Misa dalam Bahasa Malaysia

Actually I was thinking of writing this in Bahasa Malaysia but typing it will take too much time because I need to process the translation in my brain, type it out and maybe I need to refer to my Alkitab and mass order book for the correct terms.

Today, on the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time is Bible Sunday. I am a lector and Bible Sunday is a reminder to us lectors the importance of our role. We are the chosen people who are privileged to communicate the Word of God to the congregation. Father Francis A reminded us lectors the other day that we must communicate and not merely read the Bible. He said our role is important because we are preparing the congregation to listen to the Gospel and Homily.

Since I am reading the Alkitab or the Bahasa Melayu Bible, I had expressed my interests to Father Fab to celebrate mass in Bahasa Malaysia. In Penang, we have a small community of East Malaysians Christians who are working here. We also have another community of Christians who are Indonesians.

So, I was informed by Father Fab to be at OLS at 11.15 am because today is one of the rare occasions when there is a BM mass. I must applaud the guitarist cum commentator and the cantors who are at OLS because they really put up a beautiful mass inspite of limited resources. Praise the Lord for these dedicated people. May the Lord showers His blessings on them so that they can grow in numbers.

The night before, I went through the order of the mass in the red booklet (found in most Catholic churches) and try to get use to terms they use. You know, saying Amin does not come out easy for someone who is so used to Ay-men. So, I didn’t bother to force Amin out, let it be Ay-men when I received the Body of Christ.

I manage to grasp most of the order of the mass. However, I will be totally lost if not for the red booklet. Now, I know :

Syukur kepada Allah = Thanks be to God

Terpujilah Kristus = Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

And I just learned that wafat is mati. Hahaha, I thought wafat means sihat. Doh.

Anyway….it is beautiful to be able to experience the Word of God in Bahasa Malaysia, our Malaysians national language.

However, I pray that these small communities of East Malaysians and the Indonesian Christians who are working or studying here get to celebrate mass in Bahasa Malaysia more often. When Father Fab gave his homily, I notice many of them were wiping away their tears because Father Fab touched on finding comfort in Christ despite of the hard times and challenges we face. Father Fab is fantastic too because he didn’t make the mass monotonous and staid but instead, so casual and uplifting. When he cannot think of the right BM word to express something, he asked the congregation instead of blabbering. Hahaha.

As Christians, I think all of us should be more aware of the needs of our Christians brothers and sisters whose only medium of communication is Bahasa Malaysia. Let’s see how we can help to make the Christian community more welcoming to them because many of them have traveled far away from their homes to earn a living here. They are our guests and it is our Christian duty to be friendly to them.

Kabulkanlah doa kami, ya Tuhan.