Junko Kusanagi is a Japanese woman who for 49 years lived without having a significant experience that would lead her to have a deep faith. However, the illness of her husband, who is Catholic, led her to consider faith more than ever as a necessary element in her life. Junko says she attended a Catholic school and university, but never took much interest in the faith. When she was about to marry her current husband, he revealed to her that he was Catholic, and she mentions that perhaps if she had not had a previous experience with Catholicism, she would likely have reacted more hostilely to this statement. However, her previous contact with Catholicism allowed her to not have such a repulsive reaction to her husband’s faith.
Sometime later, when they had their son, Junko’s husband expressed his desire to have him baptized as a Catholic, to which she was at first a bit hesitant to do so. She decided to consult with her husband’s sister who told her that she had always felt God’s presence in her life because she had been baptized as a child, and this motivated Junko to accept the baptism of her son. The baptism took place and Junko remembers her husband telling her that he was very happy because even if something happened to them, their son would be in good hands because God would be with him. Junko mentions that her life went smoothly until October 2022 when her husband told her that he had just been diagnosed with cancer. At that time, she became so worried about the future of her husband and family that she went into shock.
In contrast, her husband was very composed, which impressed her. She asked him how he could be so calm, to which he replied, “I’m fine. God is always here”.
From that moment on she discovered something she had never seen in the person of her husband, a faith that she had interpreted simply as something that made her husband a “calm and ordinary” person, but at that moment she realized that his faith was so great even to be fearless, even though the future was uncertain. This began to make her rethink her position on faith. Upon realizing this situation and together with the desire to walk alongside her husband in this difficulty, she decided that she wanted to be baptized. She discussed this with her husband who was glad that he had become ill because it brought her to a deepening of the faith, he had always believed in.
Thus, Junko began her journey to the Church and among other things she is grateful to the parish community are the accompaniment and the availability to be with her and accompany her in this difficult time. Since they had moved house, she had no friends with whom she could talk or feel accompanied, but in the church community there is always someone to listen to her. Junko was baptized at the Easter Vigil at the Sekimac church.