Restore love, Peace and Hope among yourselves, Bishop Tell Christians from three parishes in Tombura County.

The Bishop said this in his homily as he gave the sacrament of confirmation to 379 individuals from the three parishes which included St. Mary Help of Christians Tombura Parish, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Parish Gamonakpe and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Parish Mobaiku.

 “I am so happy to celebrate the Holy Eucharist together with you today after nearly one year of not being together. I am grateful that you have come in great numbers to join with me today; you are the great parishes where faith was first planted,” Bishop Hiiboro expressed saying that his presence there was a moment of renewal of faith, courage and strength as well as the ultimate symbol of bond, of unity, of togetherness and a bond of working together.

 “I would like to consolidate, to build and to strength all of you three important virtues; love, peace and hope. God’s love is defined in his activities, his plans and in his work and we are called upon to experience this love of God so that we can share it with all around us,” Bishop Hiiboro expressed adding that when we are filled with this love of God, we will certainly experience peace because where God's love is, so there is peace.

 “Peace is the second virtue that I wish to share with you. Peace means taking care of ourselves, taking care of our neighbors and taking care of our whole community by loving and caring for them as well as doing everything to create harmony among us in our communities. The third virtue I want to share with you is hope. Because God has created us and destined us to go back to him in eternity, we are requested to hope that after sharing his love and building peace here on earth we will participate in joy of being in his Kingdom.”

 “I want to call upon you today to cultivate the love of God, to build his peace and to have hope in him only. When we do this, we can overcome all the trials, problems and challenges of our day to day life,” the Bishop encouraged.

 He further said that he was aware of the difficulties, the quarrels, the worries, and the disturbances among the people living in Tombura County especially the conflicts arising from tribal differences.

 “If you hold onto Christ, you will not see the tribal differences. The different tribes among you are the different images of God, and the manifestation of the love of God. Let us hold on to that so that his peace may reign,” he advised them.

 He further encouraged the Christians from the three parishes to be friends with each other as they are all endowed with different gifts from God which in essence is a source of richness rather than division.

 "You are people of the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, you are not your individual tribes. The tribes have been made by God as his beauty and shouldn’t be a cause for our differences," Bishop Hiiboro said adding that no blood shed should, no hatred, no violence should come on account of who the different tribes in a community are.

 He encouraged them to appreciate the fact that God created them into different tribal communities to bring out diversity which should be used as an attribute rather than a vice to oppress or look down on the other.

 "During today's celebrations as I give the Sacrament of confirmation to over 300 individuals, I am confirming you into the image of God. You are being confirmed as the temples of the Holy Spirit so that you will get out there as soldiers of peace, as the armies of love and as the agents of hope."

 He told those who were being confirmed that the Sacrament they were receiving was supposed to be lived daily so that it reflects on their day to day activities, on the way they conduct themselves and on how they relate with their fellow human beings in the society.

"We confirm your faith in God, we confirm your trust in God, we confirm your confidence in God and your life therefore ought to be Christ-like in your practices and behaviors."

 He told them that being given the Sacrament of Confirmation, being confirmed in Christ does not mean that their moments of weaknesses will not be there, that they will no longer face life challenges and difficulties; it means that they have been given the grace to live according to the desires of God amidst all the challenges of life. This grace which they have received from this sacrament will only be reinforced if they live a life of prayers daily.

 The Bishop urged the three parishes to work together in close collaborations in order to help bring the Kingdom of God among his people.

 "Pay attention to the elderly people in your communities; pay attention to those who are sick among you; pay attention to the needy among you. This will make your faith be practical and my hope and my prayer is that all of you in these three parishes shall be together in heaven, when our sojourn here on earth comes to an end. This is what we have to work for; nothing less, nothing more; this is what the Lord wants of us today."