Christians celebrated, this Sunday, Easter with messages of renewal of faith to face the crises that afflict the country. Furthermore, and due to the coincidence of the ephemeris, the believers reflected on the role of women in Mozambican society.
Maputo Cathedral was unable to contain all the people who gathered there to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Dozens of believers had to stay on the stairs to listen to the sermon through the columns, in a mass that was full of symbolism.
It is the second Easter that Christians celebrate together and without thinking about the physical distance that should be maintained to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This made the songs more lively, which were sung accompanied by various musical instruments.
Another reason for being a special day is that it was the first mass led by Dom João Carlos Hatoa, as coadjutor of Dom Francisco Chimoio, who was not present. Those present were the former President of the Republic, Joaquim Chissano, and his wife, as well as the current Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane.
In just over 40 minutes, Dom João Carlos spoke of two terms: faith and joy. On faith, the archbishop asked that a return be made, first, to remember how kind God was in his passage through the earth in human form.
“On Thursday, God made a very big gesture to show something even bigger; God washed with his blood the most disgusting part of our soul, which is sin, and, to show this, he washes the dirtiest part of our body, which are our feet”, this, according to the archbishop, is a sign that, after all, “hope has a voice”, Dom João invites believers to the idea that “it is good to look ahead and hope for good things”.
This invitation, in fact, goes through the renewal of faith and reunion with Christ. For this, says the archbishop, it is necessary to return to Galilee, which “could be a way to face the crisis, it could be a way to find the way to what we are looking for” on all sides.
To better understand this message, just look at the biblical scriptures and see what happened in the region of Galilee, which is the northern part of Israel. It was there where Jesus Christ had his first followers, those men found on the Sea of Galilee fishing. They had not fished for some time, but Jesus made them have it and turned them into his followers. It was there, too, that he healed a woman suffering from bleeding.
Speaking of women, this year, Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ died, coincided with Mozambican Women’s Day, and this did not go unnoticed in the preaching done in the Anglican church. There is a curious fact: “The first women who went to see the open tomb of Jesus Christ were the women”, and even after they had also gone there, the men “unfortunately did not have the patience to wait”, as he explained. César Estêvão dos Santos, of the Anglican Church.
This patience of women, documented in the Bible, an instruction book for Christians, makes the church gain new ambitions in relation to women. “We would like to have a female presidential candidate”, “perhaps in this way we would see some of our problems solved”.
In the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique, Paróquia de Nhlamankulu, the message was one of change and breaking with some habits of the past that contradict biblical commandments, for example, the way women are treated. According to the parish president, “the true image of God is not man alone, but he and woman. But our culture distorts this, it is enough to read the Bible well”.
In this church, the service was attended by the former President of the Republic, Armando Emílio Guebuza, accompanied by his wife; there was also the mayor of Maputo, Eneas Comiche.