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Until now, we knew that the coronavirus does not bite, anyone can get the infection. In mid-November, he was also taken to the hospital, from where he left after ten days. What were your symptoms?
My chest hurt a lot, I couldn’t stop coughing, I thought I was choking. They took me to the hospital where it was discovered that I had bilateral pneumonia. I still have oxygen on time. I thank the St. Ladislaus Hospital staff who, in addition to care and medicine, also gave hope and encouragement.
Now, how do you feel, have you managed to regain your health?
Thanks, I’m better, I’m recovering from Deva. In the hospital, I prayed for peace in my body and in the world again. For me, illness indicates that something is wrong inside. I was in the hospital for the last time forty years, but now there is no harmony, peace, harmony between my cells and the microorganisms that live with me. The human body is a miracle, able to recover with help, and our 37 trillion cells can live together again, looking at each other, in symbiosis.
HARASSED IN THE HOSPITAL, I THOUGHT, WE, THE PEOPLE ARE ONLY EIGHT BILLION, AND IF MY UNCONSCIOUS CELLS WORK IN THE COMMUNITY, BECAUSE WE DON’T KNOW
Obviously I’m not the first to ask, but what does it mean to be a Franciscan monk?
They really ask me this many times. I used to answer that I am not as smart as the Jesuits, I do not have the education that I have as the Piarists. I am a little Franciscan brother who loves to sing, laugh, talk. For example, the importance of peace, the healing power of love. I can mention the example of Jesus, who was received quite “cheaply” here on Earth, yet the central idea of his teaching was peace of mind, peace and love. This is what we must learn: speak soberly, calmly and lovingly to the other person.
One of the main works of his life is the children’s rescue organization, the St. Francis Foundation, which often takes in children living in miserable conditions, on the brink of starvation. How did the foundation come about?
The foundation was established in 1993, but in fact the children gave it life because they came, they begged and at first we only received them for lunch and dinner, but then they did not want to go. That’s why we organized a camp for them, at the end of which, when we said we could go home now, the children cried and asked us why they didn’t have a one-year camp. From here on, we are already in the 28th “annual camp”. Most of the children end up in the foundation houses, mainly in the Transylvanian regions where Hungarians live in a minority.
What are they facing in the middle of a pandemic? Are the Christmas shoe boxes getting together?
We are as calm as sowing under the snow, waiting for the end of the epidemic. It’s hard enough getting around, traveling with gifts, and that’s what our children understood. Of course, everyone is looking forward to the angel.
You can even become an angel!
Two years ago, in one of his messages, he talked about being team players because God is. What do you mean by that?
What did you get into on the first day of Christ? Are you drafting a large tender for the development of the world’s redemption infrastructure for the European Union? No! Do you install a large pulpit to tell everyone the tutit? That’s not where it starts to work. Form community, gather friends and colleagues. His public work begins with his baptism in the Jordan River, he comes out of the water and two young men speak to him. Come, see where I live, he says, and take them to Nazareth. We walk fifty-two miles, and these young people stay with Jesus that day and then forever. Jesus doesn’t do anything just because he’s a true team player. The apostles, the disciples, are not elements of our Savior, but his companions, like Mary in the redemption of the world.
Life is a team game in which we too have to hold hands with confidence.
Why do you think loneliness is the leper of the 21st century?
As the Scripture says:
The forces that hold the universe together shake.
Unfortunately, we see this everywhere, as families, smaller and larger communities, like dissolved lumps, fall apart, people feel lonely, we let go of hands, we turn our backs. And this is not good! Mother Teresa said that the leper of the 20th century is loneliness and, unfortunately, this virus is also killing in the 21st century. Many people shut themselves up. If I were a doctor, I would write the community, the meeting, the union, the conscious alliance in a prescription: go find someone, call me, find him on the community page, sit with him according to epidemiological regulations, drink a coffee, be together, talk, plan the future, go big. In short, man is a social being, do not get out of hand!
