Category: Reflections

by Fr Dabulamanzi Ntshangase

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‘John the baptiser was that “Elijah”’

Most of the prophets in the Old Testament prepared people for the coming of the Messiah. The Jewish people, therefore, were longing and hoping for the coming of this Messiah. The Messiah was to come very quickly and they were expecting him in their own life time. Based on the prophecy of Malachi 3:23-24, the Jews believed that the prophet, Elijah, would return to herald the coming of the Messiah. John the Baptiser was that ‘Elijah’. This is because the clothing of John, as described in the Gospel episode, resembles that of Elijah. 2 Kings 1:8 stipulates that Elijah ‘wore a hairy garment with a leather belt around his waist.’ Again, like Elijah, John seems to be an outsider, living in the desert. Scripturally, the desert amongst other things is a place or an experience of intimacy with God (Hosea 2:16). John preached the Gospel of repentance. His message, even today, urges us to change our hearts, our selves, and our ways of life. Through his message the Lord God is urging us to hear his voice, soften our hearts and turn our lives around. Advent, amongst other things therefore, is a time for us to be sorry for our sins. It is a time for us to make our ways straight from God’s heart to our own hearts.
Continue reading “Second Sunday of Advent – Year A” →

by Fr Dabulamanzi Ntshangase

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We, Christians, are known to be people most characterised by love for Christ commanded us to love God and our neighbour. If we belong to the Christian family and yet do not show love then we are in the dark, we need light. We need to start anew. In many ways today marks new beginnings: the beginning of a week, month, liturgical year and a liturgical season – Advent. Advent is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the second coming of Christ and it runs from the beginning of the season until the 16th of December. The second part focuses on the first coming of Christ (Incarnation) at Bethlehem and it runs from the 17th of December to the 24th of December.
Continue reading “First Sunday of Advent – Year A” →

by Fr Peterson Muriithi

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KING OF THE UNIVERSE

THEME: A KING WHO CONDEMNS NOBODY

As we end year C and the liturgical cycle of three years, I am reminded of the many sermons that I have listened to since I was young, whereby our priests always used to point out that this is the time that we need to take our stock of life just as we do with our businesses at the end of the year. It is the time where we need to look back and ask ourselves questions that will help us evaluate how we lived the concluded liturgical year, celebrate and thank God for allowing us to see the end of this liturgical year and indeed the year 2019. It is the time that we need to evaluate our relationship with God not forgetting to look into our relationships with the others. How did I live the commandment of love given to us by Jesus Christ?
Continue reading “The Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ” →

by Fr Peterson Muriithi

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THEME: COURAGE, RAISE YOUR HEAD!

Last Sunday we looked at the courage portrayed by the seven brothers and their mother who gladly accepted to suffer and die in this world so as to enjoy the promise of eternal life. Likewise Jesus in the Gospel talked of the resurrection of the dead and the life after, which we all need to focus on; not forgetting the prayer or rather the words of encouragement that we got from St.Paul that will help us to remain strong in our daily lives as far as taking up our crosses and following Christ is concerned.
Continue reading “33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C” →

Pope’s prayer Intention: Let us pray that a spirit of dialogue, encounter, and reconciliation emerge in the Middle East, where diverse religious communities share their lives together.

Far too many wars, political divisions, conflicts and hostilities between the diverse religious communities within the Near East have left populations scared and crippled in moral, financial and spiritual ways. This race to dominate has led to vicious murders that have little regard or respect for one’s neighbour.

Local leaders have manifested horrendous attitudes of greed and thirst for power leading to domination and autocratic decision-making, manifesting little interest in what is the best for their people and for humanity as a whole. Continue reading “November 2019: Dialogue and Reconciliation in the Near East” →

by Fr Peterson Muriithi

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THEME: ALL HAVE LIFE BECAUSE OF HIM.

Last Sunday we contemplated and celebrated the life of the saints, men and women who lived here on earth like each one of us. These people detached themselves from earthly things in order to serve and remain connected to God. Why did the saints despise earthly happiness and embraced the cross? Simply because they realised that earthly life is short lived compared to life after death (eternal life) that we all hope one day to attain. The faith of the saints and the hope they had in God gave them the courage to go against many baseless believes and oppressive laws that contradicted the Love and mercy of God. At a certain point also Peter and the other apostles replied before the council: “We must obey God rather than human beings!”(Acts 5:29). A Christian can only have such courage after deeply understanding that the life we have is freely given by God and if we remain faithful to him, even if we die we shall live as Jesus tells us in (John 11:25).
Continue reading “32nd Sunday in Ordinary time – Year C” →

by Fr Peterson Muriithi

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THEME: OUR CALL TO HOLINESS

When we hear about all saints day, what comes in to our minds? Normally we think of the people who lived holy lives during their earthly life and after their death, they were beatified and canonised. We venerate the saints, ask for their intercession and we keep wondering how they managed to live holy lives in this sinful world. What we need to remember is that majority of the saints we venerate today and ask for their intercession, were born innocent like any other child including you and me, however their inclination to the original sin, human weakness and the influence that they got either from their immediate family members, friends or society in general started to eat away their innocence and entered in to sin of any kind as we all know from our catechism the definition of sin. “Sin is an offence against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbour caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods…”
Continue reading “Solemnity of All Saints” →

by Fr Pius Magagula

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A poor widow cannot stand up to her enemy. Let us bring our attention to these two nouns:- poor +widow. We start with the latter :- widow, she has no leg to stand on, she has lost a companion. And, in our Swazi culture, she only deserves a sleeping mat to sit on, she does not deserve a chair. She deserves all the disadvantages of life. Two, she is poor, she is not eligible to have her voice heard.

Taking it back to our permissive societies; do we listen to the voice of the poor, marginalised, unmarried ( according to ‘our standards’). The judge according to vss 2,3 turned down her request for justice. In life don’t we sometimes compare our God to this judge? Does He not seem silent when we need Him the most? How do we judge His silence? This quickly drives us to the egg/chick reality. The time/moment of hatching is not rushed. God’s time is the one that we bank on.
Continue reading “29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C” →