The Fall of Saigon in 30 April, 1975, a historical event for not only the Vietnamese but also many Australians, was significantly engraved into many people’s minds with a historical photo that captured an US helicopter on the top of a building in Saigon during the last minutes before the city fell into the hands of Vietcong. Even Miss Saigon, the famous musical performance, captures this dramatic moments through the descending of an actual helicopter into the stage in New York. The Fall of Saigon dramatically took place when I, thirteen years old, saw one of the first Vietcong tanks rolling on the main road of the city around 11:15am. That Wednesday morning of a fateful day has become an indelible memory for many Vietnamese people. All of a sudden, I recall, the cerulean blue sky of a summer morning turned into dark with many gray clouds. The fateful day continued to roll its fateful circle with the last US helicopter lifted up from the top of and flew away from the US Ambassador building. The helicopter gradually disappeared into the horizon. Saigon was breathing her last breaths with the radio broadcast in which the leader of the South Vietnam was announcing the surrender of South Vietnam government. Bullets seemed coming from and to everywhere. People were running on the road. Shouting! Crying! Chaos! Finally the first Vietcong tank entered the huge court yard of the palace of the President. That was it. Game over! The iron curtain, as expected, dropped down to close the many doors of Vietnam to the world. No one got out, no one got in. No news does not always mean good news, for after the Fall of Saigon, the Western countries, the US and Australia received almost no more news from Vietnam, in particular the fates of those who were born and left behind in the South Vietnam. Only when one of the first waves of those who attempted to escape from Vietnam, searching for freedom surfaced, did the many headlines in the late 80s bring the news about those who were abandoned in South Vietnam reach the ears of the world. Based on the means that those asylum seekers used for the dramatic journey seeking freedom of speech and religion, then for the first time, the word “boat people” was invented. A new vocabulary was born: boat people. And I was one of them.

In October 1982, with the other sixty two miserable souls, the fishing boat (its length is 12 meters and wide 5 meters), that took me to freedom, landed on Marang, a seaport of Malaysia after battling with the storms on the ocean for four days and encountering numerous ferocious Thai’s fishermen who robbed, beat men and sexually assaulted young women and a teenager in my boat. The boat reached its intended destination. And I became a refugee, just like Jesus who was once a refugee in his infancy. Being called a refugee also meant I became a displaced person who was under the care and protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. For one year and a half, I lived my refugee life in the two refugee camps (actually two detention camps), one in Pulau Bidong island, the other in Sungai Besi in Kuala Lumpur. Just like many other refugees in the camps, I applied to be resettled in a few countries, but for whatever reason that I was not aware of, all of these nations rejected my applications. Living in a refugee camp and being denied to be resettled also meant heaven shut its many doors to a newly departed soul. Thus, for almost one year and a half, heaven did not grant a single drop of water on my tongue to quench my thirst. My sanguine soul was gradually blackened and turned into parched land. While I was suffocating with a complicated life and living with an uncertain future, the US delegation came…

And my miserable life in the detention camps was terminated and gradually transformed into a new life. I felt like I was a dead young man in the city of Nain whose life was restored by Jesus’ command, “Young man, I say to you, rise” (Luke 7:14). The happy story continued with many more happy details that came along. To prepare those refugees who had been accepted into the US to cope with the new life and culture that was awaiting for them, the US government sent us to Bataan Transit Camp in the Philippines to attend the Cultural Orientation Program. And it was in this center I had my first and also many contacts with the Filipinos and their culture. What a hospitable culture! I enjoyed thoroughly my life in the Bataan Camp. Five months in the camp was like five months in heaven.
As I reflect on my journey of faith, in particular, the time when I was on the ocean, the detention camps in Malaysia and the transit center in the Philippines, I gracefully acknowledge that whenever I, not by choice, took on myself the role of the miserable Lazarus in the Lucan account, I was fortunately granted many glasses of water to slake my thirst. And not only me, but many of the Vietnamese boat people who fled the country since the Fall in 75. Indeed we were rescued by many good Samaritans while our boats were drifting away on the oceans. We were taken care by the UNHCR in the camps. And the governments of many nations, in particular, the US, Australia and Canada, the three leadings countries opened wide their loving arms to welcome the miserable Lazarus of the twenty first century into their homes.
Jesus in today’s gospel reading impressed the reader with his own view about the one-being-with-us. According to the evangelist, the apostle John came up to Jesus for a complaint about a man who did not belong to “our mob” but felt free to perform pastoral activities in Jesus’ name. John reported to his master that he once attempted to stop this “unauthentic” man. But Jesus shook his head, advising John not to do so, for “anyone [who] is not against us is for us.” Again Jesus showed the reader his philanthropic perspective; that is, he was sent to the world not to condemn but to save human life. So, as long as human life was rescued from the bondage of evil, Jesus would approve and hold the pen firmly to sign the contract without a moment of being reluctant. Obviously Jesus was not concerned about who did the work, but who received and earned the benefit of the work done in his name. In that sense, Jesus strongly condemned who would become the obstacles or the stumbling blocks for a human soul on the way to be saved. But those who are generous to the vulnerable, the miserable, and the needy, Jesus praised them. Thus Jesus said, “If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, […] he will certainly not lose his reward” (Mark 9:41)
When the Vietnamese were thirsting for freedom of speech and religion, they took risks with their own lives in searching for the water that would quench their thirsty. In responding to the crisis of the century, many souls of the world took off to the Pacific Ocean to organize rescue operations to save the boat people on the sea. Many refugee camps were erected in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong for the boat people. The US, Australia and Canada, the three leading countries opened wide their arms to take us into their lands. The Filipinos, who are famous for their reputation of hospitality, whenever they saw the Vietnamese boats floating on the oceans, stopped their fishing activities to provide us with food and water. Stories of the boat people who were abused physically and sexually by some fishermen were headlines on the front cover of many newspapers. But, the Filipino fishermen only rescued and saved.
Jesus said, “If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, he will most certainly not lose his reward.” When we were thirsty, citizens of different nations gave us not only a cup of water, but plenty. And they performed this kind of act because, just like Jesus, they cared for humanity. According to Jesus, these good Samarians of the twenty first century certainly will not lose their rewards now or later!