Delivering a homily during Holy Eucharist mass the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) organized for MPs that profess the Catholic faith

Tambala sounded the warning in Lilongwe on Wednesday evening during a Holy Eucharistic mass, which the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) organized for MPs that profess Catholic faith.

It has been a tradition that before the Minister of Finance presents the National Budget in parliament, ECM invites Catholic MPs to a mass and dinner where the Bishops interact and share notes with lawmakers on topical issues.

The men of God have, among others, utilized such interactions to lobby MPs to put the interests of the poor at the forefront of everything in their deliberations in parliament.

In his homily, which was based on readings from Jonah 3: 1-10 and Luke 11-29-32, Archbishop Tambala challenged the Catholic MPs to take the lead in inspiring hope in people.

He stressed that despite the country going through various social and economic challenges, the lawmakers need to give message of hope to their constituents.

“Let us not lose hope on our government and our country. We can’t afford to lose hope in Christ. A Christian is not a supposed to be a person of pessimism because this world is being ruled by Christ,” he said.

In his remarks, leader of the Catholic Community in Parliament, Honourable Deus Gumba, thanked Archbishop Tambala for celebrating the mass for them, which was actually the first mass for the archbishop to celebrate for the MPs since he took the stewardship of the Archdiocese of Lilongwe.

Gumba assured His Grace of his community’s willingness to collaborate with the church in addressing the social and economic problems weighing down lives of many Malawians.