OPINION: Celebration of Independence

CELEBRATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN

OPENING INVOCATION

AT FREEDOM SQUARE, RUMBEK

Honorable Leaders of Governments, Members of the Diplomatic Core, Non Government representatives, Dear Visitors and all of you my brothers and Sisters, I Invite you to collect your hearts in prayer.

LET US PRAY:

God of all Mercies , on this Independence Day of the new Republic of South Sudan, we humbly lift to you the loud supplications of Psalm 51 , Sung long ago by the chosen leader of your people, King David. LISTEN WITH PITY LORD, TO HIS AND OUR WORDS OF PRAYER:

“HAVE MERCY ON US , O GOD, IN YOUR KINDNESS.
GIVE HEALING SIGNS TO OUR NATION THAT YOU ARE NOT A GOD
WHO TAKES DELIGHT IN SACRIFICE BUT RATHER,
A GOD CALLING US YOUR PEOPLE TO NURTURE A HUMBLED
AND CONTRITE HEART, A PEOPLE THAT LISTENS AND OBEYS YOUR WORD.
GOD OF MERCY, IN YOUR GOODNESS, STAY WITH US
AND MAKE US ABLE TO REBUILD THE WALLS OF OUR JERUSALEM
WHICH IS OUR NEW REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN.”

We first of all CRY OUT TO YOU with David your King and all the Sudanese Martyrs, Patriots and Heroes:” Lord, You are not a God who takes delight in sacrifice. Yes, Lord, we have had enough sacrifices and blood poured in our land: 2 million Sudanese people killed in 22 long years of war, Hundreds and thousands of heroes, patriots and martyrs whose blood we lift to you today. Merciful GOD, bring all this inhuman sacrifice to an end. Sacrifice you do not want, BUT there is still dying , hunger, displacement and great human atrocities CAUSING PAIN in our land TODAY.

Enough suffering and sacrifice. As in the Old Testament you, Our God, have seen the pain of your people and had mercy on them. Once again, have mercy on your Sudanese people today and bring our suffering to an end. This is our beginning prayer.
Secondly, Lord, we surrender to you our contrite hearts. We sincerely repent for we are people in conflict, divided by greed, selfishness, revenge and violence toward your gift of life. YOU NEED TO TOUCH OUR SPIRITS WITH YOUR COMPASSIONATE DIVINE HAND “TO CHANGE OUR HEARTS FROM HEARTS OF STONES TO HEARTS OF FLESH”…. To make us able to forgive, as your Son has forgiven us, to make us become a people of reconciliation, because a divided nation cannot stand. Unite your Sudanese people in ONE NATION from every tongue, tribe and people.

With humble and contrite hearts our nation pledges TODAY to listen and obey your word, so that thegovernance our leaders, the WORDS AND THE SPIRIT of our Constitution AS WELL AS THE VOICE OF the conscience of every Sudanese will RECOGNIZE, RESPECT AND FULFILL Your Divine Law in our land.

And now,Lord, comes OUR commitment. With joy we thank you on Independence Day for the Grace of a New Nation and a wonderful motherland. We join hands with you our Father and with one another in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem , which IS our South Sudan.

 We believe that: ”unless the Lord builds the house, in vain will the laborers build it” and therefore, WE VOW TO BUILD our new nation with TOTAL TRUST IN you, OUR GOD. At the same time we are aware that you have entrusted South Sudan to the work of our hands.

 Therefore, make us love our country the way our patriots loved it and gave their life for it . Give us courage and wisdom to do honest and hard work. Make us able to work with the other nations of the world with true solidarity for our greater growth. We are indeed grateful for what other people and nations might do for us.

HOWEVER PLANT DEEPLY IN OUR SUDANESE SOULS THAT what really counts FOR THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION is what we, as individual Sudanese, will do for our country. So, WE SHOULD not first ask what OTHERS will do FOR US, but what WE, SOUTH SUDANESE, will do for South Sudan. Likewise, WE SHOULD NOT FIRST DEPEND on what OTHERS will provide for US, but depend on the hard work of our hands, hearts and minds to provide what we need for OUR families and FOR THE COMMON GOOD OF OUR NATION.
 AND THEN THE PROPHETIC WORDS of psalm 85 will come true for South Sudan:”
“Prosperity will be in our land. Justice and Peace shall kiss
Truth will spring from the earth, Justice will look down from heaven.
The Lord will surely give us abundance, And our land will yield its increase.
Prosperity will march before the Lord, And good fortune will follow behind’.”

Psalm 85

And May the Blessing of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit come upon all of us here united to celebrate the Independence of the New Nation of South Sudan. AMEN

+ Bishop Caesar Mazzolari,
Bishop of Rumbek – Republic of South Sudan