Last weekend, December 6-9, the Diocese of Torit celebrated its Silver Jubilee. Guests began arriving on Friday afternoon, and the official activities began Saturday morning.
The first event scheduled was the Way of the Cross which began at the ruins of the parish church in town and proceeded along various significant sites to conclude at the ruins of the cathedral on the outskirts. Stations were prayed at the sites of government offices, schools, the local public hospital and in the middle of the street. It was well attended and very moving.
As we were praying the Stations, I was struck by a new insight about the Cross. The Cross is mysterious because it involves both a contradiction of God’s will and the fulfillment of God’s will. In the Cross there is always something present that goes against what God wants: some kind of evil, injustice, unfairness, suffering, betrayal – something that’s not supposed to be that way. And yet – this is the mysterious part – it is that same something that the Lord asks us to endure, to bear for purposes that may not always be clear to us at the time, with the promise that He will somehow redeem the negative experience and bring good out of it. It is the presence of the negative or contradictory element that makes the Cross so hard to accept; it requires poverty of spirit, simplicity of heart and childlike trust to be able to embrace it without being destroyed by it.
As we moved between the stations, the crowd repeated a very simple but – against the backdrop of what took place in Southern Sudan – deeply moving refrain : O Jesus Who, for love of me, did bear Your Cross to Calvary, in Your sweet mercy grant to me, to suffer and to die with You. In my mind, as we retraced the different steps of Jesus’ journey to His death, those events blended with the countless incidents of suffering experienced by the people of Torit. How many times were those different stations reenacted during the war years? How many innocent people were condemned to a brutal death? How many mothers watched their children suffer and die? How many times did someone lend a shoulder to help ease another’s burden, or wipe the sweat and blood from another’s face? “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Is 53:4).
The first event scheduled was the Way of the Cross which began at the ruins of the parish church in town and proceeded along various significant sites to conclude at the ruins of the cathedral on the outskirts. Stations were prayed at the sites of government offices, schools, the local public hospital and in the middle of the street. It was well attended and very moving.
As we were praying the Stations, I was struck by a new insight about the Cross. The Cross is mysterious because it involves both a contradiction of God’s will and the fulfillment of God’s will. In the Cross there is always something present that goes against what God wants: some kind of evil, injustice, unfairness, suffering, betrayal – something that’s not supposed to be that way. And yet – this is the mysterious part – it is that same something that the Lord asks us to endure, to bear for purposes that may not always be clear to us at the time, with the promise that He will somehow redeem the negative experience and bring good out of it. It is the presence of the negative or contradictory element that makes the Cross so hard to accept; it requires poverty of spirit, simplicity of heart and childlike trust to be able to embrace it without being destroyed by it.
As we moved between the stations, the crowd repeated a very simple but – against the backdrop of what took place in Southern Sudan – deeply moving refrain : O Jesus Who, for love of me, did bear Your Cross to Calvary, in Your sweet mercy grant to me, to suffer and to die with You. In my mind, as we retraced the different steps of Jesus’ journey to His death, those events blended with the countless incidents of suffering experienced by the people of Torit. How many times were those different stations reenacted during the war years? How many innocent people were condemned to a brutal death? How many mothers watched their children suffer and die? How many times did someone lend a shoulder to help ease another’s burden, or wipe the sweat and blood from another’s face? “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Is 53:4).
Papal, Sudanese and other flags at the celebration site
Saturday evening at the site of the parish church in town there was a very prayerful time of Eucharistic adoration, which I was privileged to lead due to the transportation difficulties of one of the local Sudanese priests, and the opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent was celebrated at the Jubilee site in field adjacent to the cathedral. Bishop Emeritus Paride Taban was main celebrant and homilist.
Bishops, priests and servers after Sunday's Mass
His Excellency General Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of Southern Sudan (center)
Traditional tribal dancers (above and next three photos)
Bishop Akio Johnson Mutek of Torit, Bishop Emeritus Paride Taban, Archbishop Paulino Lokudu Loro of Juba
School girl making a presentation to Bishop Akio
Gifts presented to the Bishop on the occasion of the Jubilee
Watching the presentations and entertainment (and kind of wiped out) at the end of the celebrations
I had wanted to post this entry earlier, but the celebrations lasted into Tuesday, and in the wake of the intense activity of the preceding days, I’ve been a little under the weather. I also wanted to post photos I took during the various events of the celebration, but unfortunately the camera I was using disappeared after the last event. I post the above images courtesy of Fr. Peter Ben Louis, secretary to the bishop of Torit.
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