WE
ARE AN “EASTER PEOPLE”
[Lenten
Pastoral Letter]
By
Most Rev. Dr. V. A. Chikwe
[Bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Mbaise]
Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral
March 5, 2003.
INTRODUCTION: “AN EASTER PEOPLE”
1. Believe me, we are an “Easter People!”
And, Lent, as you already know, prepares us for Easter
through spiritual purification. Easter people are “hallelujah”
people. Already, Otito diri Jesu!
Praise the Lord, is part of the way we greet ourselves.
Yes we have reasons to say: Otito diri Jesu
– Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Even though some
“specialists” in “Bible Study”,
say it is a repetition; they say, and rightly so, that
Hallelujah means Praise the Lord. But we must say it
again and again, in many languages as a rejoicing Easter
People, and in the light of Ps. 147.
2.
Ps. 147 is a song of praise and one of those that conclude
the book of Psalms. Psalm 148 is a summon to praise
to God. Psalm 149 is a communal song of praise, an invitation
to the whole community to praise God for its victory.
Psalm 150 concludes with a doxology. It is a song of
praise “that is almost entirely a hymnic introduction”,
1 implying we all should sing Hallelujah!
3.
Psalm 146, it is to be remarked, concentrates on the
individual. And it refers to the individual who must
be part of and remain in the “Hallelujah community”,
the “Easter community”. It says: “Praise
the Lord, my soul; I shall praise the Lord all my life,
sing praise to my God while I live.” It is important
to recall that St. Augustine affirms: “The Christian
should be an alleluia from head to foot”. This
means that a Christina’s life should transparently
be a praise to God. I say this because in the recent
times many of you have remarked, to my hearing and knowledge,
that “Bishop Chikwe is going charismatic”.
Yes, I have been charismatic from the beginning. And
I do encourage being charismatic in the right sense
of being “alleluia from head to foot”.
4.
Being “charismatic”, correctly, is a way
of being Christian. It is not the same as employing
hallelujah, as some charismatics do, in their Abarakataba
use of charism in being against the community and perhaps
in being fanatics. They are not “an alleluia from
head to foot”.
PART
I: Ps. 147 AND THE EASTER PEOPLE
5. Psalm 147 gives the reasons why Israel, as community,
returning from exile, should praise the Lord always.
We, Ahiara Mbaise people, in particular, like Israel,
as a community, should praise the Lord, Ahiara diocese
“is” the Israel addressed today. And, we,
also, like Israel, must recognize that the Lord “has
not done so much for any other” people as he has
done for us. [Ps. 147:20]. But unlike Israel, we are
an “Easter community”, through Christ Our
Lord, in Whose Resurrection we rejoice, as we rise also
to the new life of the Gospel. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
6.
“Hallelujah!” begins Ps. 147 and it continues:
“How good to celebrate our God in song; how sweet
to give fitting praise. The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem,
gathers the dispersed of Israel, Heals the broken-hearted,
binds up their wounds.” [Ps. 147:1-3]. The Lord
continues this work. The time of Lent offers us the
opportunity to pray for the Lord’s mercies.
7.
Psalm 147 directs our minds to the potency of the Divine
Word of God. He ‘sends his word and they melt;
the wind is unleashed and the waters flow.” [Ps.
147:18]. The word of God is melting among us and in
us. It is His promise to those who love and whom he
loves that His word will not return empty. I think this
explains, in a special way, why, in conclusion, Psalm
147 states: “The Lord also proclaims his word
to Jacob, decrees the laws to Israel. God has not done
this for other nations; of such laws they know nothing.
Hallelujah!” [Ps. 147: 19-20]. We are among the
nations for whom Lord does special things. Look around
in Ahiara Diocese and you will see it very evident.
PART
II: PERSONAL RENEWAL
8. Lent purifies us. Easter perfects us. Lent is our
means, “Easter life” our goal. I have mentioned
that a Christian, according to St. Augustine “should
be an alleluia from head to foot”. Some people
doubt the possibility of the effect of the grace of
God in their lives, and quietly ask: can any thing good
come out of me, out of my people? But I want to reassure
such people today that they have all the reasons to
praise the Lord. Do not despair!.
9. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
[Jn. 1:46]. This Nathaniel’s question was an expression
of surprise on hearing that the Messiah was from Nazareth.
It is informative of people’s attitude and expression
of inherited prejudice against others and, even, against
themselves.
10.
Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord of history. His history
is the history of our Salvation and Redemption. The
Exodus is the OT story of God calling [delivering] the
Israelites out of Egypt. In the NT Jesus was called
out of Egypt [Mtt. 2:15]. And He was, according to the
Divine wisdom, will and plan settled in Nazareth, not
only to prove that He would be called a Nazarene [Mtt.
2:23], but because being a Nazarene would give all of
us the courage to make the new beginnings, the renewal
dependent on repentance that Lent demands of all of
us. Nothing good could come out of Nazareth, yet the
BEST came from there!
11.
Personal renewal is connected to the communal renewal
if its motive is really divine and aimed at spiritual
purification. Love of God, we all know, is inseparable
from the love of neighbour. So peace with God expresses
peace with neighbour. And peace with neighbour naturally
leads to peace with God. When there is a disconnection
between them in any direction, then one should re-examine
the type of love one professes. This is the great message
of the parable of the Good Samaritan [Lk.10: 29-37].
PART
III: BREAK BARRIERS, BE RENEWED
12.
Christ gave us a new direction for personal and communal
renewal through breaking barriers prejudice and ignorance,
build against human relationship in four ways: tribe,
gender, sin and ignorance.
13.
The dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at
the well broke these barriers [Jn.4:4-42]. First, there
is the tribal barrier within the woman herself. She
expressed surprised that a Jewish man could talk to
a Samaritan woman for anything at all [Jn. 4:9]. Second,
there is the gender barrier in the disciples who were
surprised to see Christ talking alone with this woman.
They did not care what they were talking about. They
were just shocked [Jn. 4:27-28]. Thirdly, there is the
religious barrier sin had build in the woman. She had
to break this barrier within her by accepting that she
had men and never a husband [Jn. 4: 16-18]. Finally,
there is the barrier of ignorance which she had to break
through a recognition that Christ was prophet, leading
to her evangelisation and personal conversion [Jn. 4:19].
14.
It was at the moment she broke these barriers that she
herself became a missionary [Jn. 4:28-29]. Without knowing
it she began to announce the Good News to others and
to invite them to come and see the man who told her
all her sins. And, interestingly, the people believed
no longer because of the woman but because she had brought
them to Christ [Jn. 4:41]. Personal purification that
results in repentance, the acceptance of the Gospel,
begins life in Christ and, also, imposes mission as
a mark of the Easter personality.
PART IV: THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD
15. The Christian, an Easter person, a follower of Jesus
Christ, is typically a missionary, and, this is strictly
in the practice of his faith and in a religious sense.
Breaking the barriers mentioned above imposes this mission.
But we are called to be missionaries in the fullest
implication of being in the world
16.
The Christian carries his faith into his daily life
as a unit. The spirituality of the dichotomy between
the body and the soul has long been overcome by Vatican
II and by the decree, Apostolicam actuositatem,on The
Apostolate of the Laity. That apostolate has been emphasising
the role of the Laity in the temporal affairs of human
life. Vatican II defended the universal call to holiness
in daily life.
17.
Separation of Church and State is not, does not imply,
and should not be interpreted to mean and become the
separation of the individual’s religion –
Christian, Moslem, Traditional Religion, etc., from
his daily life. Those who, therefore, apply secularity
to the point of political secularism are the very danger
facing our country, Nigeria, its peace, unity, stability
and development..
18.
In the same way those who oppose secularity in order
to impose on all of us, Nigerians, a religious and political
credal fanaticism are a threat, not just to Nigeria,
but to the entire World peace. Therefore, a State religion,
in whatever name, is nothing but sharpening the dagger
for a holy war, and lacks, what the Holy Father, Pope
John Paul II has aptly called “gestures of peace”.
Gestures of peace guarantee religious freedom in a secular
country like ours.
PART
V: “GESTURES OF PEACE”, NOT OF WAR!
