715. Wanting to Mend the Lord’s Torn Sacred Heart by Cleaning the Maggots I Detested Most

715. Wanting to Mend the Lord’s Torn Sacred Heart by Cleaning the Maggots I Detested Most

When I opened the lid of the rubber bucket where the maggots were crawling in large numbers, I found it nearly filled with human excrement, with maggots wriggling and tangled together. Since the house did not have a bathroom, the elderly man had broken charcoal briquettes and placed them in the rubber basket, using it as a toilet.

The stench was unbearable. But I quickly practiced Semchigo as if smelling something pleasant instead and offered it up, asking that his inner wounds and bad habits be removed as I prayed a Prayer of Life. In fact, what was even harder to bear than the foul stench of the decayed waste was the infestation of maggots. I had an intense aversion to maggots.

When I was just four years old, my mother had left me and my baby sister, Soon-deok, at home to search for my missing father and grandfather. She told us she did not know when she would be back, so she made sure to add more firewood to the stove before she left. Heartbreakingly, the room became overheated, and Soon-deok suffered burns on her legs. My mother, who had gone to find my grandfather, still had not returned.

There were disgusting maggots crawling on Sunduk’s wounds as she was dying at that time! As a helpless little child, I could do nothing but hold Sunduk in my arms and weep endlessly. Years later, after getting married and having our second child, we were living in a rented house. One day, dead rats and maggots suddenly fell from the ceiling. I was so shocked that I fainted. Seeing the maggots crawling in the bucket of the elderly man made me shiver with disgust.

But I thought to myself, “Alright, even though this is what I hate the most, I will practice Semchigo as if I were handling my favorite sweets and Semchigo as if I were receiving love, and let me bring joy to the elderly man. And as I offer it up, I prayed that all the harmful things afflicting his soul and body would be removed and healed. In doing so, I believed it would help mend the torn Sacred Heart of the Lord and bring comfort to the Blessed Mother. With that, I quickly ran to the store.

I bought plenty of plastic bags and, while offering the Prayer of Life, I prayed, “Jesus, please cleanse the unnecessary things from this elderly man’s soul and body. Let even the most wicked sinners in the world repent, as numerous as these maggots.” As I prayed, I swept the maggots and trash into the plastic bags. I also gathered up the soggy, filth-covered mud that had flooded the yard.

The elderly man would relieve himself in a chamber pot and pour it into the drain—or sometimes urinate directly into it. But since even the drain was blocked, the waste could not flow out and eventually overflowed, leaving the yard soaked and slushy with urine and filth. My shoes were completely ruined, and the stench was beyond words—utterly revolting and chaotic.

Even so, I scooped up the filth with Semchigo as if I were sweeping away the sins of this world. The plastic bag filled with maggots, trash, and all sorts of filth was thrown out into the dump with Semchigo as if I were discarding the gravest bad habits of all the sinners in the world. When the bowls were left on the floor, the rats had crawled over them so much that they had turned pitch black with filth.

After we cleaned all the dishes and tidied up every corner of the house, we struggled for a long time trying to clear the clogged drain. I rolled up my sleeves and found a long stick. Then I used all my strength to try and unclog it. But the drain seemed completely blocked at the back and would not budge. I said, “This is strange. How could the drain be so completely blocked?”

Then the elderly man, who had been sitting quietly, finally spoke.  “Oh dear, were you trying to unclog the drain? Do not trouble yourself. The house behind poured cement into it—there is no use trying.”

“What? Why would the neighbors block your drain?”  With a deep sigh, he replied, “They did it when they were building their house.” I felt overwhelming pity for him. “Has anyone not helped you all this time, Grandpa?” “No. Who would bother helping someone like me?” The drain was completely blocked, and the house had fallen into such a miserable state—but this poor old man had been living all alone, without a single helping hand. He sat there, frail and dirty, his body thin and hunched. The sight of him sitting there so helplessly kept bringing tears to my eyes.

My personal reflection note with Mama Julia🌹💗 

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