Interview: ‘God, you are real’: Sister finds faith in China

‘God, you are real’: Sister finds faith in China

Sister of St. Joseph Yanmei Jiao, 41, finished her coursework for a doctorate from Catholic Theological Union this spring and traveled back to her native China to research her thesis at the end of May. Jiao, a member of a religious community of 50 young sisters in the Beijing Diocese, is writing about how to bring Chinese culture into the formation of women religious in China. The fifth of six children born to two eye doctors in Qin Huang Dao City, Jiao spoke about her own experience developing her vocation with staff writer Michelle Martin.

The Catholic New World: I think a lot of Americans believe that you can’t be Catholic in China. How much freedom is there to practice the faith?
Sister Yanmei Jiao: When I was small, there were no churches. Now, there are challenges, but there is also hope and joy. Catholics are a minority in China, and many people don’t understand Catholics.

TCNW: Were there a lot of Catholics around you when you grew up?
SYJ: Just my family and my relatives. My mother’s uncle was a Catholic priest. I was born in this kind of family, so I think a special nurturance cultivated my faith when I was little. My parents taught us about Mary and the way of prayer and Bible stories: the five loaves and two fishes, and Jesus walking on the water.

TCNW: Were you able to go to Mass?
SYJ: When I was little, no. I grew up in the house church. I never saw the priest. I never saw nuns. Because of the Cultural Revolution, all the religious communities and the churches were closed. The religious communities reopened in the 1980s; my community reopened in 1986, but we had a long history.

TCNW: How did you recognize your vocation if you did not see women religious?
SYJ: When I was little, during the Cultural Revolution, my mother’s uncle died in jail. My mother was very deeply connected to God. ... My mother gave me the Bible book, with beautiful pictures, and I think that was when I first felt the call, when I was about 10 years old, but it was not very clear.
I made my decision in my second year of college. I wrote a letter to my family and I said I want to be a religious. From when I was little, I loved to help people. My parents supported me.
During the process, I did a lot of prayer. I prayed before the Virgin Mary.
After I finished my college, I worked in the society for a few years. I worked in a travel agency. I was very lucky. They sent me to Shanghai in 1990 to study for a short time.
Shanghai has the [Marian] Shrine of Sheshen. So I took the opportunity to do a pilgrimage, and I did the Way of the Cross. I remember all the stones. I kneeled down at every one from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. When I got to the top I was in tears, and I said, “God, you are real.”
I had two hopes for the pilgrimage. My mother was in ill health and I asked God to bless her and make her better. And I asked what my decision should be. And I said, “God, you are real.”
I made a final decision, and in 1992 I gave up my job, a job that had many benefits because I was an interpreter in the office. My sister, who was younger than me, entered the community two years earlier than I did. We wrote letters to encourage each other. ... My family supported me, my friends supported me.

TCNW: What gave you the courage to pursue your vocation?
SYJ: I can’t imagine, in the Chinese context, in a difficult situation, that I heard this call. It’s unbelievable, to me. God is really guiding me, calling me. I trust God. I say, “God, you are almighty. You are my protector. If God is with me, who shall I fear?” I have God, my parents, my family, my spiritual director. He is more than 80; he was in jail 24 years during the Cultural Revolution. He is a Vincentian priest. Also many missionaries supported me. Especially the Maryknoll missionaries, who gave me the scholarship so I can study here.

TCNW: Did you experience any culture shock when you came [here]?
SYJ: When I came, I stayed with the sisters in Maryknoll, N.Y., before I came here. They had older sisters in wheelchairs, and they would go in the wheelchairs and take the food themselves. I would go to them and say, “Sister, can I help you?” and she said, “No.” I didn’t understand. In China, younger people have the obligation to care for older people. Then I learned, “Ah, the sister wants to show she can do it herself.” Challenges offer great moments; we can learn from other cultures.

TCNW: How do you bring Chinese culture together with Catholic religious life?
SYJ: Chinese culture has 5,000 years of history. I want to concentrate on Confucianism. Confucianism is based on “jen,” the virtue in Confucianism. If we explain it, it is kindness, it is charity. If we write it in Chinese characters, it has two parts. This one means a person, and this one means two, so it is two people together. It means that jen is relationship; they come to be true people by how they have relationship, with harmony and unity. I try to find Gospel values in Confucianism, and how Confucianism shapes our formation program in the Chinese context.
Through my studies of theology here, I see that God has revealed himself through human history, through human culture. We can find God in human culture and Confucianism. And there is a dialogue between the culture and the Gospel.

Was the Chinese Culture addressed when you went through formation?
When I was in the novitiate, we never paid attention to culture. That is why I think we need to have a new vision. Our Scripture, our rules of the community, the Christian tradition-but little attention to cultural elements. But after my novitiate, I became the formator in the Beijing Diocese. But then, I said I think we need to pay attention to culture, so I added it to the formation.