At the end of this school year, I will graduate as a Primary and Secondary school teacher, with infant’s education as my specialization. I would like to share with you my experience as a Catholic student in a communist university. My dream was to reach the big city and be a part of its glamour. So I left my village to fulfill that dream. But, of course, it was not easy. Coming from China’s rural area, my family was poor. Therefore, when I received a scholarship from the friends of the Comboni Missionaries working in China, I thought it was really God’s gift. I decided to study hard so as not to disappoint those who had put their hope in me.
When I first arrived at the university headquarters, I was appalled. I entered the pavilion, where I was supposed to live for the next five years, and met my future classmates. They arrived in private cars, I guess driven by their parents or relatives. I, on the other hand, arrived on foot, as I had to get off the bus a few hundred meters from the university. Their bags and, especially, their clothes were so modern and attractive − a far cry from mine. From my appearance, one can easily say that I came from a poor rural area. That gave me a feeling of inferiority and disappointment, but I could do nothing about it. I started worrying: What would they say? How would I introduce myself to them? I was getting obsessed with the feeling of being rejected and despised due to my background.
REJECTED AND DESPISED
True enough, I soon realized that nobody wanted me as a friend. They tried to avoid me and some refused to talk with me or scoffed at me. As they looked at me, I could feel rejection. How could I possibly live in this condition for five years?
On the first day of school, the person responsible for our pavilion delegated the different tasks and chores to be done by the students. I was tasked to take charge of cleaning, which meant assigning people in turns to do the cleaning of the building, toilets, etc. In short, keeping the building clean was my responsibility. So, I prepared a list of the different places to be cleaned and those who had been asked to clean the toilets were angry with me and called me all kinds of names. They refused to do the work so, in the end, I had to do it myself. To denounce them would have been worse.
As days went by, life became unbearable. One night I called up my father and told him I could not stay in the university any longer. He came to see me, listened to me patiently as I cried bitterly. I told him all that was happening. In the end, he told me simply: “We are different!” That sentence touched my heart. “You cannot be bad with them because you are a Catholic.” Slowly, I started to learn the meaning of being a disciple of Jesus in society, especially in a communist school. My father encouraged me to keep studying hard.
In the group, there was Lianhua, a girl particularly crossed with me. She always blamed me and despised me in front of others. I dealt with her patiently. I continued studying hard and tried to cope with the hardships of everyday life. Then, the opportunity that changed the whole situation came unexpectedly. During the first exams, I obtained the best grade in class. From then on, all the students who despised me before, were coming to me and started befriending me, particularly Lianhua. Although she had been bad to me, I welcomed her whenever she approached me regarding our lessons. The others, seeing that I treated her well despite the wrongs she had done to me before, felt I was a bit strange.
THEY CAME TO CHURCH
From that time on, I could ask my classmates to do the cleaning and they would do it. I thought this was a miracle! Now I have confidence in myself. Everybody greets me and nobody laughs at me. Even a teacher, who had seen everything that happened before, could not understand my behavior. One day, she asked me why I treat everybody well and kindly. I knew I was in a communist university, but I took courage and told her that I am a Catholic and my faith in Jesus inspires me to live like one. I must have stirred her curiosity as a few days later, she asked me to share with her and my classmates, during school hours, two topics: one, about who Jesus is, and another, about the meaning of being a Catholic.
Incredible! For two hours, I shared with them about my faith. They listened attentively because, by then, I had already won the respect of everybody. I could not believe that what is humanly impossible, so to say, to talk about Jesus in a communist university, invited by a communist teacher, has become possible. I felt that the Holy Spirit was pushing me and giving me strength. I really enjoyed those two hours. When the bell rang, my classmates continued asking questions about my faith. The result was that, the following Sunday, some students asked if they could go with me to the church because they wanted to know more about the Christian faith. With a mixture of curiosity and interest, they participated in a catechesis that the priest was imparting that Sunday with some catechumens. Everybody was so happy to have stepped into a church for the first time in their lives… I was even happier because, through my benefactors, I am almost finish with my studies and had the great experience of sharing my faith with my classmates and teacher in a communist school in Hebei province.
