This morning we have just experienced a very beautiful Eucharistic celebration at the provincial house presided by Father John Paul Etumba, parish priest of St. John Paul II parish. Christ does not abandon us in the immense mission of announcing God's salvation to the world. We are not alone. His words reassure the disciples and comfort them: "Do not let your hearts be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me". In this storm: faith in Jesus Christ reassures us.
We, too, are sometimes overwhelmed by multi-sectoral challenges. And the global health crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic adds to this anxiety. We ask ourselves: How much is our health worth and what is the best cure for Covid-19? What will become of us and our world? Workers ask: Are we going to lose our jobs? Students: Are we going to finish this academic year? Travellers: Are we going to go back home? Let's think about those who are living from day to day that this crisis borders on. What are they going to do? These questions are more worrying when we look at the current situation in our country: political uncertainty, social insecurity, rising market prices, Afro-scepticism towards this disease on the one hand and health confusion due to the difficulty of observing the barrier gestures by the vast majority of the population on the other. All this can be very upsetting. Who can answer all these questions that beset us? No one.
The word of God, yes. This Sunday's Gospel invites us to faith. To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe in God our Father. "He who has seen me has seen the Father," Jesus said to Philip. To Thomas he said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one goes to the Father without passing through me. God is relationship, communication: The questions of Philip and Thomas are our questions today. Jesus answers them with clarity. He asks us to enter into a path of faith. We saw last Sunday that he was the door that leads to the Father. Today he reveals to us that he is the way, the truth and the life; he is not a way, but the only way that leads to the Father. To believe in Jesus is to base our whole life on faith in his active presence in this world and in our lives. To believe in Jesus is to understand the exchange of love he has with the Father. It is in this intimate life that the Lord wants to lead his disciples and each one of us. This intimate life that reveals the relational life that is God himself! God is relationship, unity in diversity, communication and dialogue of love. God loves us, he loves this world to whose conversion we, missionary disciples, must work because the Lord "loves right and justice", as Psalm 32 reminds us.
Faith, a path to follow: Our faith in God is ours to nourish, to cultivate, to care for like a beautiful and fragrant flower. This faith is not a goal, it is a road to be travelled. The Church, the body of Christ, offers us all the necessary nourishment for the road: the Word of God and the sacraments, prayer, fraternal life, because our faith is synonymous with life. It opens us to the most beautiful thing on earth, divine life, which allows Jesus to say "I am in the Father and the Father is in me! "because that faith is truth. Contemplating Jesus, by the grace of the gift of the Spirit, it is the Holy Trinity who gives Himself to us, for ourselves and for the salvation of the world.
P. Leonard NDJADI NDJATE
Comboni Missionary
We, too, are sometimes overwhelmed by multi-sectoral challenges. And the global health crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic adds to this anxiety. We ask ourselves: How much is our health worth and what is the best cure for Covid-19? What will become of us and our world? Workers ask: Are we going to lose our jobs? Students: Are we going to finish this academic year? Travellers: Are we going to go back home? Let's think about those who are living from day to day that this crisis borders on. What are they going to do? These questions are more worrying when we look at the current situation in our country: political uncertainty, social insecurity, rising market prices, Afro-scepticism towards this disease on the one hand and health confusion due to the difficulty of observing the barrier gestures by the vast majority of the population on the other. All this can be very upsetting. Who can answer all these questions that beset us? No one.
The word of God, yes. This Sunday's Gospel invites us to faith. To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe in God our Father. "He who has seen me has seen the Father," Jesus said to Philip. To Thomas he said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one goes to the Father without passing through me. God is relationship, communication: The questions of Philip and Thomas are our questions today. Jesus answers them with clarity. He asks us to enter into a path of faith. We saw last Sunday that he was the door that leads to the Father. Today he reveals to us that he is the way, the truth and the life; he is not a way, but the only way that leads to the Father. To believe in Jesus is to base our whole life on faith in his active presence in this world and in our lives. To believe in Jesus is to understand the exchange of love he has with the Father. It is in this intimate life that the Lord wants to lead his disciples and each one of us. This intimate life that reveals the relational life that is God himself! God is relationship, unity in diversity, communication and dialogue of love. God loves us, he loves this world to whose conversion we, missionary disciples, must work because the Lord "loves right and justice", as Psalm 32 reminds us.
Faith, a path to follow: Our faith in God is ours to nourish, to cultivate, to care for like a beautiful and fragrant flower. This faith is not a goal, it is a road to be travelled. The Church, the body of Christ, offers us all the necessary nourishment for the road: the Word of God and the sacraments, prayer, fraternal life, because our faith is synonymous with life. It opens us to the most beautiful thing on earth, divine life, which allows Jesus to say "I am in the Father and the Father is in me! "because that faith is truth. Contemplating Jesus, by the grace of the gift of the Spirit, it is the Holy Trinity who gives Himself to us, for ourselves and for the salvation of the world.
Good Sunday and many things to you!
P. Leonard NDJADI NDJATE
Comboni Missionary
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