Saint John the Baptist is the first prophet of the New Testament, who does not mourn the past, but looks to tomorrow, preparing the way of the Lord, paving his way. How good it would be for us to worry less about the past and more about the future that lies ahead! Today everyone wants to be a historian, they mention old wounds, painful grievances, although whoever keeps looking back will fall a lot. The future is before us and the world cries out for brave prophets. In the sacrament of baptism, Christ gives his priestly, prophetic and royal vocation to his children. Our Lord is not the God of mourning, the God of bitterness, but the Messenger of life, of hope. Leaving the dead to the dead, we will hold the horns of the plow tightly and press firmly into the ground to carve a life-giving furrow for tomorrow. One should not voluntarily throw in the towel, but fight for the life of oneself and of one’s people. In Our Father, Jesus Christ does not encourage us to wait for the end of the world, but asks us to build his glorious kingdom.
How do you see the responsibilities of the Catholic Church during a pandemic? What do you recommend?
The church is familiar with faith and morals, and it is the job of doctors and scientists to clean up the virus. Now we must keep alive the joyful faith, the serene hope, the all-conquering love in the hearts of our brothers and sisters. We should not be suffering or coveted, because we are not waiting for the end of the world, but the outpouring of God’s love for us. At the end of the prayer he teaches, Jesus does not encourage us to turn to the wall in despair, but to pray and work for the coming of the kingdom of God. This is our job even during quarantine!
How did your latest volume, “Csaba Böjte’s Herbal Book – Thoughts Helping Joy” come about? What gave you the idea?
There are many, many questions in people today. If you don’t find a satisfactory answer, your lack of knowledge and knowledge will make you sick. Many people take supplements effectively, but I am convinced that we also need spiritual supplements. That is why I wrote the book, why it would be good to read, think carefully, “think” of a thought every day. Edible little thought pills, a cup of Christianity that I can offer with a little brotherly love.
We celebrate Christmas this year in difficult circumstances. In this case, every word, every thought becomes stronger. What is your message to the readers?
Many ask why I am optimistic about what I base my faith on. Christmas Incarnation, God’s Creed for Humanity! Christ, if he had not believed in us that he could teach us the commandment of love, that humanity would come there to find the lost Eden together as good brothers and sisters, I do not believe that he would have come among us. Nobody wins a horseshoe for a dead horse! God, if you believed in us, we must also believe in ourselves. We were born in the image and likeness of God, this Christian trait should shine on our face.
I have a story what I’m talking about. Three children from Vojvodina, the oldest may have been nine years old, asked me on December 24 at the Deva orphanage if they could go home. There were nine siblings, the family lived in great poverty, in an abandoned garage with a gutter in the middle, a huge iron gate on both sides. I compared the children and we left for Vajdahunyad. When we arrived, there was no electricity or heat in the garage. The breath exploded like mist on the ceiling, where the drops glittered like diamond eyes. Dad was next to the bed, blowing his hat, he seemed ashamed of himself and of Mom lying on the bed. The three children ran to their mother, holding each other. After a while I told you to kindly return to Deva now, there is a delicious dinner at the orphanage, hot bath and baby champagne. But there was none of that in the garage. The older boy looked at me and asked: Uncle Priest, can’t we celebrate here?
Then, throughout my life, I understood that we do not need limlomas, but each other. I mean, my Christmas message is: accept and love each other!
Csaba Böjte The Franciscan monk was born on January 24, 1959 in Cluj-Napoca. Poet’s father was hardly known because he was imprisoned at birth for a poem and died shortly after his release. Her mother raised her and her sister under difficult circumstances. He studied to be an automobile electrician, but left his profession after five years. He lived as a hermit in Harghita for a year, while working in a mine. In 1982, he appeared in the Franciscan order in the greatest secrecy. He continued his theological studies in Gyulafehérvár and Esztergom. He was ordained a priest in 1989. Upon returning to Transylvania, he became a youth pastor for the Gyulafehérvár diocese, and later served as a priest in various settlements. In 1992, he was stationed in Deva, Hunedoara County. Under his leadership, the Franciscan community established the St. Francis Foundation in the spring of 1993 to help the afflicted children of Transylvania within an appropriate institutional framework. Currently, about two thousand five hundred children are cared for in their institutions and another hundreds in foster homes. He has written several books. In 2018, the volume “Who divides his heart” about his life and work was published.
(Cover image: Csaba Böjte. Photo: István Biró / MTI)
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