The settings couldn’t be more different. One, Mukuru, a slum in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi, home to some 10,000 living in wood and corrugated metal shacks, crowded together, with no running water, electricity, or sewage systems.
The other, Mutunguru, a place in the country, 60 miles north of Nairobi, an agricultural community of 2,000 families, spread out and surrounded by the beauty of nature, pineapples, and tea growing in abundance.
Joyfully celebrating faith
And yet every Sunday the similarities between the two become evident as music, dance, singing, and joy characterize the celebration of faith in Jesus and a commitment to carry His “Good News” to others.
What is World
Mission Sunday?
World Mission Sunday, organized by the Propagation of the Faith, is a day set aside for Catholics worldwide to recommit themselves to the Church’s missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice. In 2011, World Mission Sunday is celebrated on October 23.
Offerings from Catholics in the United States, on World Mission Sunday and throughout the year, are combined with offerings to the Propagation of the Faith worldwide.
Mission dioceses — about 1,100 at this time — receive regular annual assistance from the funds collected for catechetical programs, seminaries, the work of religious communities, communication and transportation needs, and for the building of chapels, churches, orphanages, and schools.
During the two-hour plus Mass at St. Mary Church in Mukuru, for example, the 50-member choir — which meets for rehearsal three times a week — sings and claps, raising their hands in praise.
The joy, noted one visitor to the parish, was “palpable and uplifting.” At the Offertory procession, with the gifts of bread and wine are baskets of vegetables, flour, rice, bread, and other necessities for the less fortunate members of the parish.
Being presence of the Lord
And then, at the end of Mass, the words of dismissal — “go to love and serve the Lord” — come to life immediately as Maryknoll Father John Lange navigates narrow dirt paths filled with ruts and trash to visit the sick and others in need.
Lay people in the community have identified those in need, and Father Lange enters their humble dwellings to offer prayers and help — and, above all, to be a presence of the Lord who never abandons us.
“Keep God in your hearts,” Fr. Moses Kago tells the parishioners of St. Joseph Church in Mutunguru, the rural community that nurtured his own vocation to the priesthood, during one particular Sunday homily. “The Spirit can help you do extraordinary things when bad things happen.”
Missionary work
Joy too characterizes the celebration of Mass at St. Joseph. And Father Kago, who serves also as Pontifical Mission Societies director for the Archdiocese of Nairobi, also emphasizes the missionary dimension of our faith. “We do not only receive, we also give,” he explained.
The call to Catholics in Kenya to be missionaries is one stressed often in parishes, wherever they happen to be.
“We encourage our dear Christians to live up to what we have received because of our dear missionaries,” explains Cardinal John Njue of Nairobi.
Missionaries arrived in various places in Kenya just a little more than a century ago.
“The seed has been planted, and we need to make sure it is watered to grow properly,” the cardinal added. “We understand the importance of the missionary vocation of all.”
All peoples — in Kenya, here at home, and throughout the world — are celebrating and sharing their faith. That’s indeed very “good news”!
Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer is director of the Propagation of the Faith for the Diocese of Madison. Contributions to the Propagation of the Faith may be made at the parish or may be sent to: P.O. Box 44983, Madison, WI 53744-4983.