BY NATHANIEL I NDIOKWERE (Catholic Priest)
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, fellow priests, “Alter Christus”, what is this hullabaloo, this commotion, fuse, uproar over WHERE, WHAT and HOW the Archbishop performed just a little bit of his clerical function!! Where should the Archbishop have addressed his “sermon”, “homily” or “Statements”? At a political rally, in the market place or street corner?
WHERE SHOULD IT BE?
WHERE did Christ the Lord, the Master, the Teacher and our MENTOR make similar “speeches” those days? Not in their TEMPLES AND SYNAGOGUES? (our modern houses of prayer, nicely dedicated churches and mighty cathedrals), where his target audience, SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, and CHIEF PRIESTS (our today’s politicians, APC, PDP, APGA, TPC political gangs, the ever-unrepentant oppressors of my people) gathered? And when Christ saw a good opportunity, he addressed them in their TEMPLES AND SYNAGOGUES, as well as in places he saw the crooks gathered in large numbers! Once out of annoyance, he made whips and drove those ‘buying and selling’ in the house of God! They were doing their HARVEST AND BAZAAR in the temple! And we do that today, too! He was not even born when the temple was built and dedicated! But he was BOLD AND FEARLESS , the awaited CHARISMATIC LEADER!
AND “WHAT?”
WHAT did the Master tell the SCRIBES AND PHARISEES? Sweet words, ‘wonderful’ homilies? And how many times did they usually applaud his words? How many times did they clap for him in admiration? “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees ………….hypocrites, thieves, oppressors of the people, the poor, the homeless, the widows ……!”
Please, dear reader, go and rehearse the “Seven woes” and update your knowledge and contents of the old PENNY CATECHISM! We memorized them and recited them like nursery rhymes when we prepared for First Holy Communion those days. If you stumbled, or missed one of the “WOES” that meant “failure”. You could wait for another set of new communicants in two years’ time! Not kidding you! Reason? Very important stuff to commit to memory: “the hard teachings of the Lord. It also appeared in the Religious education textbook we used in Primary School those days: “THE STORY OF MY RELIGION”. Good stuff for the modern “humble, careful, cautious, trembling priests and preachers!”
THE SEVEN “WOES” (Matthew 23: 13-27)
(1) “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.
(2) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell .
(3) “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.’
(4) You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.’ How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.
(5) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
(6) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.”
(7) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth"
“HOW” TO DO IT?
“HOW” DID THE ARCHBISHOP PREACH?
Archbishop Obinna talked to the SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, staring at him, especially those sitting on the front pews of the synagogue, including grand leaders of deceit, corrupt, wicked and heartless leaders! Should the Archbishop praise the AHABS AND JEZEBELS there? He would have missed an important opportunity or occasion to deliver, simply deliver, recite, rehearse the old Master’s “Woes!” If he had failed that would have been a regrettable tragedy!
The manner of delivering the “Woes”, no matter who were there or were represented should be unique, together with what was said. Have the “Scribes and Pharisees” there not violated the rights of IMOLITES, NDIGBO, OHANEZE, and scandalized, abused and humiliated our youths? Igbo graduates are driving KEKE, our retired elders and parents are ignored and some die in poverty. The young School and college girls take to prostitution in the dark streets of the metropolitan cities, at home and abroad, just to “make ends meet!” And the political leaders spend millions molding statues of the living and the dead; building estates and mansions for family and self; dictate who should take over from them, come 2019! And NDIGBO try to ignore evil and look the other way!
Who are responsible for the catastrophe? Are they not those sitting in the church pretending to be honoring and praying for the dead? Who should blame the Archbishop for performing his duty as a representative, the spokesman of the oppressed and downtrodden? And they want to continue and perpetuate a lineage of oppressors, blind leaders and hypocrites!
DESECRATION OF THE HOLY TEMPLE ?
There is nothing like that, dear! Each time Christ preached in their temples and synagogues, his listeners always GRUMBLED AND GNASHED THEIR TEETH in anger and frustrations. Several occasions they tried to lynch (kidnap) him! But did Jesus care? Scribes and Pharisees and chief priests present in ST MICHAEL’S CATHOLIC CHURCH NGWOMA, OWERRI could ‘leave the dead bury the dead’ and fight among themselves. They were free to grumble and gnash their teeth!
“Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine………………. When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.”(Luke 4: 29ff)
NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
Yea! It could have made headlines in Nigeria newspapers if the Scribes and the Pharisees, together with their CHIEF PRIESTS AND ELDERS hauled abuses on the Archbishop or even slapped him, spit on him or pushed him down within or outside the sanctuary of the church at NGWOMA. They did worse to Jesus. During the STATIONS OF THE CROSS, we were told that Jesus fell on the ground three time. That’s not HOW it happened. The soldiers and the surging crowd of enemies and detractors PUSHED HIM DOWN ON THE WAY TO CALVARY , simply to increase his pains and make mockery of him, just as they stripped the Master naked, nailed him on the cross!
ELECTION OR NO ELECTION – NO CHANGE
ANY ELECTIONS WITHOUT FIRST RESTRUCTURING THE COUNTRY CALLED NIGERIA IS A FARCE, RIDICULOUS, A BIG JOKE!
I have repeated it times without number that NOTHING will change in IMO STATE and in NIGERIA as long as honorable people fail to show up for leadership. If people like ARCHBISHOP OBINNA, don’t show up, forget about it! But priests are not usually “political candidates” and even if nothing prevents priests and bishops from contesting for political leadership, (I don’t include Pentecostals and Pastors and founders of new churches, healing and adoration center ministers), no one is sure the clergy can do better. The scriptures confirm it: “By their fruits you shall know them!” Those emphasizing the importance of the so-called REGISTRATION or VOTER-CARD or PVC or what, I advise to see a psychiatrist! They are not well.
We don’t need PARTIES – APC, PDP, DPF or TCP. They are BIRDS OF THE SAME FEATHER! We need NAMES, NOTHING BUT NAMES of emerging young leaders, who have learnt from the outspoken CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF OWERRI, HIS GRACE ANTHONY OBINNA, a great HERO of our times, at least in the area or situation NDIGBO find themselves today, almost a lone voice in the wilderness.
There are however a few others like Archbishop Obinna, who are in the position to “make things happen”. Surely very few people in Nigeria know truly how AHIARA-MBAISE BISHOPRIC PROBLEM was finally resolved! Not all “Good Samaritans”, lovers of justice and FairPlay like to blow their trumpet. Only the Lord who sees in secrete rewards them. To God be honor and glory!
CONCLUSION
Let young IGBO energetic political aspirants and possible liberators or freedom-fighters, possible “MESSIAHS” show up and the CATHOLIC CHURCH IN IGBOLAND will prove its worth. OHAKIM and ROCHAS drama will repeat. The handwriting is already on the wall. WHAT DO YOU SAY? WHERE DO YOU STAND ?