REFLECTIONS OF A KENYAN PRIEST

By Fr. Casmir Odundo   “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of self-control.” 2. Tim 1: 7 The Priesthood is a great gift and a great mystery. God has a reason why he called men and not angels into the priesthood. A priest is first of all a human being. He is a man. A citizen of a nation, he may even come from an ethnic community. But over and above that he is a man of God. A man of the church and a father of all. Jesus, the model of our priesthood, also belonged to a nation and a tribe. This belonging to a certain community though it may seem like a disadvantage, is a great advantage to the priest and to the life of the church. It means that the priest like Jesus is “incarnated”, fully human and shares the burdens of the people.  The situation in Kenya is quite unique because different dioceses have different demographics and different political dynamics.  Many Kenyans still vote on tribal lines and sometimes that affects how they see a priest