The centenary is the hundredth anniversary of some event. We celebrated the 100th year since the demise of Saint Joseph Allamano, Our Founder, on February 16th.
By Charles Orero *
This event comes to us at a moment in history where Societies, families and the World at large struggles to deal with the whole tragedy of death. How then does the spirituality of Allamano’s Centenary fit within this context?
To begin with, Saint Joseph Allamano’s centenary has been described spiritually, not as the commemoration of his death, but as his ‘’birth in heaven.’’
In other words, this Centenary is placed within the context of Saint Paul’s Hymn of victory over death in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Death has been swallowed up in victory, where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15, 55).
Therefore, to us as a Consolata Missionary Institute, this centenary is nothing other than a song of victory over death. At the same, time, this centenary, is Allamano’s dream realized. Why and how?
In his spiritual writings, Saint Joseph Allamano reflects often on two subjects: death and Heaven. Concerning death, he insists that, ‘’our dominant thought must be of death.’’ (SL 527) , and the reason for this is to prepare well for death.
In this case, his approach to death restores hope and eliminates the view of death as a total annihilation. Within the context of Christian Spirituality, this contemplation of death is the spiritual discipline of regularly reminding oneself of one’s mortality.
Therefore, following the spiritual mind-set of this thought, Saint Joseph Allamano contemplated death, knowing that, the end of each day drew him closer to death. For example, he writes: “I want to be able to present myself at the tribunal of God with a conscience clear that says I did my duty as a superior.”
Today as we celebrate his birth in heaven, Allamano is numbered among the Saints of God because he did his work well, and he finally presented himself before God for the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, awarded to him. (2nd Tim.4:8)
This is an inspiration to us as we do our missionary apostolate. We are are called to walk in the spiritual foot-steps of Saint Joseph Allamano, aiming at doing our missionary work well so that, we too, like him, will present ourselves with a clear conscience before God, that says, we did our duties well as missionaries, and therefore with Saint Paul on that day we shall say: “we have fought the good fight to the end, we have run the race to the finish, we have kept the faith, all there is to come to us now is the crown of uprightness which the Lord, the upright judge, will give to us” (2nd Tim4:8)
At the same time, Allamano’s centenary is a proof that: “the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.” (Wisdom 3:1)
It is within this context that we place Allamno’s contemplation on heaven as it appears in his spiritual writings.
About heaven Allamano writes: “do not look at heaven of others, but at that of a good missionary: one who is faithful to his vocation, look at the heaven that is ready for each of us.” In this context, the IMC Missionaries are the ones referred to, as the “Righteous whose souls are in hands of God.”
What is Righteousness? Righteousness as defined by the late Pope Benedict XVI, in his book: “Jesus of Nazareth”, is man’s answer to the Torah, acceptance of the whole of God’s will, the bearing of the “yoke of God’s kingdom.”
Therefore, the righteous whose souls are in the hands of God, are those men and women who together with Saint Joseph Allamano, took upon themselves God’s will. They bore the yoke of God’s Kingdom, and now they are in peace with God.
This brings to our attention those our Confreres who took upon themselves the Will of God by accepting his call of missionary vocation in our Institute and giving their life to the missionary apostolate.
Some of them labored for the mission in hardship and through many sleepless nights, some of them were in hunger and thirst, some of them endured loneliness and fatigue, some of them gave everything they had for the mission and some of them have died in foreign lands far from their Countries.
Today, it is our hope that, together with Saint Joseph Allamano, our spiritual Father and Founder, they are in peace with the Lord.
Confreres, today, as we celebrate the Centenary of Saint Joseph Allamano, we are the ones in the mission lands, we are the ones who have accepted to take upon ourselves the Will of God, bearing his york for his Kingdom. Today, we are the ones walking on the path of righteousness, a path full of ups and down, falling and rising, but we hold firmly on to the purpose of the Institute as people who can see the invisible ( Heb11:27)
Confreres, let us hold unswervingly to this journey and to the the hope we profess, let us bear in mind at all time that as IMC, we are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it, on the contrary, we are the sort who keep faith until our souls are saved ( Heb.10:39)
Yes, the centenary of Allamano reminds us that, each day, God gives us an opportunity to prepare for an encounter with him on the last day, that each day, the Lord gives us a chance to do everything well, that each day, the Lord gives us a possibility to serve him and our brothers and sisters. Therefore, let us spend each day before the Lord calling to mind these words of the Prophet Isaiah: ‘’Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.’’ ( Isaiah 55:6-7)
Inspired by the Centenary of Saint Joseph Allamano, as IMC, we should think of initiating a spiritual bereavement courses to the people of God within our missions. This is because some of our Christians have suffered the loss of their loved ones and hitherto, they cannot handle the situation. It is incumbent upon us as IMC to journey with them on the path of the ‘’song of victory over over death.’, to console them and to assure them of the hope of the ressurection of their loved ones who have gone to be with the Lord.
* Father Charles Orero, IMC, missionary in Makambako, Diocese of Iringa, Tanzania.
