This year’s (2017) celebration of the Last
Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ was led by Mapeera Team under the chaplaincy of
Fr. Yago Abeledo. He co-celebrated with Cekoroba (Fr. Arsene Kapya) and Fr.
Martin Onyango. The liturgy was a colourful one blessed with the presence of
our beloved visitors, Sisters of the Holy Cross, Benedictine Sisters,
Evangelizing Sisters of Mary and some lay friends from Jinja town.
In his homily, Fr. Yago expounded the
three attitudes in Jesus’ New Exodus. He sought to elucidate how Jesus is
liberating us. He reflected on the following:
Firstly, he invited us to envision how
Jesus loved us to the end. This was done without any reservations; no
second plan plotted and Jesus gave himself fully into it. He loves us so much
that He is willing to wash our feet. His love surpasses our betrayal of him, as
he did to Judas that he loves us without looking at our frailties. This is an
example for us to follow that we might, in our lives, love God and neighbour to
the end.
Secondly, Jesus was convinced of the
final victory which was freeing us from the chains of sin. Humanly, death
is often looked to as the end, but this was not the case with Jesus. It had and
never will have the last word for our Lord Jesus Christ is Lord of all. This
should instil in us a trusting faith that the Lord has already declared a
victory for our lives and we need not be worried about death. In this regard he quoted Richard Rohr saying: "Many Christians begin Lent on Ash Wednesday with the signing of ashes on their forehead and the words from Genesis 3:19, which is just the first shocking part of the message: “Dust you are, and unto dust you shall return.” But then we should be anointed with a holy oil on Easter morning with the other half of the message: "Love is always stronger than death, and unto that love we have now returned."
Lastly, he tackled a crucial element of
our lives that is also reflected by Richard Rohr, Allowing God to be the
Great Allower. This he reflected with the help of the Scripture especially
when Peter struggles to allow Jesus to wash his feet. Like Peter, it is hard
for all of us to understand since we already have an image of how God has to be
and in which way our Master ought to behave. This is an invitation for us to
let go and let God.
Conclusively, he gave us a powerful and
challenging quote from Richard Rohr, “I would go so far as to define God as a
‘deep allowing’ to the point of scandalous ‘cooperation with evil’, both
natural disasters and human evils. To allow yourself to be grabbed and held by
such a divine wholeness is a dark and dangerous risk, and yet this is exactly
what we mean by ‘salvation.’ We are allowing the Great Allower to allow us,
even at our worst.”
Matthew Ainomugisha