STORY ABOUT FR. BERNHARD CSSR
RIP Fr. Bernhard Zizyk, CSsR |
2009
was the year when I was in the Redemptorist Novitiate in Wanno Gaspar. And this
was the first time I met him directly . Actually, I had known him already as
parish priest in a Parish in Sumba, but when I was in the Novitiate it was the
first time I talked and had conversation with him.
Fr. Bernhard
was known by a lot of Redemptorist’s conferes as a priest who was competent and
experienced, particularly in Liturgy and Eucharist. He was called as doctor
Madah Bakti (it was a song book used by all Indonesian Catholics) because he
had remembered every song in that book. There were a lot of things that he did when he
celebrated the Eucharist, for example every song at that Eucharist would be
sung. And that’s why we always called him doctor “Mada Bakti” (referring to
that song book) and Liturgy.
Even
though he was known as a dedicated priest, especially in liturgy, but over all,
he was one of the missionaries who was admired by his peoples. They were amazed with his
spirit of preaching tirelessly the Word of God. He was a priest who was always
ready to celebrated the Eucharist when asked. Wherever and whatever the
situation that he faced he was ready for
this assignment.
He
would never hesitate to celebrate the Eucharist more than once on a Sunday if
needed. The main thing that he always remembered were the Eucharist and his novitiate students. That’s why when he was in hospital after a
motor accident, there were only two things in his mind: Eucharist and evening
prayer.
As
magister, he was known by his novitiate students as a good priest. He treated
all of us alike, his own sons and brothers. He always took care of all of us. For
example, when one of us got sick, he would came as Father and gave us a lot of
medicines. One of his medicines that we always remembered until now is “antalgin”.
Actually this was a medicine for malaria. But for Fr. Bernhard this had been a
medicine for all kinds of sicknesses. That’s why when one of us got sick, with
a cough or stomach ache, there was no other medicine except “antalgin”. Amazing,
isn’t it?
He
also was known as a simple priest. He never complicated his conferess. He will
do what he can do. Some times we became angry with his attitude. For example
when he was sick we were assigned by Fr. Thomas (our Socius at that time) to look
after Fr. Bernhard, but he didn’t want to be looked after. Even though he
suffered a knee injury that made it hard for him to walk, he still refused our
help.
Anyway,
he was still one of the best priests who
was always ready with a YES for every assignment given to him by the Congregation’s
Superior. Fr. Bernhard, thank you so much for all that you have given to us,
especially when you became our Novitiate Magister for one year. Your way of life as a Redemptorist,
particularly your simplicity, was inspiring and pushed all of us to be great
Redemporist. Please pray always for us.
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