Light

By Jerry Lohera

Jerry is a Columban seminarian from Misamis Oriental who left for Pakistan in July 2017 for a two-year First Mission Assignment.

Prior to my missionary assignment in Pakistan, I had been told that the electric power system of the country is less developed; it is normal to have brownouts within a day. True! Electricity is an essential infrastructure that all poor countries must develop to keep and to attract more businesses, local and foreign. But I am not here to dwell on this matter. Rather, let me tell you of a more powerful light that we are enjoying despite the poor condition.

Holy Week marked my introduction to pastoral work here in Pakistan after language studies and I had mixed feelings about it. We had incessant meetings with the people in the small Christian villages at evening time wherein we were dependent on the moonlight and flashlights for light while celebrating Holy Masses in their mud houses. The light from the moon reminded me of my village and childhood life too. The difference now is that I am not in my village; I am no longer a child and I am meeting strangers.

Jerry (leftmost) with missionaries in Pakistan

But why do we go in the evenings and not on the broad daylight? In Badin parish, where the Columban missionaries are actively working, most of the parishioners are peasants. They work all day long and their most preferable time to attend Holy Mass is at night. Traversing through poor roads in the middle of the wheat or rice fields or of nowhere at night with the bright moonlight is somehow relaxing.

But there is another light that I see—the faces and the eyes of the children. They, too, are actively participating at the Holy Mass. This is really what particularly makes me happy. Someone said, “If a priest no longer finds a child in the Mass, that church is dying”. Here, children’s participation is very evident during the Mass and that says a lot about the future of the church in Pakistan. However, awareness comes to me that there is still a wider task to unravel the potential of these children. A lot of work needs to be done yet and while we are trying to evangelize them in various ways, we are opening ourselves, too, to be evangelized by them.

"The heavens are telling the glory of God!"
Moon in Pakistan