Good Shepherd Church, 50 glorious years of faith

Dec 04, 2014

By Charmaine Amanda
On Sunday, November 16, parishioners of Good Shepherd Church came together for the 9.00am Mass to celebrate and give thanks on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of their faith community. Archbishop Julian Leow was the main celebrant with parish priest Fr VA Michael concelebrating. This Mass was the culmination of the week long Golden Jubilee Eucharistic celebrations in all languages, where parishioners came together to worship and have fellowship. An exhibition entitled, “A Pictorial Journey Down Memory Lane” at the function hall was also open to all throughout the week.

During the Golden Jubilee year, the 50th Anniversary Committee had planned various events and liturgies in keeping with the theme, “Sharing in the Threefold Mission of Christ: Priest, Prophet and King”. Among them were Life in the Spirit Seminars, DVDs on Catholicism, Bible studies, introduction to Theology of the Body for youths, raising funds for needy causes through the setting up of recycling bins, breakfast sales, walkathons, Inter BEC games and a year end gala dinner and dance in December.

In his homily, Archbishop Leow reminded the people to multiply their talents and to share it with one another lest it be taken away from them. He also challenged them to be ever ready, and prepared, to meet the Master at His appointed time. One very important thing that can be shared is the faith that is passed on from generation to generation. The number of vocations that have come from Good Shepherd Church is a tribute to the great priests who served the local community in Setapak over the years, up to and including a current seminarian. This is, above all, a witness to great families who lived their faith and transmitted that faith to their children. Faith in a God of love is the fundamental root of any Christian community.

The challenge is not to find new structures, but to deepen our faith and our knowledge of our faith, and above all, to reach out and to present the Gospel message as Good News, especially to those who fail to find in the Church a true home. We are bound by our prophetic, priestly and kingly mission to reach out to the Lost, the Last, the Least and the Little.

Pope Francis calls us to reach out to those on the periphery and frontiers of existence, and to bring Jesus to them. The curious thing is that, the more we reach out to the periphery, the more we will realise that Jesus is there. Jesus is there in those who suffer, in those who are ostracised, in those who fail and fall into sin, in those who seek the meaning of life, and it is in the periphery that we learn at times the weakness and the false certainties of many of our own ideas of faith.

Through the various fundraising activities carried out throughout the year, the Golden Jubilee committee has agreed to disperse the collected funds to worthy and needy causes. Five recipients of RM5,000 each were the Malaysian Social Research Institute, a home for the underprivileged children and three Orang Asli settlements around the vicinity. Archbishop Leow, who handed the contributions to the representatives, thanked them for caring for the 4L’s.

The congregation were then served brunch and almost everyone took the opportunity to mingle with, get blessings and even take selfies with the newly ordained Archbishop.