Issue No. 76: November, 2009
The Truth:
Machakos Link Newsletter
An organ of
communication of the Catholic Diocese of Machakos
FEAST OF
THE MONTH - ALL
SAINTS DAY
MUTITUNI
( ST. JOSEPH ) PARISH
The month of November is dedicated to praying for the
souls of the faithful departed. In Macabees 12:38-45
refers to the great need of offering prayers and sacrifices (expiatory) for the
dead. We are encouraged to do the following in all the Parishes:
1. Offer Mass for all the faithful departed from our
Parishes.
2. Do sacrifices, penance, mortification and offer prayer
for the souls in Purgaroty. 3.Visit
the burial places and pray for our people.
4. Pray for those who may die in this month for a Holy
death.
“We Shall See God As He Really Is”
All
Saints Day
Rev 7:2-4. 9-14; 1 Jn
3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12
The feast of All Saints reminds us of our final
destination. The Church celebrates the life of some of her sons and daughters
who have lived the ordinary Christian life with an extraordinary zeal.
The saints serve as a model to all the
Christians. The finality of our journey of faith is to see God as he really is.
Our faithfulness to the truth and the values of the Gospel is the sign and the
demand of our Christian vocation. God's ultimate plan was to create a family
that would share in the boundless love and joy that is the life of the
Trinity. The "communion of saints" that is essential to the
faith we profess in the Creed each Sunday is the ongoing realization of that
plan.
The saints are an encouragement to the persecuted
Church. It is only by the grace of God that an informed person can give up his
life for the sake of Christ. The words of the beatitudes in Jesus sermon on the
mountain should strengthen us day by day to seek to be meek, humble and
witnesses of God’s love, acknowledging our human limitation and trusting in
Divine intervention.
32nd Sunday
of the Ordinary Time
1 Kg 17:10-16; Heb
9:24-28; Mk 12.38-44
The three readings of this Sunday are dominated
by the words “offering” and “generosity”. In the first reading and the Gospel,
we are presented with the generosity of two widows while in the second reading
we are presented with Divine generosity, the selfless offering of Jesus to save
humanity.
These readings are common in the Church today
especially in encouraging the Christian community to be generous to the needy.
Generosity in the spiritual sense should not be measured with the amount one
offers but the disposition of the heart, seeing the need of others and
reflecting God as a giver of all. We do not give out of our abundance but out
of our feeling for the needs of others. The giving that costs us something
brings us real joy. The cost of Jesus’ offering was his own life. We rejoice
because of his self giving.
The Christian
community, just as the community of the time of Jesus, is challenged not to
live like the scribes who knew all that the law taught yet lived the contrast
of the law they were supposed to defend.
33rd Sunday
of the ordinary Time
Dan 12:1-13; Heb
10:11-14.18; Mk 13:24-32
As we come to the close of the liturgical year,
the readings of this Sunday remind us of the end times. In the first reading,
we read how the faithful will be spared in the day of doom. Some will rise to
everlasting life while others will rise to be condemned to everlasting
disgrace. Those who have learnt the will of God will shine brightly and so will
be the teachers of righteousness. It is the duty of all Christians to seek for
the eternal salvation promised us by Jesus. Our life should reflect the
expected joy. We should actually start living the heavenly reality now because
what we shall become is what we have been. Reading the signs of the times is
only possible if we are informed of the Divine Word and the presence of God
among us. Reflecting or reading about
the end times should not instill fear in our minds but should be a
manifestation and a reminder of God’s Divine and eternal love for humanity.
Feast of Christ the
Universal King
Dan 7:13-14; Rev
1.5-8; Jn 18:33-37
The feast of Christ the Universal King draws our
attention to reflect on the kind of king Jesus is. For many years, the Jewish
concept of a Messiah had been interpreted erroneously. For many, a messiah
meant an earthly King who would liberate them from the political and
administrative oppression that they were suffering from the nations around
them. This is clearly reflected at the moment when Jesus was before the jury.
According to John, Jesus dies because he proclaimed an unacceptable and
incomprehensible truth. When Jesus declares himself a King and a witness to
truth he is reminding us that being his followers is living the truth of his
teaching in its entirety. In baptism we acquired the divine character of
royalty. Just as a true king defends the good of his people, we are called to
defend the truth of our faith. We are called to become servant kings and not
dominating and ready -to -be -served kings.
1st Sunday
of Advent
Jer 33:14-16; 1 Thes 3:12—4:2; Jn
21: 25-36
The liturgical year starts with the period of
Advent, a moment of preparation and reflection on the historical development of
God’s saving power. In the readings of this first Sunday, the theme of fear is
treated. Borrowing the words in the introduction of the missal, we are reminded
that fear is the most crippling emotion. Many things in the world make us
afraid. Fear makes us lose our integrity and personality because we are afraid
of ourselves. It makes us postpone doing the good to impress others and to keep
our relationships. Christ calls us to lift up our hearts and see his liberating
act upon us. When anxiety, fear of the unknown, fills a human person, his will
is weakened. Jesus reminds us to keep watch because our salvation is close at
hand. As we start this period of Advent, we are invited to reflect on our lives
and see how ready we are to receive our Lord Jesus Christ when he comes in
glory.
By: Fr. Francis Maundu
Let us make haste to
our brethren who are waiting for us
Why should our praise and
glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the
saints? What do they care about earthly honours when their heavenly Father
honours them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our
commendation mean to them?
The saints have no
need of honour from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to
what is theirs. Clearly if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by
tremendous yearning.
Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather
arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable
in itself.
We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to
dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the
ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the
noble company of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be
united in happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change.
The Church of all the
first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints
want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await
us, and we ignore them.
