SOUTH SUDAN: We are Born to Manifest God’s Beauty, Bishop of Rumbek’s 2024 Easter Message

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

At the celebration of this year’s resurrection of Christ that the Church marked on Sunday, March 31, Bishop Christian Carlassare of the Catholic Diocese of Rumbek in South Sudan reminded Christians to evidently show God’s beauty which is within each creature.

In his message shared with AMECEA Online, Bishop Carlassare said, “We are all born to make manifest the beauty of God that is within each of us.” He notes that when we allow the light of God to shine within us, “We unconsciously give others the chance to do the same.”

The Prelate wonders why Christians should ever fear light, and also fear becoming an expression of that very light, highlighting that “Our hope is a faith that transforms and allows life to flow where there seemed only death.”

Marking an Easter of liberation and life according to Bishop Carlassare a member of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCJ who has been in the leadership of Rumbek Diocese since 2021, “When we are freed from our fears, our presence automatically frees others.”

The Italian-born Prelate explained that the 40-day journey of Lent was to prepare Christians to experience an Easter of liberation and life.

“Jesus is there to accompany us. He knows how to transform the way of the cross into a strenuous path in which we come to encounter one another, we journey together and take on the challenge as a community,” the Bishop said and warned, “We don’t impose the cross on others, but we carry it together.”

Just as Jesus carried the cross before us and continues to carry the cross today with us, Bishop Carlassare shared that Christ overcame darkness and death and became the Light of the world.

In his message, the Bishop stressed the power of a well-formed will after the example of Christ, “Which can take us far ahead,” since our will can at times lead us a stray.

Giving reference to an old axiom by Albert Einstein a theoretical physicist by then, the Bishop said, “A famous physician of last century used to say, there is a driving force stronger than steam, stronger than electricity, stronger than atomic energy. It’s called will power.” He added, “Where there is a will, there is a way, and I would add goodwill.”

He highlights the seven-day peace pilgrimage by youths from Rumbek Diocese to Tonj which was success as a sign of strong will.

“Last January, 84 youth inspired us with their strong will to walk a peace pilgrimage from Rumbek to Tonj, encountering several communities,” he recounted and added, “It is also the experience of the whole diocese in the work of evangelization, and in whatever we do in the name of the Risen Lord.”