All Catholics in the Parish of BMV, especially those who often take part in liturgy activities, know Pak Agus Muhardi, Pak Adrianus Wijaya, Pak Beni, Pak Darma and many others. While Pak Agus and others often appear before public, there is one person who is almost unknown among the Catholics as she is mostly behind the screen. However, one should not ignore her role in our liturgy. Who is she? She is Mbak Linda. She is the one who designs the choir schedules in Bogor BMV Cathedral. I do not know much about her outside church activities. So, I would only like to write about her role at BMV Cathedral.
Mbak Linda often contacts me through SMS. Sometimes she tells me about Exultate’s schedules at the Cathedral. Sometimes she asks me if Exultate can replace another choir which cannot perform their duty for several reasons. Sometimes she just complains about other choirs which do not want to find a substitute when they fail to do the service. She often says that it is uneasy for her to ask Exultate for help because Exultate has already replaced several choir groups in several occasions. However, she says that she has no other choice to do it.
The result of Mbak Linda’s requests is that Exultate may perform several times in church services in one month. Last December (2007), for example, Exultate sang in the fourth advent week, the Christmas Day, the New Years Eve and the first of January. It is no wonder that there might be some “suara miring” such as “Kok Exultate tampil terus sih… kaya ngga ada lainnya aja” or “Ihh Exultate rakus banget sih” or “Ah Exultate cari muka… sok rajin”, etc.
I can understand such silly comments although I cannot accept them. They say such comments as they do not understand the process before. They never get involved in our activities so that they do not know what have been happening. So, when there is “suara miring”, we can pray, “God, forgive them as they do not know what they are talking about.” He… he... he…. No need to be angry...
Talking about Mbak Linda, Exultate thanks her for her support and trust to us. Exultate can understand her difficult job in the Cathedral. Her responsibility is so heavy that sometimes it is difficult for her to bear. I have ever heard from some friends about Mbak Linda’s difficult moment last year when many choir groups refused to sing in church for unclear reasons. Some friends told me that Mbak Linda had cried in her difficult days. Exultate’s willingness to help her at that time really relieved her from any stresses.
When I wrote about “giving the most from your shortcoming”, I remembered that I had to mention the name of Mbak Linda in another posting as an example of someone who sacrifices most from her shortcoming for Jesus. Mbak Linda is an ordinary person, just like most of us who work every day to meet our need. Still, she is always willing to help our parish, especially Seksi Liturgi Paroki, to run the religious services well. She is diligent to contact choir leaders for Liturgy Meeting (Rapat Liturgi); she is diligent to contact choir conductors to make sure that there is a choir in each mass. She is diligent to check all things right. In those cases, Mbak Linda does not expect praise from anyone. She does not expect thanks from us. She does not expect anything from all Catholics in the cathedral. Meanwhile, when she can organize everything properly, will anyone come to congratulate and thank her? When she spends a lot of money to buy “pulsa” for her cellular phone (she uses it to contact a lot of people for liturgy activities), will anyone consider about it? What I know about her is that she does not talk much.
My friends in Exultate, I don’t mean or want to make Mbak Linda your idol… but we can learn from Mbak Linda’s spirit to serve Jesus in Catholic Church. First, we must not be too proud or become arrogant as choir members when people praise us. We are just a small part of the whole Catholic Church; we are just nothing without other people in our church. Second, never expect praise for you yourselves as praise belongs to God only. Learn from some humble people like Mbak Linda, who never proclaims success as her personal success.
Jesus, teach me to be your humble servant in your church. May your name be glorified in anything, even in the smallest things that I do every day. (PS. 608)
Mbak Linda often contacts me through SMS. Sometimes she tells me about Exultate’s schedules at the Cathedral. Sometimes she asks me if Exultate can replace another choir which cannot perform their duty for several reasons. Sometimes she just complains about other choirs which do not want to find a substitute when they fail to do the service. She often says that it is uneasy for her to ask Exultate for help because Exultate has already replaced several choir groups in several occasions. However, she says that she has no other choice to do it.
The result of Mbak Linda’s requests is that Exultate may perform several times in church services in one month. Last December (2007), for example, Exultate sang in the fourth advent week, the Christmas Day, the New Years Eve and the first of January. It is no wonder that there might be some “suara miring” such as “Kok Exultate tampil terus sih… kaya ngga ada lainnya aja” or “Ihh Exultate rakus banget sih” or “Ah Exultate cari muka… sok rajin”, etc.
I can understand such silly comments although I cannot accept them. They say such comments as they do not understand the process before. They never get involved in our activities so that they do not know what have been happening. So, when there is “suara miring”, we can pray, “God, forgive them as they do not know what they are talking about.” He… he... he…. No need to be angry...
Talking about Mbak Linda, Exultate thanks her for her support and trust to us. Exultate can understand her difficult job in the Cathedral. Her responsibility is so heavy that sometimes it is difficult for her to bear. I have ever heard from some friends about Mbak Linda’s difficult moment last year when many choir groups refused to sing in church for unclear reasons. Some friends told me that Mbak Linda had cried in her difficult days. Exultate’s willingness to help her at that time really relieved her from any stresses.
When I wrote about “giving the most from your shortcoming”, I remembered that I had to mention the name of Mbak Linda in another posting as an example of someone who sacrifices most from her shortcoming for Jesus. Mbak Linda is an ordinary person, just like most of us who work every day to meet our need. Still, she is always willing to help our parish, especially Seksi Liturgi Paroki, to run the religious services well. She is diligent to contact choir leaders for Liturgy Meeting (Rapat Liturgi); she is diligent to contact choir conductors to make sure that there is a choir in each mass. She is diligent to check all things right. In those cases, Mbak Linda does not expect praise from anyone. She does not expect thanks from us. She does not expect anything from all Catholics in the cathedral. Meanwhile, when she can organize everything properly, will anyone come to congratulate and thank her? When she spends a lot of money to buy “pulsa” for her cellular phone (she uses it to contact a lot of people for liturgy activities), will anyone consider about it? What I know about her is that she does not talk much.
My friends in Exultate, I don’t mean or want to make Mbak Linda your idol… but we can learn from Mbak Linda’s spirit to serve Jesus in Catholic Church. First, we must not be too proud or become arrogant as choir members when people praise us. We are just a small part of the whole Catholic Church; we are just nothing without other people in our church. Second, never expect praise for you yourselves as praise belongs to God only. Learn from some humble people like Mbak Linda, who never proclaims success as her personal success.
Jesus, teach me to be your humble servant in your church. May your name be glorified in anything, even in the smallest things that I do every day. (PS. 608)
(Thomas A. Sutadi)
