KENYA: Priests Failed to See the Messiah: Apostolic Nuncio Challenges Religious to Focus on Christ
Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya Most Rev. Hubertus Van Megan
Sr. Henriette Anne, FSSA
At the celebration of the Jubilee Year of Consecrated life 2025 in Nairobi Archdiocese, Kenya, on 1st January 2025, Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya Hubertus van Megan called Religious men and women to a deep reflection on faith, religious life, and the presence of Christ in their midst.
Quoting Vita Consecrata, Archbishop Van Megan, reminded the congregation that by professing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, consecrated people make visible the reality of the Kingdom of God.
“The Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata says, “By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus — the chaste, poor and obedient one — are made constantly “visible” in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God”.
In his homily, he emphasized that like Anna and Simeon, those called to the consecrated life must dedicate themselves to prayers, fasting and worship. Acknowledging the role of contemplative monks and nuns, who through their silent witness sustain the Church in ways unseen saying that they too embody the wisdom of Simeon and Anna, recognizing Christ in ways that world often overlooks.
“Therefore, the life of a Religious cannot do without prayer and contemplation. Anna is the outstanding symbol of the contemplative aspect of any religious life. She had been waiting, fasting, contemplating on the coming of the Lord, “contemplative religious, who spend their time in prayer and contemplation. They live a life of silence, of manual work and adoration of the Lord. They are forgotten by the world. Even their relatives will rarely see them or hear about them. The contemplative monks and nuns hiding behind the walls of their convents and monasteries, sacrifice their lives in silence, fasting, prayer and manual work. They desire to be forgotten by the world in order to be known by God. Only God is enough”.
Archbishop van Megen, during the February 1st celebration that was held at St. Mary’s Msongari School grounds in Westlands, said that while reflecting on the event of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple described in the Gospel Reading according to Luke, “something struck me; I never had thought about it before.”
He continued, “The Levite, the Priest, did not notice anything special about the child,” he said about the statutory sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” that the parents of Jesus brought with them as offertory to the temple.
Still expressing what struck him, Archbishop van Megen, emphasized the negative consequences of being obsessed with money, saying, “2,000 years have passed, but some people will never learn the lesson. You know, some 30 years after that Presentation of the Lord in the temple, the temple again witnessed a tragic and dramatic scene. They accounted for him 30 pieces of silver. And from then on, Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over the price for a slave, 30 pieces of silver”.
For the Apostolic Nuncio, “The priests in the temple, with all their formation, were blind and proved incapable of recognizing the signs of the presence of the Messiah and Saviour”.
He further compared Simeon with ““those old missionaries who are still serving up to now in faraway places; they don’t care about career or about money, and they are happy in their little mission … They live their lives in simplicity, the simplicity of everyday life. And even when they are sick or in need, you will not hear them.”
He added, “Simeon can also be relived in a woman religious “maybe already in the sick bay … praying the rosary, silently attending Holy Mass, sitting for hours in the chapel. She doesn’t participate in, and she doesn’t like the silly bickering between younger Sisters; she just watches from a distance with a tired smile”.
“Simeon and Anna are like the saints we know, Saint John Maria Vianney, who always served in poor and isolated parishes, forgotten by his bishop, forgotten by his colleagues … Or Saint Josephine Bakhita, who, after coming to Italy, served in the convent basically with a smile and very few words, as she kept on struggling with the Italian language”, he said.
Bishop Kamomoe in his speech while addressing the Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya, noted, “Your Excellency, when you were preaching, you pricked my conscience, because you said that when Jesus was being presented in the temple, the Priest did not focus on the child Jesus, but the Priest focused on the tithe, that pricked my conscience.”
Recalling his conversation with Archbishop Philip Anyolo, bishop Kamomoe continued, “His Grace, as we were walking in, asked me, ‘how was the day yesterday?’ And you know what I told him? We were able to raise a lot of money”.
He said that he finds it regrettable that his reporting on the events at the national Major Seminary for theology only focused on money yet the event involved Holy Mass too.
“I did not mention about the Eucharistic celebration that we had. I did not mention about the Word of God that we shared and the archbishop was also very happy to hear that”, he continued, ““Your Excellency, you have pricked my conscience. Let us continue actually reflecting where our preoccupation is, where exactly?”
