Tombura Yambio – “Advent is not just about candles and prayers, but also a spiritual rebuilding of our diocese and our nation. Let us prepare our hearts, our communities, our parishes. Let us prepare our country. For Christ is coming, walking the dusty roads of Western Equatoria, knocking at the fragile doors of South Sudan, seeking a place to be born in us.”
In his pastoral letter to the Diocese of Tombura Yambio at the beginning of Advent, Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala invites the people to experience this moment as a synodal Church, “listening together, forgiving together, rebuilding together in the spirit of the Jubilee Year of Hope.”
“Advent has come again, a soft dawn over our fragile South Sudan, a whisper of God in the dust of our journeys, a gentle knock at the door of every home and every heart. Let us hope that the Prince of Peace walks again in our villages, in Tombura, Yambio, Ezo, Nzara, Nagero, Rii-Yubu, Sakure, Namatina, Kediba, Maridi, and in every corner where a heart is waiting for God,” said the bishop, echoing the four themes of Advent.
For the first week, he invites everyone to “Hope for a land that cries… Hope for a Church that arises.”
“Peace for a nation shaken by fear, peace flowing like clear water into every broken relationship and every troubled heart. Christ comes like gentle rain on our dry soil,” emphasizes Bishop Hiiboro, who urges the faithful to “put down the weapons of words and the weapons of hands. This Advent, let every Christian of Tombura-Yambio promise vow ‘where others sow anger, I will plant peace.’”
“In our diocese, joy has survived wars, hunger, trauma, and exile. Joy is our stubborn miracle. Joy is our refusal to die spiritually. Christ calls us to rejoice, even when tears are still on our faces,” the bishop said, reflecting on the theme of the Third Sunday of Advent.
Bishop Hiiboro concludes by emphasizing what he himself calls the heart of Advent, reiterating: “In this Jubilee Year of Hope, Christ invites us to love beyond tribes, beyond past, beyond borders. To love the stranger, the refugee, the one who wronged us, the child who needs school fees, the elderly living alone. Love rebuilds dioceses. Love heals communities. Love makes synodality real. Love brings God home to us.”
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