Smell the Scent of the Flowers!

INTRODUCTION

A few years ago, two Comboni Missionaries, Fr. Joseph and Fr. Stefano, went to Damascus to study Arabic before going to work in Sudan. After leaving their luggage at the Armenian Patriarchate, they decided to take a stroll through the neighborhood.

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They entered some narrow streets, at the same time that the garbage, which was piled up next to houses, was being collected by the municipal collectors who loaded it on donkey carts.

After half an hour, the two came out into a spacious avenue. Fr. Joseph, the usual optimist, did nothing else but praise the beauty he seemd to see: “Look,” he kept repeating, “that beautiful house, that green park, smell the scent of the flowers–how wonderful!” He was so enraptured, using so many adjectives that his fellow companion resigned himself to move forward in silence.

Some of the pavements on the sidewalks were missing with half-meter wide holes here and there. The buildings’ facades with their portals and windows, the colors of the goods exhibited and the people’s clothes completely absorbed the attention of Fr. Joseph to the extent that he overlooked the holes in the sidewalks.

Suddenly, he stopped speaking. Fr. Stefano turned around but didn’t see him. “Gosh!”, he exclaimed. “Where did he go? Did he stop to examine some artistic detail?” He looked right and left; no sign of Fr. Joseph. Suddenly, he heard shouts–“Help, help, get me out!”–coming from the sewer which Fr. Joseph had fallen into.

He helped to pull him up. Sodden and smelly, Fr. Joseph hastily returned home, accompanied by the teasing comments of Fr. Stefano: “Look at the beauty! Smell the scent of the flowers!”

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