MALAWI: Archbishop Tambala Baptizes 157 at a Single Parish

Sam Kalimba

Most Rev. George Desmond Tambala of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lilongwe has on Easter Saturday 8 April, 2023, baptised and offered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 95 female and 62 male catechumens at a parish run by the Comboni Missionaries in the city of Lilongwe.

The Prelate advised the new Catholics to be ever green in matters of the Church that they have willingly joined. Most of the baptised were spouses of some existing Catholics whom the local ordinary exhorted to always be exemplary to their spouses turned Catholics. He said that he had observed elsewhere that after this stage, the joining spouses were left alone to partake in the Church activities.

“I was once approached by a convert spouse at one parish, complaining about the unbecoming behaviour of a partner she followed to the Catholic Church. She complained of the spouse having completely stopped taking part in church activities at Small Christian Community and even at higher levels. This is sad. I urge you not to fall into this trap. Pray all the time that you stand firm to show your converted spouses that the Sacraments they have received tonight are a spiritual life changer,” he said.

The local ordinary of Lilongwe in his homily of the night linked the promise the risen Lord made to meet his disciples in Galilee to the call to respond to Mathew 25: 42-43 ‘For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

“Jesus said that his disciples would find him in Galilee. This place was uncivilized and not attractive. Samaria was even better in status and religious value in those days but Jesus made it a point to be the meeting place after resurrection. This simply shows how he wanted to fulfil his preaching in Mathew 25 verses 42 and 43. We have Galilee all around us where the risen Lord wants us to meet him. The good thing is that he is not leaving us a lone but he says we will meet him there,” preached Archbishop Tambala.

He went on to urge the newly baptised Christians to embrace the spirit of considering the less privileged in society as the basis of Christianity. He advised them and the rest of the family of God gathered to ensure going to the Cyclone Freddy survivors’ camps, streets where kids struggle for shelter, villages where people struggle for a meals and shelter and other places where the less privileged dwell in the country. He said that these are the dwelling places of the risen Lord.

“If you want to encounter the risen Lord, then at least you now know where to meet him,” he said.

According to the Parish Priest of St. John’s Msamba Rev. Fr. Kossi Jean de Dieu Hounongbe MCCJ, the 157 catechumens received formation for three catechetical years since 2019.

On the sidelines of the Easter Saturday cerebrations, the prelate of Lilongwe found an opportunity to welcome a new congregation of the Handmaids Sisters of Our Lady from Zimbabwe. Rev. Sr. Valentine Gudyanga and Rev. Sr. Evelyn Kadzere arrived in the country the previous two weeks to work at St. John’s Boys Secondary School which belongs to the Archdiocese of Lilongwe.

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