Archbishop to Catholic lawyers: Stop for a while and rest with Jesus

PENAMPANG – In a frenetic pace to accomplish much work daily, Archbishop John Wong advised the Catholic lawyers in the Archdiocese to stop awhile and rest with Jesus.

“Jesus invites us to stop and rest for a while with Him, so that His presence would renew our passion for work,” said the prelate at the 9th Red Mass Feb 8, at St Aloysius Church Limbanak.

He reiterated that the invitation to rest with Jesus is a must and not an option. “You need the wisdom of the Lord so that you know the will of God…listen to Jesus,” he said.

Close to 60 members of the Sabah Catholic Lawyers Apostolate (SCLA) , including three judges, gathered at the annual Red Mass, which the Catholic Church celebrates yearly to mark the opening of the judicial year.

The Archbishop also urged the members to pick up his suggestion to empower the Apostolate with the Word of God.

“Organize study days on the Word of God and the Teachings of the Church as a means to strengthen each other…for the good of all Catholic lawyers in our Archdiocese,” he recommended once again to the legal fraternity.

The Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu supports the Catholic legal practitioners in their witnessing of their faith in their profession to inspire peace and justice in the society.

The prelate emphasized, “The Church understands the challenges of our professionals and thus she offers help by setting up lay apostolates and ministries.”

At the same time, he maintained that between the legal fraternity and the diocese, it is a hand-in-hand collaboration in the pursuit of justice and truth.

The legal fraternity’s role is also “to support the diocese in dealing with cases regarding problems in official documents, such as mykads,” added  Archbishop Wong.

Meanwhile, chairperson of SCLA Ruth Marcus, spoke about Christian lawyers inspiring peace in a multi-religious society.

“Some conflicts around the world are caused by the association between violence and religion, race, gender and politics.

“Religion is being manipulated, being misused to justify conflict, aggression and even killing of fellow human beings.

“ As lawyers , we appear to not be able to do anything or powerless to do anything…all we can do is to inspire peace-building in a multi-religious society,” she underscored.

She drew attention to the recent conversion of a minor which happened in Kota Marudu where the 17-year-old boy was converted to Islam without the consent of his parents.

Acknowledging that it is not the first case of a minor conversion, Marcus said the non-Muslim lawyers of Malaysia have to come together to clear up such issues with the Ministry of Education. (Read Daily Express Online 17 January 2020 by David Thien) – Linda Edward