In the early hours of February 7, 1996, Sorino Yanomami set out hunting from his maloca (collective Yanomami home). While in the forest, he was attacked and seriously injured by a jaguar. According to local people, this was the second case of a jaguar attack in the Catrimani Mission region, located 150 kilometers from Boa Vista, in the state of Roraima. In the first assault, which occurred at the end of 1995, only remains of the victim’s body were found.
As we know, Sorino Yanomami was rescued in serious conditions by the Consolata Missionaries, who work in the Catrimani Mission. He had to be urgently transferred to Boa Vista’s General Hospital by air taxi. The people were shocked and scared, and everyone believed that he would not survive. For this reason, they asked that Sorino remain in his maloca to die in the company of his family.
With faith, trust and hope, like those in the Gospel who carried the paralytic on a stretcher and lowered him through the hole in the roof in front of Jesus to be healed, so the Consolata Missionary Sisters, after providing first aid, risked everything to take Sorino to Boa Vista. They began to pray to Blessed Joseph Allamano to intercede for his healing. In Boa Vista, the Sisters took turns at the General Hospital to assist Sorino and facilitate the visit and stay of his relatives.
In 1901 Blessed Joseph Allamano founded the Institute of the Consolata Missionaries, and in 1910 the congregation of the Consolata Missionary Sisters. Therefore, he is the Founding Father, a man entirely for Christ and for the mission. In the context of the story of the miraculous healing of Sorino Yanomami, Blessed Joseph Allamano is that “hole in the roof” through which the four of the Gospel made the paralytic pass so that he could reach Jesus and be healed. The Sisters constantly prayed to Blessed Joseph Allamano for Sorino’s healing.
The four men in the Gospel (Mt 9:1-8; Mk 2:1-12, Lk 5:17-18) had faith in Jesus, they believed in his healing power. It was a practical faith that pushed them to seek at all costs the healing of their paralytic friend. The paralytic on the stretcher was in a state of helplessness, he needed help. The four friends took charge of him with a free and living faith, embodied in their actions. According to St. James, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17).
The faith and trust in the unshakable goodness of God’s power, and hope pushed the four men to take an unprecedented action. Overcoming their limits, they uncovered the roof of the house by opening it and lowering the paralytic with his stretcher into the center of the house where Jesus was. They were not afraid of the people’s reaction. They wanted to see their friend healed.
Trust is the fifth essence of hope, Blessed Joseph Allamano used to tell his missionaries. In Greek cosmology, aether is the fifth element, something magnificent, great, much greater than the air we breathe. Aether is the fifth essence. You can have everything: air, fire, water and earth, but if you don’t have trust and hope, you may die.
In the Gospel we read that Jesus healed all the sick he met or who were brought to him.
“… people brought to him all who were suffering from various diseases and torments, those who were demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them”
(Mt 4:24). But Jesus also heals thanks to the faith of those who turn to him for healing, as in the case of the four friends who, with faith, trust, and hope, let the paralytic man pass through the hole in the roof to receive Jesus’ healing.
The miraculous healing of Sorino Yanomami, like that of the paralytic, highlights the value of concrete faith, trust and hope, demonstrating that God is attentive to those who invoke Him and turn to Him in times of need.
The healing of the indigenous Sorino in the middle of the Amazon forest is a visible sign of the presence of the Creator in the life of the Yanomami people and confirms the charism of the mission ad gentes left as a legacy by Blessed Joseph Allamano.
Sister Mary Agnes, mc