19.“Gestures of peace” is a phrase Pope
John Paul II used in His Message for the World Day of
Peace, this year. It was the 36th World Day of Peace,
celebrated now every January 1, 1968, by Pope Paul VI.
He declared then that it was His desire that “at
the beginning of the calender which measures and outlines
the path of human life in time, that peace with its
just and beneficent equilibrium may dominate the development
of event to come.
20.
It was consistent, therefore, that Pope John Paul II
used “gestures of peace” in the context
of the fortieth anniversary of Pacem in Terris - “Peace
on Earth”; the 1963 Encyclical Letter of Blessed
John XXIII. It was addressed to all men of Goodwill.
The Holy Father, then, as His predecessors do today,
appealed to their cooperation and collaboration in the
achievement of peace on earth. Pope Paul VI in January
1968 made it clear that His proposal for peace was “not
intended, … as exclusively ours, religious, that
is, catholic”.2 It was proposed to all.
21. I believe we have men of Goodwill in our country,
Nigeria! I implore them, at this time of Lent, in particular,
to join me in appealing to both the “political
secularists”, “Religious Regionalists”
and the “State religionists” to learn from
Our Lord Jesus Christ who asked one of His followers,
during His Passion and at the peak of the trials of
the first Lent, to put back his knife into its sheath.
[Mtt. 26:51-54].
22.
Was He not the One Who asked that we render to Ceasar
what is Ceasar’s and to God what is God’s?
Why is it that some “Nigerian Caesars’ want
to take God’s share? Terrible!
23.
Some of them have often reminded Christians that Jesus
taught us, for their benefit and delight, but not for
their belief, that we should turn the other check when
they struck us on the one. Turning the other check we
must. But before them, we must ask them whether they
accept the words of Christ? If so, why do they not believe
in Him and become Christians or, at least, friends with
Christians and accept the original message of the Lord’s
teaching? If they do not believe in Christ, why do they
apply His teaching out of context?
24.
Turning the other check was meant and still means a
process of achieving peace and justice, through non-resistance
and, perhaps, non acceleration of violence. It was put
in the context of the Jewish law of retaliation [Mtt.
5:38-42], so as to avoid the circle of violence. After
all He spoke of the Love of enemies [Mtt. 5:43-48] concluding
with the mandate that we be perfect as our heavenly
“father is perfect” [Mtt. 5: 48].
25.
“Gestures of peace”, Pope John Paul II said,
“create a tradition and a culture of peace….
Religion has a vital role in fostering gestures of peace
and in consolidating conditions for peace.”3 Has
the Church not been preaching, and, in the recent past,
Pope Paul VI said it loud and clear: “If you want
peace work for justice”? But some of our politicians
will hear none of it. Because, for them, politics “is
the practice of government”, and, by this they
mean “the art of winning control of public affairs”,
with little regard for and, working for peace. And they
make a lot of gestures of war and little gestures of
peace.
26.
Some of them, it must be admitted, are beginning to
accept, on the personal and private levels, this message
of peace and reconciliation as preached by Christ. A
friend of mine, a Nigerian Muslim, once told me how
he reconciled a personal conflict through reading the
Bible, accepting its message and applying it personally
to his life. Give to Caesar what is Caeser’s and
to God what is God’s [Lk. 20:21-26] solved for
him the problem he had within him. He is a Muslim from
whom Allah claims all. All he is a Nigerian soldier
from whom his nation claims all. From the Bible he learned
that true nationalism and true worship of God do not
conflict!
PART
VI: BE CATHOLIC IN POLITICAL LIFE
27. Be Catholic, not fanatic, in politics! Many have
forgotten what the simplest and common definition of
politics really is. It is the ability to be in the world
and survive in it or die in clear conscience in the
pursuit of peace in the process of achieving common
good. The Catholic, the Christian is not absolved from
this responsibility. I mentioned above that working
for peace is not just a Catholic thing; it is the thing
of all men of Goodwill.
28.
I recall, from time to time, a discussion on World politics
and peace, I had a few years ago, with an Italian friend
of mine, a politician. I recall it especially after
encounters with our own politicians here at home.
29.
I was asking my Italian friend why European politics
was becoming increasingly anti-Christian and particularly
anti-Catholic in Italy. “I am a good Christian
and a good and a good nationalist”, he told me.
