Upon awakening, I realized that here I was in Lodwar, Kenya in East
Africa to celebrate World Mission Sunday. For most of my life, I had the
stereotypical idea that "the Missions" focused on far off, primitive
places like Africa or the Far East. Of course, over the years, I came to
realize how wrong that stereotype was. In fact, the Church in Africa is
thriving in most parts of this vast continent, and it is the Church in Africa,
and the Church in India who are sending missionaries to help the Church in other
parts of the world, including the Church in the United States---in fact, to
help our own Church in the Diocese of Kalamazoo. So it was wonderful to
realize that here I was in the heart of Africa to celebrate Mass with the
faith-filled people of Lodwar.
(stock photo of Mass being celebrated at the Cathedral of St. Augustine)
But I was not in any way prepared for what
I encountered when we arrived for the 8:30 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St.
Augustine (one of the wonderful similarities between our two "sister
Dioceses": that we share the same Diocesan Patron, St. Augustine).
To get to the Cathedral, one must travel through poor and dusty, crowded
and litter-laden roads; but entering into the Cathedral plant is once again
like entering into a different world. The Cathedral Church is simple,
large and beautiful; the diocesan colors of green and yellow predominate.
The Mass began at 8:30 and we did not finish until 11:00 a.m. (By
the way, I offered my Mass intention today for all the Faithful of the Diocese
of Kalamazoo, Lay and Clergy, Living and Deceased.) The Cathedral was
filled to the doors, and when Mass was over at 11:00 a.m., the Cathedral was
still just as full. No one came late nor left early. They were fully
engaged in the Liturgy, singing with great gusto and with all their hearts, and
responding to the prayers with great devotion. The entire Mass was
celebrated in Swahili, the State language, though English is the primary
language throughout all of Kenya. The entrance procession itself took
over 30 minutes, with liturgical dancing on the part of a great number of young
girls, and older men.
When it was time for the Liturgy of the Word, the Sacred Scriptures were
carried in a joyful procession greeted with loud applause from everyone in the
church, welcoming the Word of The Lord into their midst. The Scripture
Readings and Homily were beautifully done, followed by the Creed. The Prayers
of the Faithful were quite energized with one of the elders leading a spirited
sort-of-litany style of prayer petition. The procession with the gifts of
bread and wine then took place, along with fruits, vegetables, and other kinds
of food stuffs to be offered for the poor. When it was time for the
Collection, every single person came forward to put their offering in the
collection boxes, rather than having the baskets passed through the
congregation. Following the Preparation of the Gifts, I was struck with
how silently and immediately the entire congregation knelt down for the
Eucharistic Prayer and participated in that special prayer with great devotion
and respect. After Holy Communion had been distributed, we were asked to
be seated while the Announcements were made, a special guest, who is a member
of Parliament, spoke to the People (on the occasion of a great Kenyan national
holiday being celebrated today called "Heroes Day"), and then of
course the "Visitors from the United States" had to be welcomed.
We each got to speak briefly to the congregation, and then they
overwhelmed us with gifts of hand-made hats, mats, brooms, baskets, fruits and
vegetables, presented by very native people with much singing, dancing and
"jumping". Of course, the Visitors were expected to do the
same, which made things that much more interesting. Following Mass, we
got to meet the beautiful children who had participated in the Mass, and they
sang us some more wonderful songs. I've never met people who are so
faith-filled, happy and joyful, in spite of their material poverty (perhaps
because of their material poverty?).
Following a brief repast in the Cathedral Rectory, and an impromptu visit
to the Diocesan Radio Station where we were each interviewed for live Catholic
Radio (a program that is extremely impressive, and one which I hope we can
learn from for our own radio ministry in the Diocese of Kalamazoo),
we had a short rest back at the Diocesan Pastoral Center. At 3:00 p.m., we
traveled to one of the very far outlying "stations" (as they call
them here in Lodwar) of St. Augustine Cathedral Parish, to visit with the TurkanaPeople. These people are part of a primitive and ancient African tribe.
They have no connection with the "modern world". They
have no schools, no social services of any sort. They are shepherds by
trade, raising and herding primarily goats. They speak only their own
language. They do not know Swahili, let alone English. They live
according to the ancient tribal practices of the men and women separated from
one another in their social settings, the boys sitting with the men and the girls
with the women. Their normal dress is what we would consider primitive.
If you have ever watched a Discovery Channel program on African tribes,
you would have seen the way these people dress, the married women with multiple
decorative rings around their neck, raising their necks inordinately high off
their shoulders.
Turkana children presenting traditional dance with ostrich-feather headresses and traditional dance costumes--from Wikipedia
It took quite a while for us to reach this
"outstation", and these people had to travel from miles away, each
from their own little villages, to be together to meet Bishop Dominic and the
"Visitors" (as we were known). When we pulled up covered with
dust from the trip, they swarmed the car, and danced and sang in their native
ways to greet us more warmly than I've ever been greeted before in my life.
It was almost overwhelming, and a bit intimidating at first.
However, these people, with whom we could not communicate (even Bishop
Dominic could not communicate with them due to the language barrier), extended
a bond of love and hospitality like none other before. Each of us
"visitors" spoke to them our words of greeting and good wishes,
through a translator. They were so pleased to have had us come to visit
with them. However, these people lack one of the most essential
necessities of life: water. What we take for granted, they have to
search after, and mostly go without. We (the rest of the world that is)
simply must find ways to help these wonderful people. (Of course, the
unavailability of water is a major issue throughout Lodwar, but that's another
matter.) When we got ready to go, they overwhelmed us with the
presentation of gifts; so many that we could not count them. These
people, who have literally nothing of this world's goods, went out of their way
to give us gifts from what little they had to thank us for coming to visit:
we were given at least a half a dozen goats, several chickens, hand-made
grass hats, mats, baskets, fruits and vegetables, and various handmade
utensils. They sang and danced us to our vehicle, and waved as we drove
off, literally into the sunset.
The long and the short of it is: this is a World Mission Sunday I
will never forget. I have seen firsthand the diversity of the Body of
Christ in its most dramatic realities. No matter where we live: in
Kalamazoo, in Lodwar, among the primitive people of the Turkana Tribe, or
anywhere else in the world, we are ONE in Christ, and, no matter what we do or
what we have (or don't have), each of us is precious in the Eyes of the Lord.
As I go to sleep this evening, my heart is truly filled with thanks to
God for allowing me to be having this amazing experience of the worldwide
Family of Faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment