New book collects missionary priest Ángel Becerril's years in Zimbabwe and Thailand
The publisher Mundo Negro has released "El arco que se encorva", 50 short pieces by Spanish missionary Ángel Becerril drawn from his years serving in Zimbabwe from 1964 to 1991 and later in Thailand
The publishing house Mundo Negro has published "El arco que se encorva" ("The bow that bends"), a collection of stories, anecdotes and recollections by the missionary Ángel Becerril. The publisher presents it as a biography built out of a life lived "for others" in Zimbabwe and Thailand, two distant countries with very different cultures, joined by one missionary's dedication.
Father Ángel Becerril, a priest from Palencia in northern Spain and a missionary of the Instituto Español de Misiones Extranjeras (IEME, the Spanish Institute for Foreign Missions), left for Zimbabwe in 1964 and remained there until 1991. He was then sent to Thailand, another mission field served by IEME priests, where he spent the rest of his missionary life. The book gathers in 50 short pieces of three to four pages each the wisdom he accumulated over those years of priestly service.
The missionary "invites us to join him on a gripping inward journey", the publisher says. "Where many of us see only the routine of meeting people, daily activities or gestures and anecdotes, Ángel lets himself be challenged by that 'abundant water, which he senses, deep within the rocks': 'My concern is to keep drawing closer to that spring, which is God, to quench the thirst of my own life and whatever thirst I can quench in the thirsty lives of others'."
Becerril spoke about that thirst for God some years ago in a message sent from Thailand, describing himself as a humble instrument. "We have missionaries of the word, itinerant missionaries, liberators, missionaries of the modern areopagus of the media, those who sow and carry out projects, and so on. My part now is simply to be dew. 'I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily and strike his roots like Lebanon' (Hosea 14:6)."
In Becerril's view, a drop of dew in the desert lands of the Middle East is worth as much as a reservoir full of water. "The flower withers under the tropical sun, the oppressive heat of temptations or persecutions, the drought of skies dressed in barren clouds. Every morning I ask myself this question: how can I be dew today for the people around me?" he said at the time.
Becerril has gradually "bent" over the years and through the work he has carried out, saying yes to God in a life ad gentes, ad extra and ad vitam.
