Recounting The FruitsOf The Gospel Light

On January 19,2010, at the Mother parish of Owerri Ecclesiastical province- the Mount Carmel parish Emekuku, the Catholic faithful of the Owerri Ecclesiastical province under the leadership of their Bishops gathered in a solemn and joyful celebration to mark the beginning of the centenary celebration of the advent of catholic faith in the province. The inauguration which came on the heels of the celebration of the year for priests in Nigeria attracted many priests and lay faithful from all nooks and crannies of the province and beyond.

The intention for the Centenary celebration is no doubt to bear testimony to the success story and abundant fruitage of the missionary activity which broke through the dark thicket of the Igbo heartland to proclaim the message of salvation and to transform the lives of a people who were once groping in total darkness and almost lost in the labyrinth of sin and death like all peoples before Christ.
The light which was discreetly handed over to the local Church in Igbo land in particular by the Irish Missionaries has since then been thriving so much in transforming families and has even remained their fortress of peace and serenity. As the Bishops observed, without this light, our salvation would not have been wrought and the deep filial and loving communion which we now relish with God would have been a great mirage. And the deepest question about our human existence, its meaning and our noblest striving would have even been condemned to deep frustration and utter misery.

This light of faith therefore marked a great turning point in the history of the lives of the people of the Igbo heartland. As prophet Isaiah puts it, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. On the inhabitants of a country, in the shadow of death, light has blazed forth (Is 9:1)
In the Mbaise territory in particular, the light of faith has been glowing tremendously even more brightly than ever . In his opening address at the inauguration of the beginning of the Centenary celebration in Ahiara diocese, Bishop Chikwe deeply recounted the numerous progress recorded so far in Mbaise and noted with profound joy that within the last one hundred years, the entire Mbaise land has been moving from glory to glory, passing from the Status of a Missionary Station in Umuopara in 1914, to an established Parish in Nnarambia in 1933, to a deanery in the then Owerri diocese in 1980's and finally to a diocese on November 18, 1987.
Looking at this fact therefore, one would declare that the light of the gospel lit then in the Mbaise territory was just a blazing fire in a thickly populated forest of complete dry leaves. No wonder today, the five clans that came together as Mbaise in 1941 have recorded the fastest and highest percentage of conversion to Christianity in the whole of Nigeria.

Of the more than half a million people living in Mbaise today, only about 213 persons describe themselves as non-Christians. Among the 536,509 citizens of Mbaise, 422,798 of them describe themselves as Catholics, leaving only a paltry number of 113,498 to other denominations. The catholic population in Mbaise therefore represents about 80% of the entire population.
The number of parishes has increased from 19-71 in less than 2 decades. The indigenous clergy and religious have grown so much, ministering in so many parts of the world today as missionaries, giving back to the Universal Church what she received from the early Irish missionaries.
Today, that light of faith which has been fanned into flame with the true spirit and zealous practice of faith is what the catholic church in Mbaise is handing over to every catholic family to continue illuminating the faith and to burn out all the relics of paganism and other similar practices that are deeply incongruent with the authentic teaching of the church.

The church also by re-kindling the light of the faith originally ignited by the missionaries has the intention of reconciling all the families that have been bitten by the serpent of division and divorce, litigation and antagonism, injustice and oppression and even to combat the negative influences of the itinerant pastors and millionaire Jesus preachers who in order to attract adherents transform themselves into agents of division and even fraud.

By this celebration also, the church challenges and re-awakens the consciousness of all Christ ians especially Catholics on the need to imbibe and follow the true catholic catechesis. The church cautions Christians all over the world against the contemporary craze for miracles which has led many Christians astray. She also reminds all the faithful of the need to live a life channelled towards interior renewal and deep personal identification with the sacrifice of the cross which is the symbol of salvation.
In all, the church commemorates by this joyous celebration, the courageous fidelity, generous sacrifices and the selfless charity practised by the Irish missionaries and their indigenous colleagues and the other patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith in the province and diocese who really spent themselves in the service of the word and also challenges our own present Bishops, Priests, religious and even the laity to imbibe the same spirit of generous self offering in their different ministries and callings. To our different families who by this celebration have or will be revitalized with the same light of faith, the Church expects from them a deeper understanding and a more harmonious co-operation in living and witnessing to the faith.

May the Lord of the Gospel continue to enlighten us and bless our families with all the true ingredients of enduring faith, Love and Charity and bring us all to the everlasting light of the Beatific Vision.