Last Sunday, February 15, I was able to return to the village of Lowoi, this time to accompany Fr. Joseph Ochan for Sunday Mass. Fr. Joseph has just returned to Torit after serving for several years in the Archdiocese of Khartoum. A good number of priests from the Diocese of Torit who were ordained during the war began their priestly ministry in this way. This was Fr. Joseph's fourth consecutive Sunday visit to the community in preparation for taking on the responsibility as resident priest for the village. Before that can happen, though, arrangements have to be made for his accommodation. The dining area of the former village primary school will be reroofed to use as a provisional chapel, and one of the classrooms for Fr. Joseph's residence.
During this visit, I discovered that one one side of the bell - the only surviving religious image from the church - is an image of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, with the words inscribed above in Latin: Vox Mea Vox Vitae, My Voice is the Voice of Life. A beautiful expression that applies both to the voice of Jesus, and also to that of the bell itself who calls to those who hear it to come to the house of the Lord to receive Jesus, the Bread of Life, in the Eucharist.
On this occasion I also met a young sub-chief of the village, who asked to have his photo taken.
On the other hand I had to coax this serious but attentive boy to come forward for a photo.
Wanting to follow up on the momentum of the video of St. Bakhita the previous Sunday, and consulting with the youth coordinator of the parish in Torit, we decided to announce and show the first Narnia film that evening at the bishop's residence. Earlier in the week we had located and tested the projector and a new portable sound system a visitor had just brought from Khartoum, so I was pretty confident we could pull this off. Despite some techincal difficulties that casued about an hour's delay (we started with a generator, then switched to power from the town generator, but then experienced a short circuit with the outlet we were using), the showing went pretty well.
About 100 people - mostly young children, but also a good number of youth and a few curious adults - showed up. It was a very interesting cultural experience. There was a bit of a language barrier for the young children who are still learning English, and the film starts off a little slowly, which tested the patience of some. But once all four Pevensie children were in Narnia, everyone was glued to the screen. It was fascinating to watch especially the children's response to fawns, centaurs and minotaurs - these were creatures completely out of their conceptual framework. I imagine that most of the people present had almost no exposure to classical mythology.
But the basic message of the film is clear enough, not only the evident struggle between good and evil and the call to the children to rise to the occasion presented to them, but also the self-sacrificing love of Aslan the Lion (the Christ figure in the film) that is ultimately able to conquer the cold cruelty of the witch queen. I'm hoping to be able to follow up with a discussion with the older youth on the Christian symbolism of the film, and then continue with the second Narnia film and it's theme of faith.
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