MARI MENCINTA, MELAYANI

(Refleksi Ringkat Pekan Suci 2016)

Oleh: Didimus Estanto T.

Kehidupan sejatinya merupakan  suatu petualangan yang terus mendaki. Kisah setapak demi setapak yang menuntun kita dari ketidaktahuan menuju ketercerahan. Sebuah napak tilas gelap menuju terang, keadaan tak bernafas, jantung mulai berdegub hingga ke keadaan tak bernafas lagi dengan jantung terlelap. Kisah kematian menuju kebangkitan secara sempurna adalah Kristus. Dia bukan hanya melaluinya, namun itu adalah Dia. Hidup adalah kata bermakna ganda, yang berarti ada pun berarti keadaan di mana  mengisi ke’ada’an tersebut. Melalui kisah sengasara, wafat dan kebangkitanNya, Kristus menunjukan bahwa cinta adalah satu-satunya hal yang dapat menjaga kehidupan tetap layak untuk dihidupi.

Apa yang terjadi dalam kisah sengsara?

Via dolorosa (kisah sengsara) merupakan suatu ringkasan dari bukti cinta Yang Ilahi. Cerita ini adalah catatan sejarah yang sangat berharga bagi semua yang bernafas karena di sinilah sebuah konsep kehidupan diingatkan, dijelaskan dan dibuktikan dengan seluruh jiwa dan raga. Minggu daun-daun adalah cerminan gemerlap dan sorak-sorai manusia, Kristus sebagai raja yang disoraki karena kerinduan akan kebebasan, kehausan akan pembebasan. Kamis putih adalah bukti pelayanan seorang raja kepada rakyaktnya, pengajaran seorang guru yang diturunkan kepada para muridnya. Jumat agung ialah tanda nyata bahwa ia berkorban untuk dosa yang tak Ia perbuat, bahwa seluruhnya Ia berikan kepada semua cibtaan. Dan sampailah pada cahaya, paskah adalah moment kemenangan. Alleluia adalah sorakan kebangkitan, tanda bahwa kematian bukanlah akhir. Kristus menang akan alam maut, bahwa sejatinya akan selalu ada cahaya setelah kematian, bahwa semua insan punya harapan akan kehidupan setelah kematian.

Mengapa kisah sengsara penting?

Setapak adalah tanda adanya harapan, seribu dimulai dari satu. Kristus mengajarkan proses, setiap detailnya penting. Kisah sengsara menunjukan bahwa Ia benar-benar manusia yang berdarah, adalah Allah yang Maha Kuasa. Ia sakit, takut, mati seperti layaknya mahkluk fana, namun Ia bertahan, terus berjalan dan bangkit. Dalam via dolorosa kita menemukan puncak penyerahan diri, titik nadir dari rencana keselamatan Allah. Kita sampai pada kesimpulan bahwa, Ia adalah Yang Kuasa yang datang untuk menyelamatkan melalui proses sakit yang luar biasa, melalui kegelapan yang mencekam menuju terang yang menyelamatkan. Kisah sengsara adalah bukti harapan menjadi nyata dalam Kristus. Manusia yang fana itu, Anak Allah itu, Kristus datang membawa cinta dalam harapan akan cahaya.

Apa yang Kristus ajarkan?

Satu hal yang membuat kehidupan ini masih layak untuk dihidupi adalah karena cinta. Cinta, itulah hukum baru yang ingin Kristus ingatkan, jelaskan dan buktikan dalam seluruh perjalanan karya keselamatanNya. Tapi cinta itu apa? Cinta Kristus itu seperti apa? Kehidupan sejatinya berjalan ke atas, memiliki cita-cita yang ingin dituju, namun Kristus memberikan contoh yang berbeda. Cita-citanya menjadi pelayan, hamba bagi orang lain (peristiwa pembasuhan kaki pada malam kamis putih). Cinta, bukti paling nyata dari cinta adalah melayani, kurang lebih seperti itu yang Kristus ingin tekankan, ingatkan dan ajarkan. Bayangkan seseorang sedang bersama pasangannya (dalam konteks masyarakat modern), praktisnya seseorang akan melakukan apapun untuk pasangannya, jika itu benar-benar cinta. Mengantar, menjemput, mentraktir, mengajak jalan, menjenguk jika sakit dan masih banyak lain contoh tindakan yag dilakukan saat seseorang mencintai seseorang. Sadar atau tidak kita melayani pasangan kita, itu adalah bukti cinta yang paling nyata yang bisa dan selalu kita lakukan. Itulah cinta, pelayanan yang telah ribuan tahun lalu Kristus ajarkan dan masih tetap relevan hingga kini. Cinta adalah melayani.

