MALAWI: Pope’s Envoy to Zambia and Malawi Rewrites the Beatitudes as a form of Advising Bishops
His Excellence Archbishop Gian Luca Perici, Nuncio to Zambia and Malawi following proceedings at Civo Stadium
Sam Kalimba
His Excellence Archbishop Gian Luca Perici, Nuncio to Zambia and Malawi took a form of the beatitudes to advise bishops in Malawi on Saturday, January 20, 2024. He said this on the occasion of consecration of Very Rev. Monsignor Vincent Mwakhwawa as Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lilongwe at CIVO Stadium, which is about 300 meters from Maula Cathedral in Lilongwe.
He spoke to the newly consecrated bishop, His Lordship Vincent Fredrick Mwakhwawa in front of over 6 bishops from Malawi, 2 bishops from Zambia and 1 bishop from Mozambique outlining qualities of a good bishop about the beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12. One could tell the message was not only for the new bishop but all.
He reminded Rt. Rev. Vincent Mwakhwawa that on that day the Lord invited him to work with determination in the path of the beatitudes. He said the Lord is asking him to follow him on the path of poverty that becomes a path of sharing with those who cry, by coming close to those who suffer on the path of meekness that transforms every difficult into joy, on the path of justice that becomes a commitment for men in the narrow path of mercy, of purity, peace and of tenderness, revolutionary gospel values in a world that is polluted by continuous condemnation that will stand in the words. He said that the 8 words are not theological treaties, a philosophical or moral ablactation but are first and foremost the portrait of Jesus our Lord and Master and that they are given people by the Gospel so that they learn them after they rewrite with their lives conforming to Him. He then said that the newly consecrated bishop was called to rewrite the beatitudes in the new service that the Church entrusts to him.
“Blessed is the bishop who makes poverty and sharing his life style because with his testimony he is building the kingdom of God. Blessed is the bishop who is not afraid to strike his face with tears so that the pain of the people and the efforts of the priests can be reflected in them and find the consolation of God in the embracing those who suffer. Blessed is the bishop who considers his ministry as a service and not a power, making meekness his strength giving everyone the right of citizenship in him to inhabit the land promised to the meek. Blessed is the bishop who does not close himself in government buildings, who does not become a bureaucrat who pays more attention to statistics to produce stories tied to fate a long side the people for the dream of justice of God because the Lord meeting him in the silence of the daily prayer will be his nourishment,” he said.
“Blessed is the bishop who has a heart for the misery of the world, who is not afraid to dirty his hands with the dirty of the human soul to find the gold of God who is not scandalised by the sin and fragility of others because he is a way of his misery because the gains of the crucified and the risen will be for him a seal of infinite forgiveness. Blessed is the bishop who drives away the doubleness of the heart, who avoids every ambiguous dynamic, who dreams of good even amid evil because he will be able to rejoice in the face of God finding his perfection in every part of the city of man,” he continued.
Blessed is the bishop who works for peace, who accompanies the path of reconciliation, who sows the seed of communion in the heart of the presbytery, who accompanies a divided society on the path of reconciliation, who takes every man and every woman of goodwill to build brotherhood, God will recognize him as his son,” he continued.
“Blessed is the bishop who for the sake of the Gospel is not afraid to go against the current, who makes his face hard like that of Christ heading to Jerusalem without letting himself be held back by misunderstandings and obstacles because he knows that the kingdom of God advances in the contradiction of the world,” he added.
Archbishop Perici prayed for Rt. Rev. Vincent Mwakhwawa through Mary the woman of the beatitudes who witnessed the apostles, waited, invoked and received the gift of the spirit.
It was a day of giving advice to the newly consecrated bishop starting with those from Rt. Rev. Gabriel Msipu Phiri, auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Chipata in Zambia who in his fourteen-minute-homily kept acquainting his counterpart about episcopacy. During speeches, His Grace Archbishop George Desmond Tambala called upon his brother bishop to get to work as indicated that there was more work in the archdiocese.
Guest of Honour was the State Vice President of the republic, Dr. Clause Saulos Chilima who advised the new bishop to always be alert as there are short- and long-term solutions to challenges.
Guests came from all over the world including those in the Pontifical Mission Societies sector.
ENDS.
