How an honest, well-brought-up boy from a fervent Catholic family became a success in business, then went into a life of sin, and found his way back to God in a way he had not expected.
HAPPY CHILDHOOD
I come from a very loving and deeply religious Catholic family. My father was an engineer in the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board, who set up many power stations in MP and rose to the topmost position in his department. My mother was an excellent teacher who taught English Literature and History to Senior Cambridge students. Many of my mother’s students were Britishers, and I was so proud that she taught Britishers English. My eldest sister is a doctor (Pediatrician) in Mumbai and my other sister is a lecturer in Canada. I am the youngest.
Opposite my home stayed two wonderful nurses who were living saints, who loved God and their neighbours and the poor very much. I was deeply influenced by my parents and them. Some friends used to call me Satyavadi Harischandra (after the Indian king who always spoke the truth). Whenever there was a dispute during a game, other children would say, “Ask Vinu; he will tell the truth.” We had many priests and nuns in my family. I wanted to be a priest right from high school, but, being the only son, I never had the courage to tell my parents.
SINFUL YOUNG ADULTHOOD
I studied management, and joined a multinational company. It was boom time in India, and we dealt with foreign companies and huge sums of money. But often my bosses and my work demanded that I lie and do unethical things. I was told it is routine and all do it. I too got caught in the web. But my conscience would trouble me a lot and was never at peace with myself. I went up the corporate ladder very fast, getting more power and money, but, deep down, I was not happy.
In 1996, after working for four years with various multi-national companies, I came home on my birthday, and told my father and mother I wanted to be a priest.
My daddy’s only brother had joined the MSFS Order and died before he could be a priest. So, daddy agreed. But my mother, who loved me very much, started crying. She said, “Son, I don’t want you to go.” I could not see my mother so unhappy. So, I decided not to become a priest.
I went back to Mumbai and continued working very hard for a multinational company.
On weekends, I decided to try all the bad habits I had avoided so far. I frequented the company of people I had always kept away from. In the next two years, I went from bad to worse. I indulged in the very things I should have run away from, the wrong things my family had taught me to shun.
SHOCKED INTO GOOD SENSE
In 1998 I had met all the targets of my company and decided to take a fifteen-day vacation in the South of India. On learning I was going to South India, my eldest sister told me, “Why don’t you go for a one week retreat to Potta, Kerala?” I did not want to go. I said, “What will I do there for seven days?” But she told me of the great things that were happening there.
I decided to go only out of curiosity. I took the Bible, but also seven novels, which I planned to read during the retreat. Whenever I read the Bible prior to this retreat it would put me to sleep. When I entered the retreat, I saw high school students poring over the bible. I wondered what they were getting from the Bible and said to myself: Let them read the Bible; I have seven novels to read.
I used to attend all the sessions. In my spare time I read my novels. One day, something happened that gave me a real jolt. I listened to a man who was the chief priest of a Hindu temple, and was called the Golden tongue shastri, since he knew the Hindu scriptures very well and would go abroad to lecture on them. He was also a member of the BJP and RSS. One day, this man went up on the dais with his face glowing and said, “Jesus is my saviour, Jesus is my God.” He then went on to share how Jesus healed his wife, who had a paralytic stroke, and how he experienced Jesus. Then he made a remark that put a sword through my heart. He said, “I experience Jesus every day.”
I was shattered. Here was a Hindu priest who experienced Jesus every day. I said to myself, “I have not experienced Jesus even once, even though I come from a good Catholic family.” I asked myself, “What’s wrong with me?” and begged Jesus to give me an experience of Him just once. I told him, “Lord, I’m coming Home. I’ve wandered far away from you, now I’m coming home; the paths of sin too long I’ve trod; Lord, I’m coming home.”
I began thirsting for an experience and used every available opportunity and spare time to pray the rosary and ask Jesus to give me an experience of Him. My prayer was answered—in ways I had not expected.
I had gone there planning to spend a week—reluctantly. I stayed for two weeks. I experienced Jesus powerfully during Holy Hour one day, and he met me again during the Sacrament of Reconciliation, helping me to make a very good confession, after which I had the beautiful experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Later, I went to the chapel, and asked the Lord, “What is it you want me to do?” His answer came in the Bible text, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” I told him that my mother would not allow me to become a priest.
I shared with my mother the experience of God that I had at the retreat and asked her permission to be a priest. She said, “Son, if this is what God is asking of you, and this is what you want, go!” That day, I experienced the truth of the hymn, “He makes all things beautiful in his time.”
I quit my firm, telling my boss that I was going to serve the best CEO in the world, who was calling me to export people to heaven.
RELIGIOUS LIFE, PRIESTHOOD, AND FACING DEATHS AND ILLNESS
I joined the Redemptorists congregation the same year. While I was in formation my Father died. Just a few months before my ordination, I received a call from my eldest sister: “Come immediately; mummy is dying.” Doctors kept saying there was no hope. I used to be with her in the mornings in the hospital and in the evening I would go to the chapel, and cry, and tell Jesus, “You cannot take my mother too, just before my ordination. I need her.” One day, after three months, my mother opened her eyes and she received the first spoon of water from my hands. Within a short time she was discharged, and within three months she was well enough to lead me to the altar and offer me to God to be a priest.
My mother lived for two and a half years after my ordination and was a source of strength and joy for me. After my mother’s death, we found that my eldest sister had blocks in her heart, which needed urgent attention. Her condition was so bad that several times the doctors thought she was gone. Then, one day, a top heart surgeon
from Chennai, Dr Sam Mathews, came to Mumbai, a specialist to whom film stars and politicians go, paying fees of twelve lakhs and more. We met him, and he operated on my sister free of charge. Her heart is fine now, but she is on dialysis thrice a week. We are grateful she is alive and able to work. She loves treating poor people from the slums.
After my ordination I was in charge of a school for mentally challenged children in Mumbai. Currently I am the Rector of our community in Palwal. I thank God for His Amazing Grace and awesome friendship. My mother told me, “Son, true friends are like diamonds, precious and rare; false friends are like autumn leaves found everywhere.” In Jesus I have found the Best and Truest of friends and a treasure so rare. I cannot thank God enough for that.
Fr.Vincent Vas C.Ss.R
To subscribe to the magazine Contact Us
