Mr Evans Nyakundi, thanks for all those years at Hekima (Fr. Okoria SJ)

By Honore Onana Olah, SJ

January 29 was an opportunity to celebrate the traditional Wednesday Mass in the chapel of Hekima College as usual.

A mass which was taken by the students and the staff of the college. It was also an opportunity to remember that at the beginning of the month during the mass presided over by Fr John Okoria, SJ, Principal at Hekima, a Jesuit institution based in Nairobi in Kenya, organized a magnificent send off to Mr Evans Nyakundi, one of the staff members who was retiring after thirty years having served in the institution.

During this Eucharist of January 8, 2020, marking the beginning of the second semester, Fr Okoria, SJ, notably insisted in his homily on a discerning love. “We Jesuits, he said, have a key meditation in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, called the meditation on the Incarnation. According to that meditation, the reason God sent Jesus into the world on Christmas day is not because we did not deserve the mess we have put ourselves into but because of God’s unconditional love”. Quoting the successor of St Ignatius, Fr Arturo Sosa, General of the Society of Jesus, the main celebrant of the day affirmed that: “our main task as a Jesuit university today is that a loving service that is geared towards social transformation…our love is service to the most vulnerable in society, the jobless and the homeless, the poorest among us whom society neglected”.

The Principal of Hekima College did not forget to invite the members of his institution to be aware of the oncoming new document untitled Jesuit Schools: A living Tradition in the 21^st century-An Ongoing Exercise of discernment.

While addressing a word of gratitude to Mr Evans Nyakundi for all those years serving the community as Circulation Librarian, he wished also a warm welcome to the Jesuits Fathers Jean Luc Enyegue, Irudayaraj SJ, for having returned from their mission and joining Hekima College staff as lecturers.