Ia yang telah wafat untuk keselamatan semua insan. Ia yang telah memberikan segalanya kepada seluruh cibtaan. Ia yang telah hidup, ada dalam kehidupan pun membuat ke’ada’an itu berarti dalam cintaNya yang sungguh sepurna. Agape, cinta yang tak berhingga adalah warisan, ajaran dan cara hidup yang Ia lepaskan untuk terus hidup dan dihidupi di bumi. Seluruh cibtaan seharusnya bertanggung jawab akan darahnya, pengorbanannya dan cintannya. Seluruh cibtaan punya tanggung jawab untuk melanjutkan cita-citanya, mencintai sesama cibtaan melalui melayani. Via dolorosa adalah perjalanan kehidupan yang mengajak semua cibtaan untuk sedikit beristirahat akan dunia, melihat apa yang telah dibuat dan bagaimana seharusnya hal-hal terjadi dalam kehidupan.  Marilah membuat Ia pantas menderita untuk semua cibtaan, marilah membuat dunia ini pantas untuk tetap dihidupi, marilah mencinta dengan melayani.

GRATEFUL FOR CARRYING EDUCATION

Becoming a grateful person is the part which I mostly concern about. I am Didimus Estanto Turuk, one of a thousand people who love to share with others. I was educated in the Seminary Junior High School and Senior High School. There was an important part of my life which all my sense of carrying others was built. The catholic system made myself realize  that the most valuable thing in this life is being valuable for others. From that moment on, I keep struggling myself to help people as best as I can. Like I said before, being grateful is the core of my life, and carrying people is the reality of being grateful.

Parents is the creature that I love the most. A chance to live is a very big deal that they cooperate with God for making me alive. I really thank for the grace of this breath. They are such a simple and strict parent which I give all my respect. I honor them very much. My father is a private employee in a private company. He came from a poor family in an isolated area in East Nusa Tenggara. He is a D1 graduate in civil engineering by his own struggle. He love to farm, especially coffee, because coffee is the best commodity in my district. Then, my mom is a humble and passionate old woman. She came from such a middle class family. Her father is a simple civil servant and her mother is a housekeeper. My mother graduated from nurse school when the age of 19 and then work on that passion until now. She is not so emotional person but quite clever to arguing something, give me some best advice to step forward. I am so glad for having them as my incredible parent.

Education is a media to reveal the social class, the tool to upgrade the pride in the eye of society. I believe that education is more than just that thing. Education is a media for making human become humanist. I am sure that education is not just about learn something, but there is a lot of its friend that we need to explore, unless I try to fulfil that thing. I came from a common family which come with that idea of ‘belajar’. My fist school is a kindergarten in St. Maria Fatima Kindergarten, then St. Maria Ruteng III elementary school, after that I join seminary. The next level of senior and high school I spent in Seminary Pius XII Kisol. Right after high school, I once joined the first step to study philosophy to become a priest, but I decided to run out because I had no passion there. Today, I am here, at Sanata Dharma University, try to continue what my people said about ‘belajar’. Education is not just a tool, it is the ‘belajar’ its self. From all the school I have passed, I understand that education is home for being humanism or just say human. There is a theory that we are an animal as a body structure, but with a little conscience. The part of this conscience is the one that we/ I want to keep exist. Keep being human, that the most important part of education, I believe.

Despite the fact that I really concern about ‘belajar’ and education, I try to keep it alive. I’d love to bring it in my real live. Therefore, I starting to join some community that keeping people to learn. I join Lembaga Katolik Mahasiswa (Yogyakarta),  Perhimpunan Mahasiswa Katolik Republik Indonesi (PMKRI), SanPio (a local movement concern about my district based on our seminary). When I went one-step ahead after my high school, I came to an idea that ‘belajar’ is about sharing what you know, have and experience. The concept, idea, argument or whatever the form will not going anywhere if you do not share it to others, at least let people know. From that idea, I started to seek some organization or just group which can support that idea. Fortunately, I sat in the good place for it. In that group and organization I can share what the idea that people deserve to know, express my concern about others and criticize what I think was not right. Besides joining those kind of organization, I do also love to write. I am sure that writing something is a good way to arrange our brain, passion, and sense of carrying. Mostly my writing are about romantics, but there are also essays about society, multiculturalism, education and other critics about what is going on in my beloved country. Writing is also a tool to share what my brain think about, the idea and some good concepts.

