KENYA: “Renew Your Faces lest the World Consumes You,” Apostolic Nuncio forewarns Believers.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya and South Sudan, Archbishop Hubertus Maria van Megen,
Elizabeth Asasha
Archbishop Hubertus Maria van Megen, the Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya and South Sudan, has exhorted believers to seek to renew their “faces” and devote themselves to the service of others as a way of making the world a better place for everyone.
In a wake-up call sermon on Monday, 22nd August 2022, during the Convocation ceremony for the commencement of Tangaza University College 2022/2023 academic year, the Nuncio cited Psalm 104: 30 and urged Christians to change their ways and live up to the standards that God sets forth in His Word.
“We often sing and implore the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth, but what about your face? Why not say, “Lord send out your spirit and renew my face?” posed Archbishop Megen during the Mass, celebrated to invoke God’s Spirit for wisdom and direction in actualizing the new academic year goals of the Catholic-owned college.
The Nuncio urged Catholics to allow the Holy Spirit to lead them in their missions while forewarning of the inevitable consequences of human weakness, which frequently lead them to pursue earthly pleasures.
“Humans tend to create their worlds that do not conform to the norms of the word; we are very readily swayed by the world and end up living according to the needs of the flesh,” the Nuncio said.
“You have to work hard in life, you have to give a lot in life and you have to give much more than you ever will receive, but you have to give according to the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you live a life which is not a gift of the Holy Spirit, you will ruin yourself.” He further reiterated.
Archbishop Megen linked further the Psalm to the greatest commandment, stressing that it was the only way to experience true communion with God.
“Imagine how the world would truly love God with all our hearts, mind, and soul and love each other as ourselves! If you would do that you would be in God, and God would be in you; He would fill you completely and you would resemble Christ who is the incarnate word, who is the Holy Spirit conceived, and that is being in true communion with God!” posited the Archbishop.
The Apostolic Nuncio emphasized the teachings of the Holy Spirit about serving God while referring to the growing quest among people, including religious, to fit into particular groups and social castes.
“If you want to follow the Holy Spirit, there is not much you need to learn as such because the real teaching of the Holy Spirit is not so much about learning but about unlearning, about serving off, letting go, giving up, sacrificing all these heavy loads of the world which from childhood onwards we have been putting on our shoulders to be accepted within our families, societies, even within our church!” He opined.
The Archbishop van Megen described the Church as a human institution made up of individuals who, like saints, are susceptible to human flaws.
“Our Church, though initiated by God and being a divine institution at the same time, is a very human institution with very human expectations; that explains why many of the saints lived in conflict with the Church because to be a saint is not an easy thing.”
“It is not something that people around you easily accept, and sometimes you even see this within the communities,” he continued. “When there is a religious sister, brother, or father who lives a truly holy life, people around him start making fun of him or doubt him because they feel this cannot be, he is too much of a challenge to the community. You conspire to disparage him to ensure they abandon the righteous life.”
The Nuncio stressed the vanity of living to please the world, saying that it constantly frustrates the lives of believers by replacing the fruits of the Holy Spirit with evil and finally consuming them.
“You might think that the world has a lot to give you but the world is there to consume you and leave you disillusioned, embittered, and full of resentment and this is the worst thing to happen to a religious when they start resenting, embittered, and arrogant. These are the fruits of the evil spirit of the world,” he said.
He concluded his sermon by urging the faithful Catholics to ask the Holy Spirit to lead them to their true vocation in service to the people, the Church, and society, and to cultivate true humility in the face of worldly mortification, “You learn humility after suffering humiliation, and it is only in true humility that we will be able to truly serve, to understand others in their suffering, and to be a sign of God’s presence in this world.”
The Holy Mass preceded the Inaugural Conference on Veritatis Gaudium (The joy of truth), Pope Francis’ Apostolic Constitution on ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties that was promulgated on 29 January 2018 as an update of the 1979 Apostolic Constitution Sapientia Christiana.
