“The more responsibilities you are given by the Church, the more it is also easy for you to be exposed; that your weaknesses are exposed and are seen easily by the others. Therefore, take care of how you conduct yourself as Ministers of the Church,” he said.
The South African Catholic Bishop urged the Deacons and Seminarians to “heed the call to holiness and also lead others to holiness” and emphasized the need for daily relationship with Christ through prayer, Scripture, and the sacraments, especially Eucharistic celebration and Penance.
“Always seek God's mercy and the Sacrament of reconciliation, so that you may be a better channel of His loving mercy,” he said, and added, “You cannot give what you do not have.”
The CMM Bishop encouraged devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, describing her as the “first and perfect disciple of our Lord.”
“If you come closer to our Mother Mary, then she will also be a faithful companion to you,” he counselled, encouraging the two Priests-elect and five Deacons-elect “to always go to her for protection and for counsel because she is, after all, the first disciple of our Lord and the perfect disciple of our Lord.”
The Catholic Church leader, who has been at the helm of Kokstad Diocese since his Episcopal Consecration in June 2022 further encouraged the candidates for Holy Orders to recognize their need for God's grace. He said, “This is our poverty that we can only accomplish what we do through God's grace, not through our own efforts.”
He reminded them of their calling to “preach the good news to a world that is very much in love with bad news, even fake news.”
“Your call is to proclaim liberty to captives, to free those who are enslaved by poverty, all forms of injustice, and various addictions,” he said referring to Isaiah 61, adding that the task ahead also includes opening the eyes of “those who are blind to the truth of the Gospel and to the plight of their sisters and brothers around them.”
Bishop Mbuyisa urged the seven he was about to admit to Holy Orders to embrace the sacred responsibilities of their vocation with humility, echoing the words of Pope Leo XIV during his inaugural Mass: “I was chosen without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother, a brother who desires to be a servant of your faith and your joy.”
“To you, my dear brothers, who are to be ordained, none of you is here because you earned your place at the altar of God the most high. You have not merited this ministry, and to all of us who are Priests, none of us has merited to be here, so that in the end, we can never boast about ourselves,” he noted.
