Come to Terms with Personal “internal struggles, demons”: Kenyan Catholic Priest to Youth

The Kenyan Catholic Priest added, “Befriending our demons, befriending our internal challenges and external ones gives us a method of recognizing how our thoughts and emotions are developing.”

Internal struggles, which are sometimes deeply hidden cannot end “until you decide that I will befriend those demons, slay them and submit them to Jesus Christ,” he said.

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“Befriending our demons helps us to see the repeated patterns that we have and then to transform ourselves into instruments and servants of God,” Fr. Mbuthia who has been Chaplain of MYM in the Kenyan Archdiocese since August 2022 said.

The member of the Clergy of the Kenyan Archdiocese to emulate the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and other Saints who humbly surrendered everything to God in dealing with their struggles.

He urged the Catholic youth who were drawn from the Parishes of Nairobi Archdiocese to surrender their struggles to God so that He can transform them into the greatest instruments.

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Fr. Mbuthia cautioned the youth against paying attention to internal voices of destruction, which he said are “unfortunately making some young people start contemplating suicide.”

He went on to underscore the need to handle internal struggles and the related hurts and pains, which can easily plunge one into depression manifested in “hatred, isolation, and judgmental attitudes”.

Reflecting on the biblical story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, Fr. Mbuthia urged the Catholic youth to emulate the haste that characterized the visit, and apply the same in dealing with their respective internal struggles.

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Similarly, he said, the same way Jesus left his image on Veronica’s cloth, He leaves His image in the hearts of those who rise with haste to reach out to others with kind assistance, including soothing the troubled hearts. 

“Every time we give ourselves, every time we arise in haste, every time we give our hands, our feet, our heart, our mouth, our ears to listen, our eyes to look to Jesus in those around us, even those who are unpleasant to us, He leaves His image in our hearts,” the Catholic Priest said.

Fr. Mbuthia went on to give the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary who, he said, did not allow her own inner struggles to weigh her down.

He told the Catholic youth, “Even though Mary had those internal struggles just like you do, she was able to give them to Jesus to handle them, to deal with them that it seemed as if they were not there.”

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“Love will help us to arise with haste; it will help us to treat every other person as Jesus,” the Catholic Priest said during the MYM Eucharistic celebration that Archbishop Philip Anyolo of Nairobi Archdiocese presided over.

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Fr. Mbuthia added, “We have to identify role models, people who can be trustworthy, the people you can truly open those internal frustrations to.”

He also encouraged the Catholic youth to take part in the Sacrament of Penance, and to be keen to seek the grace of God in handling their respective inner struggles.

“Always focus on God and keep asking for His grace. He might not take away the mountain but He will give you grace to persevere and overcome the challenges,” the MYM Chaplain in Nairobi Archdiocese said on April 29.