Some days back, while on a visit to Bijapur mission, I happened
to meet a ‘Brother’ of Brahmakumari mission who
impressed on me when he said that they have 17
ashrams of Brahmakumarees in Bijapur district alone
which is a place dominated by the Lingayats. I was
impressed by the reach out of the Brahmakumarees
into remote parts of this district and appreciated
their desire to teach people the Raja Yoga. At the
same time, I said to myself – ‘we have a great
mission to accomplish in Gulbarga. If they can do so
much, why not we ? ‘
Shortly, on 18th Aug 2005, we are completing five
years of our fruitful service in this new diocese.
It is a time I believe, we must reflect on our
mission and have a re-look at our priorities and
approach striving to promote God’s Kingdom amidst
our people.
First of all a deep sense of gratitude fills my
heart for the opportunity given to us to serve Him
amidst His people in our own little ways, making the
best use of the talents the Lord has given us. I
offer Him every little act of love and faith we have
done in His name. As the saying goes, ‘He has
touched us and we have grown’. And this growth is
seen in the united efforts of our priests, the
religious and the laity, taking up different
humanitarian services, reaching out to hundreds and
thousands of people irrespective of caste and creed,
throughout this vast diocese. Yes! So far, so good!
All the same, some basic questions keep disturbing me all the
time. They are : With all our works of charity and
service, are we truly evangelizing our people Or,
doing only a ‘patch work’ ? How can we evangelize
millions of people(6.5 million) in our diocese when
we are less than one percent of the total ? As
missionaries how can we be more like Jesus ? If
Jesus were to come today to Gulbarga which happens
to be the most backward region of our state, or for
that matter, to any rural part or city slums in our
country, how would he go about ? Would he not be
reaching out in the service of the millions of poor,
the sick, the hungry, the outcaste and the
marginalized ? Would he not spend all his energies
proclaiming the Good News to people of all faiths,
bring to true freedom all those suffering from
attractions and evils, and those suffering the
oppressions by powerful in the world today ? Yes !
He would also fearlessly raise his voice to condemn
the oppressive and unjust structures of the church
and the society and be ready to pay the price by his
own life ! Hence, our mission is clear, and it
cannot be different from that of our Master. Are we
ready for it ? We have said ‘yes’ to the Lord and
deliberately made a commitment to the following
choices.
(A) choice to follow the Lord in faith ever more closely
and become Christ like ! To be authentic followers
of the Lord, and build a truly witnessing community
itself is a challenge before us. I pray to the Lord
of the Harvest, that he give us laborers who have a
heart like that of Jesus, as our catholic fold in
the diocese, the infant church requires
compassionate and loving care. We need to take care
of all the faithful in different groups, such as the
children, youth, women, lay leaders etc, and give
them opportunities to serve and grow with Christian
leadership. I also pray that the Lord may inspire
and choose our youth for His work in this vast
diocese that requires many mission oriented priests,
sisters and lay Evangelizers.
(B) Committed to Education of the Poor : In this most
backward region where the literacy rate among men
and women is the lowest in the state, and the
educational infra-structure for a good education is
totally inadequate and of poor quality, our
commitment is to educate all our catholic children
at least up to PU level, and reach out to as many as
possible in every taluka of the diocese,
irrespective of caste and creed, esp. the poor
children, and give them good education, and thus
prepare them to be responsible citizens of the
country. We intend to do this by opening new schools
at least one in a taluka and through non-formal
education programmes .
(C) Committed to live in solidarity with the poor
and the marginalized, and by a process of their
empowerment and action geared to obtain their Rights
and social dignity denied to them, we shall always
seek to promote God’s Kingdom wherever we work in
the diocese. Through our service to the poor and the
needy, our endeavor shall be to reach out to them
and make visible the compassionate love of God shown
to us by our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the church’s
true face as the ‘servant church’ is seen and
recognized by all.
I am happy that we have made this choice. The
mission indeed is difficult and challenging, but not
impossible with the strength the Lord gives us. To
put it in the words of Arch bishop Oscar Romero :
“…We may never see the end results. But that is the
difference between the master builder and the
workers. We are workers, not master builders; We are
ministers, not messiahs, we are prophets of a
future- even that future is not our own”. Our
strength is the Spirit who invites us to do our
little part and leave the rest to Him. I believe God
can do for us everything. Taking care of all the
difficulties we are facing every day He will bring
to fulfillment His plans in His own time. Thank you
also, for your helping hand and sharing our burden.
Great be your reward from His hands. You are a
visible sign of God’s love for us everyday. May God
Bless you,
Yours in the Lord Jesus,
† Robert Miranda
Bishop of Gulbarga
