Fr Robert Falk was a spiritual leader that many lay people enjoyed visiting.
And he was the confessor most often visited by the Salesian Sisters.
Honestly speaking, Fr Noh Soong-pi (Fr Robert’s Korean name) is the most loved missionary priest and is called a living saint in the Salesian Family in Korea.
Priest Noh Sung-pi always used the words ‘I like it!’ and ‘good’ as a refrain in conversation. He is an exemplary Salesian who witnessed throughout his life the spirituality of joy at the heart of the preventive system.
Below is the testimony of Father Roberto, written by Father Henry Bonetti:
He lived like a saint. He lived like Don Bosco and St Francis de Sales. He lived the “Little Virtues” to such a degree that they became great virtues. He lived what Don Bosco says about the conduct of Comollo. His conduct “was made up of many small virtues, but practiced in such a way as to make him universally admired as a model of extraordinary virtue.” In novitiate on the side wall of the chapel was a verse suggested by Fr Angelo Franco, “I have come to set the world on fire.” Well, Bob was not going to set the world on fire. He just let the world set him on fire.
I believe he practiced the “Practice of the Presence of God” at an eminent degree, finding God in whatever he was doing at the time. Like Francis de Sales and Don Bosco, he took everything as the will of God. “Ask for nothing, refuse nothing.” as St Francis would say. He asked for no position. When it was thrust on him, he fulfilled his office with calm and humility, without any trepidation. He had no agenda, he made no projects, no plans.
He just took life as it came to him, helped people out as they needed it, solved problems as they needed solving. If someone came to visit, (I would say they were more than 75% women both lay and nuns) he would sit with them over tea and cake, for as long as was needed, one, two, three hours. It didn’t matter. As for events, He never hurried, he waited, almost unperturbed, for problems to solve themselves. This, of course, exasperated lesser mortals to no end, but when everything was said and done, he was usually right. This type of heart towards God, people and events gave him a wisdom that was sometimes uncanny in its accuracy. Short, one-sentence advice given in candor and loving-kindness usually found its mark. One would later think that the words came not from the earth, but from heaven. He was this kind of man – unpretentious, unassuming, willing to be subject to others and events, letting them dictate to him what God wants and what he should do to fulfill His will.
He liked sports and was happy when the young were happy. In the afternoon you could almost always find him on the court with the young. Later, he remained on the side but still there cheering the young on. He was as in the title of a book by the Servant of God, Baroness Catherine Doherty, one of the “People of the Towel and Water.” It was fitting that he died during these days when our salvation is achieved in humility and love from the foot-washing to the foot of the cross. For Bob was the incarnation of that humble service that leads to loving redemption.
