Five hours drive from Karachi, Pakistan there is a place where several tribal communities live. I visit five small villages there and spend my days visiting families and teaching catechism to the children.
The people I meet have long been pushed to the lowest place in society, living as so-called “untouchables,” and most of them survive as tenant farmers. I stayed in their homes, worked alongside them, and shared their daily lives closely.
In that time, I discovered a way of life that is not glamorous, yet it is deep and strong. They may not possess much, but there is trust among them, and their faith in God is astonishingly deep and quiet. Neighbours know one another’s lives and pains and they know how to reach out a hand in silence. Even in harsh and barren circumstances, they accept each day not with complaint, but with quiet endurance—not with resignation, but with humility. Living in harmony with nature and embracing the day as it is, they showed a peace that made me reflect on my own heart. There was no quarrelling, no comparison, no endless competition there.
In their gentle gestures, simple smiles, and eyes deeper than words, I came to realize this: the world God created does not need to be dazzling or noisy. Rather, it breathes its purest light in places that are quiet and lowly, like this.
By Sr. Julietta Choi