“But you and your party are not!” I replied
him. “Sono Catolico non sono fanarico”,
he exclaimed. This means, I am catholic and not a fanatic!
Note he moved from Christian to Catholic.
30.
I asked him to explain. Because I knew this saying is
attributed to an influential member of the Italian Communist
Party. And in the context it was used, as far as I can
recall, it means that being a “cultural catholic”
was fashionable; but that practising Catholicism makes
one a fanatic. This was the communist ploy then to attack
Christians in politics. During that discussion my friend
moderated his view and said that a good Catholic is
always guided by Christian principles in politics and
in his public life, even if his party is not. But that
he would not leave the party.
31.
I remembered his stand when late last year I read the
Vatican document: “Note on the Participation of
Catholics in Political life”, issued on the feast
of Christ the King.4 This document insisted that by
“fulfilling their civic duties, ‘guided
by a Christian conscience’, in conformity with
its values, the lay faithful exercise their proper task
of infusing the temporal order”, with the spirit
of love, peace and justice. In this way they defend
their faith in politics.
32.
The Church has been teaching, the document reminded
us, that the “commitment of Christians in the
world” is expressed in the “Christian involvement
in political life”. The document reminded the
Lay faithful of “Saint Thomas More,who was proclaimed
patron of Statesmen and politicians”, and that
he “gave witness by his martyrdom to ‘the
inalienable dignity of human conscience’. He taught
by his life and his death that ‘man cannot be
separated from God, nor politics from morality’”.6
33.
I must draw your attention to some of our good politicians
who are “people-oriented” in their approach
to politics because they work for the people. I also
know, as well as you do, of the “party-oriented”
politicians who are slavishly tied to their party programmes,
even if, and when these programmes are calculated to
destroy people, impose hardship on them and take away
their freedom for fair and free election. This is why
I think, “politics is not slavish acceptance of
positions alien to politics”7 itself, understood,
as working for the good of the people.
PART VII: ST.
THOMAS MORE OR “ST. NICODEMUS”?
34. I cannot, but wonder who, do some of our politicians
take as their patron Saint, Saint Thomas More or “Saint
Nicodemus”? I see more of those who prefer Nicodemus
[cf. Jn. 3: 1-12]. I mean those who have not appreciated
the effect of being a Christian as being “born
from above” [Jn. 3:3] and still lack the courage
to profess their faith in Christ openly and practice
it publicly. They still come to Christ at night. And
I say: “St. Nicodemus” pray for them! They
are party-oriented politicians and are disoriented from
the needs of their people. Why do they obstruct amenities
simply because it is not coming through their party?
35.
I pray that they learn what it means to be purified
in truth and in spirit, and thus be charismatically
convinced in the power of God to deliver them from their
personal exile in the land of political aridity and
iniquity. Perhaps, we need to remind them that there
is still time for them to look to St. Thomas More for
courage and patronage. What constitutes the timidity
that makes our sons and daughters conspicuously absent
in politics is still beyond my comprehension. Mbaise
nwere madu! Where is it reflected in the politics of
this land? If politics, they tell us is the “game
of numbers”, we have them! Yet what are we doing
with this determinant political power? Well, this is
time of Lent, a time of spiritual invigoration. I believe
we still have hope. Mbaise nwere madu. Umu Mbaise, anamakala.
36.
May the Good Lord keep you in your resolve to be the
“Easter People”, may you be purified in
the blood of the Lamb.
Most
Rev. Dr. V. A. Chikwe
Given at Ahiara,
Maria Mater Ecclesiae Diocese, Ahiara Mbaise.
Ash Wednesday, 5 March 2003.
________________
REFERENCES:
1. Gift of the Psalms. P. 137.
2. Message of His Holiness, Pope Paul VI, For the Observance
of A Day of Peace, 1 January 1968.
3. John Paul II Pacem in Terris, World Day of Peace,
1 January 2003.
4. NOTE ON THE PARTICIPATION OF CATHOLICS IN POLITICAL
LIFE, VATICAN, Nov. 24, 2002, the Solemnity of Christ
the King.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
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