By
Charles Muchiri
 |
| The late Rev Fr Richard Mutuku: RIP |
Fr
Richard Mutuku first struck me as a man who had proficiently managed to
intertwine his religious calling with his masterly of the media industry.
I
first met him at the Radio Waumini studios, along Thika Super Highway, where I
had taken my Church Choir to record the station’s Sunday Mass, meant for the
sick.
Having
put in place everything that was required for this Mass recording, one thing -
actually, the most important thing - was conspicuously absent.
We
didn’t have a priest who would say the Mass for us. “But not to worry,” Lydia
told me on phone. Lydia, is the very able receptionist at the Radio Waumini.
“We do have a certain priest whom we often engage; I will just talk to him and
find out whether he will be available,” she offered.
And
sure to her words, after a few minutes, Lydia called me, confirming to me that
indeed the priest will be available.
On
the material day for the Mass recording, I made sure that all members of our
church choir were at the Radio Station way ahead of the designated time – 9am.
Fr
Mutuku showed up, very much in time and ready to do what he knew best –
celebrating Holy Mass for the sick, in Kenya’s Roman Catholic owned radio studio.
That
Holy Mass is usually aired a day later, on Sunday, for those Christians who are
unable to attend Holy Mass due to poor health.
And
on 30 April 2013, Rev Fr Mutuku (35), together with his colleague Rev Fr
Stephen Kavita (32) passed away, after being involved in a car accident
somewhere near Limuru.
Bishop
Martin Kivuva of Machakos, was one of the three Bishops who graced the funeral
Mass of the late Rev Fr Richard and his colleague, at St Austin’s Church –
Nairobi.
“Fr
Richard had a passion for his work,” Bishop Kivuva said. “The Camillians
console the sick and the dying. But now it’s hard for them now to bury their
own, it touches deeply when death touches one of your own,” the Bishop
eulogized, noting that it is always important for Christians to be at peace
with God since death may not always happen through sickness.
Together
with tens of other Priests, nuns and religious men and women, the other two
Bishops who graced the Holy Mass were Bishop David Kamau, the Auxiliary Bishop
of Nairobi and Bishop Joseph Mairura Okemwa, of Kisii Diocese.
Now,
if, (going by the words of Saint Camillus de Lellis – the founder of the
Camillians Ministers to the Sick) while on earth, the hospital was a house of
God, a garden where the voices of the sick were music from heaven, then from heaven,
there will be two great souls that will continue interceding for the petitions
of the sick.
Comments
Post a Comment