Come brothers and
sisters let us at length spur ourselves on.
We must rise again with Christ, we must seek
the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. Let us long
for those who long for us, hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask
those who look for our coming to intercede for us. We should not only want to
be with the saints, we should also hope to experience their happiness. While we
desire to be in their company, we must also earnestly seek to share in their
glory. Do not imagine that there is anything harmful in such an ambition as
this; there is no danger in setting our hearts on such glory.
When we commemorate
the saints we are inflamed with another yearning: that Christ our life may also
appear to us as He appeared to them and that we may one day share in His Glory.
Until then we see Him , not as He is , but as he
became for our sake. He is our Head , crowned, not
with glory but with thorns of our sins. As members of the head, crowned with
thorns, we should be ashamed to live in luxury: his purple robes are a mockery
rather than an honour. When Christ comes again, his death shall no longer be
proclaimed, and we shall know that we also have died, and that our life is
hidden with him.
The glorious head of
the Church will appear and his glorified members will shine in splendor with
him, when he forms this lowly body a new in to such glory as belongs to himself as head.
Therefore, we should
aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted and prudent desire.
That we may rightly hope and strive for such
blessedness, we must above all seek the prayers of the saints. Thus, what is
beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their intercession
Let us die with
Christ, to live with Christ
We see that, death is
gain, life is loss. Paul says: “for me life is Christ and death a gain.”
What does “Christ” mean but to die in the body, and receive the breath of
life?
Let us then die with
Christ, to live with Christ. We should have a daily familiarity with death, a
daily desire for death. By this kind of detachment our soul must learn to free
itself from the desires of the body.
It must soar above
earthly lusts or a place where they cannot come near, to hold it fast. It must
take on the likeness of death, to avoid the punishment of death.
The law of our fallen
nature is at war with the law of our reason and subjects the law of reason to the
law of error. What is the remedy? Who will set me free from this dead body? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
We have a doctor to heal us. Let us use the
remedy he prescribes. The remedy is the grace of Christ, the dead body our own.
Let us then be exiles from our body, so as not to exiles from Christ. Though we
are still in the body, let us not reject the natural rights of the body, but we
must desire before all else the gifts of grace. What more need be said: it was
by death of one man that the world was redeemed.
Christ did not need to
die if he did not want to, but he did not look on death as something to be
despised, something to be avoided, and He has found no better means to save us
than by dying. Thus His death is life for all. We are sealed with the sign of
his death; when we pray and preach His death: when we offer sacrifice we
proclaim his death. His death is victory: his death is a sacred sign: each year
His death is celebrated with solemnity by the whole world. What more should we
say about His death since we use this divine example to prove that it was His
death alone that won freedom from death, and death itself was its own redeemer?
Death is then no cause of mankind’s salvation. Death is not something to be
avoided, for the Son of God did not think it beneath his dignity, nor did he
seek to escape it.
Death was no part of nature: it became part of
nature. God did not decree death from the beginning: he prescribed it as a
remedy. Human life was condemned because of sins to unremitting labour and
unbearable sorrow and so began to experience the burden of wretchedness.
There had to be a limit to its evils: death had
to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immorality
is more of a burden than a blessing.
The soul has to turn
away from the aimless paths of this life, from the defilement of an earthly
body: it must reach out to those assemblies in heaven (though it is given only
to the saints to be admitted to them) to sing the praises of God. We learn from
Scripture how God’s praise is sung to the music of the harp: Great and
wonderful are your deeds, Lord God Almighty: just and true are your ways, King
of the nations. Who will not revere and glorify your name: You alone are holy:
all nations will bow and worship before you. The soul must also desire to
witness your nuptials, Jesus, and to see your bride escorted from earthly to
heavenly realities, as all rejoice and sing: All flesh will come before you. No
longer will bride be held in subjection through this passing world but will be
made one with the spirit.
Above all else, David prayed that he might see and
gaze on this: one thing I have asked of the Lord, this I shall pray for: to dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and see how gracious is the
Lord.
By:
Fr. Afons Muema
As we continue to
celebrate 40 years of Evangelization, we see more fruits of the missionaries
which are still coming up.
Mutituni (
We started a priests
house and within one year we came up with a beautiful house, which is a brain
child of the Christians of Mutituni, thanks for their
Co-operation and their sacrifice in donation. As we celebrate 40 years of our
Diocese, we have made a Big leap and step towards
faith development. This is faith in action and in deed.
The Parish priest of the parish since it
started to date is Fr. Thomas Kyalo. We moved in the
Parish house last year 2008 and we are able to administer to the Christians at
a close range.
By Fr. Thomas Kyalo
Rev. Fr. Mark Kasia has completed his initial Administration Police
training and has been posted to Administration Police Force as Chaplain. He
will be coordinating Disciplined Services Chaplaincy activities in the
NOVEMBER 2009
5th CMI
PANAFRICAN meeting
7th Muvothi –Diocese
8th Katangi
(Franciscan Clarists)
21st Final
Profession Carmelite
22nd Mlolongo Confirmation
26th Mbitini
27th Diocesan
Leaders meeting
DECEMBER
1st Youth Day Matuu
2nd Youth Mass -Cathedral
10th Caritas Executive Meeting
13th Kyale
Silver Jubilee
18th Kambu
Confirmation
28th X-mass/New year Luncheon
We are inviting all to
a thanks giving mass and Final Day for the Diocesan Collection at our Lady of
Lourdes Cathedral on 7th November 2009.
Time: 10:00am
WELCOME ONE AND ALL!
P.O. Box - 344 -90100 Machakos
Tel. +254-44-20484; Fax. +254-44-21308
Office
E-mail: bishopsomks@wananchi.com