The Update ( God Bless Tangaza)
Date
2016-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
This year’s Tangaza Day celebration has been
unusual for many reasons. Normally we cel-
ebrate on March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation,
our college’s
patronal feast. I am told that the
choice was made many years ago at the time we also
chose the name and motto of the college: Tangaza
fumbo la Imani! (Proclaim the mystery of faith). The
“Annunciation” seemed like an appropriate feast
day for us because “Tangaza” means “proclaim” or
“announce”in Kiswahili. For decades now “Tangaza
fumbo la imani” has served to remind us that this
college was founded not just to pursue knowledge
for its own sake (as good as that might be) but to
prepare skilled and informed leaders enlivened with
Gospel values who would put themselves at the
service of the church and society, wherever there are
needs we can address.
But this year March 25 fell on Good Fri-
day (which of course we couldn’t preempt) and the
April 2016
church’s liturgical calendar shifted the Annunciation
to the next free day, which meant all the way until
April 4! That is why we decided to push the celebration
10 days earlier,
to Tuesday
of the Fifth Week
of
Lent. But I took the liberty of requesting a change
in the readings, because otherwise would have been
hearing about God’s people in the desert being bitten
by saraph serpents, and Moses lifting up a serpent on
a pole for their healing!
Instead I suggested readings in the light of
our special Tangaza Day guests, Marist International
University College. As you may know, Marist College
(just up the road from here) began around the
same
time as Tangaza,
and both of us are constituent
colleges
of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.
The
motto of MIUC (“You
are the light of the
world”)
comes from the part of the Sermon on the
Mount that we have read, where Jesus tells his fol-
lowers that we must let our light shine before others so that they may see goodness in our acts and praise
the heavenly Father (Mt 5:16). But what are these
“good works” we are called to do, so that our light
will shine forth? The first reading from Isaiah makes
it clear: “sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering
the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the
naked,
removing oppression and malicious speech
from
your midst, satisfying the afflicted, not turning
your back on your own”. If you do these things,
says
Isaiah, then “your light shall break forth like the
dawn,
your wound shall be quickly healed, you will
call
and the Lord will answer” (Is 58:7-9).
Description
Keywords
Keeping Standards, The Leaders Guild Fundraising Workshops, Our Course Was Different, CTIE SAVE THE DATE, Strong Woman, Soft of Heart, Tangaza Day