‘Whenever a tragedy strikes, it really tests our faith, stick to the Lord and do not abandon the Lord, he has not and will not abandon you’.
This was the consolation Fr Santino Lounoi offered to mourners on Thursday during the last funeral rites of the late MP Irene Peter Paul Longole who died last Friday in Juba of liver cirrhosis, anaemia and typhoid, Emmanuel Radio reported.
Fr Lounoi said people always ask why God could not spare the life of the deceased like Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary who felt that Jesus abandoned them when he did not come before the death of their brother.
He advised the mourners to turn to the Lord as Martha and Mary did.
The priest said ‘God does not abandon us in our time of suffering, but God suffers with us’.
National and state Assemblies MPs described the late MP Irene as a leader, a mother and a non-discriminatory person.
They commended her for her good work especially caring for orphans before surrendering her life to God.
Born in 1959 to Mr Loturi Lodamoi and Mrs Angela Apoo in Kapoeta town of Eastern Equatoria state, the late Irene is survived by her husband, MP Peter Longole and four children.
The late MP Irene is number three of deceased MPs of Eastern Equatoria including the late Speaker Ambrose Emmanuel Ocholimoi who died in February and Marcelo Otwari Dominic who died two years ago.