Carrying others, society and country is not just a duty, it is a responsibility. It is an idea of human who humanist. I bring it in my soul or I am trying to be the man like that. That’s why I am good enough for this scholarship. I am sure that ‘belajar’, that we all sure that is important will affect much more to the knowledge, capability and humanity for a person. The best and the appropriate learning process is also affect the result of the quality of the student and in the same time affect the way and the material which that student will share. I believe that educate people is a responsibility for those who educated. I hope by this scholarship, I can maximize the quality of my ‘belajar’. By accepting this scholarship, I can give more for those who need it. By the tittle of educated people, I think that’s my honor to share this treasure of being humanism to others. By the concerns of educate, sharing and carrying people, I think I deserve for this scholarship. This scholarship is also I think a media by people who concern about educating, sharing and carrying other people. This scholarship is also a tool for making human to be humanist, just like what I have believed along this journey.

Becoming a grateful person, back to the first idea that I express in this essay. I am very grateful for being in this level now. It is an honor to bring my idea of sharing idea, educating people and carrying others up to this stage. It is not because this scholarship I become carrying people, but this scholarship is such a fascinating news that there are people out there still have a same concern with me. There will also  a big grateful if I am accepted as one of a lucky and deserved people for this chance. There is always a dawn after a dark night, there is always a hope for the better world. Thank you very much for allowing me up to this level and hopefully this  good relation will keep stay good.

Name: Didimus Estanto T.

University: Sanata Dharma University

Email: tantosanpio@gmail.com

Phone: 082137548521

Cordoba, the Real City of Light

By: Didimus Estanto T.

(Dimuat di Majalah Aquinas edisi Februari 2016)

Cordoba also called Cordova  is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Cordoba. It was conquered by invading Islamic armies in the 8th century, and then became the capital of the Islamic Emirate and then Caliphate of Cordoba, including most of the Iberian Peninsula. Cordoba was the city of knowledge and tolerance in the 10th century. Located on the Europe which very dominant with Christianity, Cordoba exist with bright and honor. It brought the new knowledge and concept  about how human race supposed to live. They gave an example to gather together as a different person, religion, and ideology. This purpose influence the way this city is found, built and kept.

Cordoba was founded by the Romans in the 2nd century BC near the preexisting Tartesic Corduba, capital of Baetica, Cordoba acquired great importance during the period of Emperor Augustus. It became the capital of the emirate depending on Damascus in the 8th century. In 929, Abderraman III established it as the headquarters of the independent Caliphate. Cordoba’s period of greatest glory began in the 8th century after the Moorish conquest, when some 300 mosques and innumerable palaces and public buildings were built to rival the splendors of Constantinople, Damascus and Baghdad. In the 13th century, under Ferdinand III, Cordoba’s Great Mosque was turned into a cathedral and new defensive structures, particularly the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos and the Torre Foraleza de la Calahorra, were erected.

In the 10th and 11th centuries, Cordoba was one of the most advanced cities in the world as well as a great cultural, political, financial and economic center. Cordoba was the most populous city in the world and under the rule of Caliph Al Hakam II, it had also become a center for education under its Islamic rulers. Al Hakam II opened many libraries in addition to the many medical schools and universities which existed at this time. During these centuries, Cordoba became a predominantly Muslim society with minorities living in a restricted second-class status. Even though they was restricted, they keep honor and respect the other. Caliph Al Hakam II was a really humble man with a great concept of tolerance. He accept every ideology and new concept which build the city into the better place to learn and stay. By applying this tolerance and open minded concept, they were the only one who can go pass the renaissance era with a sparkling civilization.

The most iconic building in Cordoba is The Great Mosque of Cordoba. This is the representation of the tolerance and respectfulness of the diversity of human race. In that time, the issue of Christianity is surely big. The proverb “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” which means there is no salvation outside Church is really influence almost all people in Europe. Therefore, it is really hard for Cordoba to build their civilization of Islamic tolerance. This mosque is erected in 8th century and in the same time when it is built, the Saint Vincent Church is also built. This means they also consider about others religion, others believes. Unfortunately, during the Spanish invasions, Cordoba was captured by King Ferdinand III of Castile on 29 June 1236 and the great mosque of Cordoba was redecorate into a cathedral. Nowadays, the mosque/ cathedral has turned into a museum and no religious activity is allowed and become the main symbol of Cordoba.

To sum up, Cordoba is a real proof of a good society. Cordoba proves that tolerance and respectfulness is a best way to bind the gap of diversity. By applying the good concept, human race can be a sparkling as the stars’ bright on that civilization. Even thought people cannot see what they have done in the past but the past, people can see the proof of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The great artificial memories of tolerance. They also shown the power of the minor people who live in the different way also can give a precious thing for the world. By inspiring other people with their concept tolerance, Cordoba deserve for the tittle the real city of light.