Thousands mark pilgrimage site’s first jubilee
Published on: Wednesday, September 04, 2019
By: Clarence GD
RANAU: Thousands of Catholics thronged the Mt Rosary pilgrimage site in Kg Toboh Baru, Kibbas Ranau on Aug 31, 2019 for the first anniversary launch of the site by Archbishop of Kota Kinabalu, Most Reverend Datuk John Wong Soo Kau.
Pilgrims from across the state participated in the 2.6km procession which began at St John of the Cross Tambiau towards Mt Rosary Toboh Baru led by St Peter Claver Ranau Parish Priest Rev Fr Nicholas Stephen, Assistant Priest Rev Fr Daniel Jamilong, Parish Pastoral Council Chairman Verus Pinol and others.
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The summit of the celebration was marked by a Holy Mass led by Archbishop Wong at about 5pm under the open sky, before a speech and cake cutting ceremony.
The faithful donned orange t-shirts as a sign of solidarity with martyrs and prosecuted Christians all over the world, especially in the Middle East under the hands of political and religious terrorist groups.
Archbishop Wong said Jesus spoke in parables, which are stories that contain messages that challenge one to make a decision, either yes or no.
“Jesus told the parables about where should we sit when invited to a gathering, and when we organise a banquet, who should we invite? As Catholics, whenever we attend Holy Mass, we need to ask ourselves who is our God who has invited us? He is Jesus Christ himself.
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“When we look at Jesus’ life, whenever he exclaims the good news, who are the people that He usually invites?
“Towards that end, when we go to the Holy Mass, what kind of virtue that we need to have in order to participate in this great banquet? We know that during His life, Jesus was constantly around people who were considered outcasts by the society, especially the poor, sick, lame, blind, etc” he said.
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According to Wong, these are the people who are usually sidelined by society and sit at the back.
That is why Jesus always at odds with the Pharisees and the Sadducees because they believe that they must always be seated in front.
And because of this, he said, Jesus taught that man must have three virtues: faith, hope and love.
But according to St Theresa, even if we possess these three virtues, we must also have a fourth virtue, the virtue of humility or humbleness.
“According the St Theresa, the virtue of humility is the mother of all other virtues. Why is this, you may ask? Because even though faith, hope and love have been given to us for free, if we don’t have humility, we will always trust in our own selves, hope on selves and love on selves. We would not place our trust in God, hope in Him and love like He had first loved us,” he said.
“If we have humility, God will always bless us and give us what we need in our daily lives,” he said.
Wong also urged the faithful to continue asking the blessed Mother Mary to pray for all people so that Christ will not be replaced by something else in the people’s daily lives.
The Archbishop lamented that in today’s culture, it seemed that the importance of the Word of God has somehow been replaced by handphones. The gadget has become the main concern of the people.
“When we wake up in the morning, the first thing we reach for are our handphones, and before we sleep at night, we need to respond to all of the postings. In the restaurants, a family would sit on a table while everyone are busy on their handphones.
“Even those who go balik kampung during the holidays, instead of spending the whole time with their loved ones, they spend their times on their phones.
“Sooner or later, handphones would replace our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers or our fathers and mothers.
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