on fresh roti and curry I wondered how I could approach with him the big question of the meaning of life.
After breakfast he insisted on mixing more yaqona. As we sat amicably together I said to him, "Salen, do you ever think about death?" "Yes," he said emphatically, "I think about it all the time." The heart rose up in me - I'm onto something here. "So, what do you think about," I asked eagerly. "I think constantly about who is going to grab, when I go, all the things I have worked for and accumulated!" he answered. My heart settled down again.
1. Yaqona is a non-alcoholic drink made from the pounded dried roots of a species of pepper plant.
The Columbans are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, who minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.