Homily at the celebration of Mass for Fr Thulani Victor Mabuza
20 June 2025
Livi laba yinyama!
Every year the Church offers us a time of grace to grow in faith, a time of God's grace that helps us come closer to Jesus, to be one with him. I am talking about our Lenten Season.
Every year, you and me, before that season begins or on the very first day - Ash Wednesday - we choose what we would like to do during those 40 days so that we would be one with Jesus in his passion, death and resurrection.
We think about our prayer, our fasting, our helping others; but also about going back to God as it is a time for us repent, to choose and follow Jesus in our daily lives.
It could happen though that you do not have a chance to do so because it is God who chooses how you would journey during those 40 days.
I believe this is what happen to Fr Thulani Mabuza. I do not know when the pain started but I do know that during the Lenten Season he went through serious pain, to the point that on a certain Sunday he could not continue with the celebration of Mass. He had to stop, wait until he would feel better and then finish the celebration.
This pain was with him during the whole of the Lenten and Easter Season, until the end of his life. He would tell me about it when we met or would write about it on WhatsApp.
For Fr Mabuza, it was not really a time to ask himself how he would pray, whether or what to fast or how he would help others. For him it was a different time. It was a time to face sickness, to face pain and a future he could not foresee.
He welcomed that time as a Christian, as a man of faith. It is not something small. We are bishops and priests always ready to pray for others, to lay hands on others and to say a word of hope. We are not that much used to be the ones who need them.
Fr Mabuza - who was used to pray for others and to lead us in prayer through his beautiful voice - understood that it was the time to be prayed for, a time to welcome the prayer of the Church, to welcome the prayer of those who loved him and to be strengthened by their words.
While he was at the Cathedral, I would visit him sometimes. We would chat about how he was feeling and, before leaving, I would lay hands on him. Later that day, he would send me a message saying he was feeling better and believed it was the power of prayer.
Fr Mabuza saw the need to pray and be prayed for so that he would remain strong, he would not lose hope.
It is never easy to find a balance in a moment like that because on one side our hope is to be healed but at the same time we cannot deny that it could also be the chance to end our journey and to prepare oneself to meet the Lord face to face, without fear. Both are important!
Thinking about that, I remembered Jesus prayer before his passion asking the Father to spare him from the coming suffering and death but also entrusting himself to his will (Luke 22:42):
Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine
On Monday our priests will be leaving for Rome as part of this Jubilee year of hope. Fr Mabuza was hopeful that he would be with them. He once told me: "I have spoken with the doctor and he believes I will be able to join them". It was not easy when some of our priests had to sit down with him to make him see that it would be a very demanding journey and that he was too weak for it. He initially struggled but then accepted with peace.
These are the times when prayer becomes your strength!
Two weeks' ago he was admitted at Manzini Clinic. While he was there he asked to receive the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. As part of that moment, he began by celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation (confession). He wanted to go through this moment making sure he was one with the Lord whose name is mercy. He wanted to make sure that the prayer of the Church all over the world for those that are sick would be his strength.
Fr Mabuza died on Friday (13 June 2025). On that day, the Church read words from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians. Looking back, I feel that God gave us those words to prepare us, to give us light regarding what we were going to face that night:
We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.
These words led him. He was aware that in front of such a sickness it was only God's overwhelming power that could keep him strong without despairing and, in this way, you and me would be able to see the life of Jesus alive in him.
Whenever we think of the passion of the Lord, at least two images come to our minds and hearts.
The first one regards the apostles, being unable to be with Jesus in his passion and death. It was not so for Fr Mabuza. His brother priests were with him all the time. I can testify to that. It was not easy for them. Being one of them, seeing him sick, seeing him going down... Sometimes one prefers not to look, not to think... but they were there! They were close to him, encouraging him, praying for him, visiting him, supporting him in his every need. They were a witness to the familiar passage in Matthew 25: "I was sick and...".
The second image regards the presence of Mary standing by the cross of Jesus. In my heart, I see in it the work and care of those doctors and nurses who took care of him. In my letter to the diocese I spoke about those at Mbabane Government Hospital ICU because we are all aware of the health crisis in our country. We read about it daily in our newspapers and hear about it from the people we meet.
What I have seen is that it is not a crisis about the quality of the personnel working at our health facilities. It is a crisis of resources. I do not think that Fr Mabuza could have met more professional and caring doctors and nurses than the ones who cared for him at ICU. It was something we noticed with the family a day after he was brought back to Eswatini. To me, they were like Mary standing by the cross of Jesus.
* * * * *
In my heart, I believe that God calls us to see the last two months in the life of Fr Mabuza under the light of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord!
He leaves with us an example of a Christian who held on to Jesus with all this strength; the example of someone who kept his eyes fixed on Jesus in his passion, death and resurrection.
Fr Mabuza, thank you! Thank you for being a witness to Jesus until death.
