Come Holy Spirit, come

Perhaps you have heard the saying that it is important to keep your head while everyone else around you is losing theirs. The time to heed that advice is now. As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Spirit, I feel compelled to return to the theme of fear which I addressed in my letter […]

Perhaps you have heard the saying that it is important to keep your head while everyone else around you is losing theirs. The time to heed that advice is now. As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Spirit, I feel compelled to return to the theme of fear which I addressed in my letter of appeal to Nigerians early this year. The thrust of my argument, then as now, is that although these are troubling times, they are still times of promise, hope and possibility.  I based my belief on God’s faithfulness and the fact that we as Christians are children of the resurrection, that we believe in a God who has conquered the devil, the father of fear. Perhaps more than any other time, this period of the gift of the Holy spirit is almost a perfect time for us to open our hearts to the gratuitousness of a God whose foolishness is wiser than human wisdom (1 Cor 1:25).  This is a time for discernment, that gift of the Holy spirit which should enable us choose what is right from what is wrong, the gift by which we can sift the chaff of superflousness from the grains of God’s eternal truth which is never swayed by any force.

As the clouds of doubt and fear continue to hover and our faith in both God’s will and our country is being tested, more and more among us are giving in to the ways of the flesh and not that of the spirit. As we seek earthly weapons to defend ourselves against evil as manifested in the murderous activities of BokoHaram, we must remember what St. Paul said to the Ephesians. Always hold in your hands the shield of faith to repel the flaming arrows of the devil (Eph 6: 16). Many people, Christians among them, believe that these are times for us to show that we are not weak, that these are times for us to say enough is enough, that these are times for us to face the enemy that we too are capable of deploying violence. Understandably, these sentiments may be the climax of our frustration and confusion. But moments like these should also remind us of who our Teacher and model is and what we have been called to stand for.

In our country today, we continue to experience political, social and economic insecurity. A sense of physical insecurity is predominant, especially here in the north, due to the evil and cowardly activities of Boko Haram. This insecurity is experienced by people of all faiths and of none, by people of all ethnic groups: the media, government agencies, security agencies and so on. As we know only too well, Christians have also been targeted simply on the basis of their being Christians and the simple routine of going to Mass has become in itself a risk that demands an act of faith. However, it is at times like these that we are brought back to the essentials of the faith we express. Suffering, blood and tears have watered and nurtured the Christian faith from the very beginning. This is why we still believe that, indeed, the blood of martyrs is the seed of our faith. The challenge is not for us to feel self-pity, but to look back at the way many of our ancestors, some of whom today are recognized in the Church as Saints, bore witness and what the meaning of their witnessing is for us today. To be sure, Jesus Himself said that: The hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God (Jn 16:2).

It is instructive to see how Jesus introduced the gift of the Holy Spirit to His distraught Apostles. Jesus knew that after His earthly exit, His followers would feel vulnerable and defenseless. It is within the context of this defenselessness that Jesus inserts the gift ofthe Holy Spirit as a sanctifying force, a source for strength, armour and encouragement to His followers. He assured them by saying: I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you……But when He comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you to the whole truth (Jn 16: 5,13). Jesus chose the moment of their greatest helplessness and weakness, to say to them: I tell you all this to keep you away from stumbling and falling away (Jn. 16:1). He knew that without the Spirit, his followers would be tempted to resolve to human solutions induced by fear, doubt and anxiety.

In the midst of all this confusion, I still want to condemn what I see as grandstanding, demagoguery, rave and rant by those who are offering quick solutions. In seeking to position themselves, some of our religious leaders have plunged into dubious analysis of our predicament and are offering us dubious cures even without a proper diagnosis. Till date, we have not come to terms with what is wrong with us and what is happening to us. Shades of ethnic, regional, sectional and religious bigotry are on display as warlords daily beat the drums of war according to these shades and offer to defend their people. We hear some callingon Christians to defend themselves against an invasion by Muslims and vice versa. Popular as these notions may be, beyond some cheap popularity won by those who propound them, they offer no medium or even long-term solution to our myriad of problems.

Amidst this conundrum, we are confusing the symptoms for the disease and making the victim a perpetrator. Our inability to take the spate of violence in totality has made it impossible for us to think through a solution or even appreciate what we can or cannot do. When Christians or Muslims claim self-defense, are they replacing the Commander-in-Chief of (all) the Armed Forces of Nigeria? Do the religious leaders who make such calls have a Judiciary to try suspects, or a Barracks/Post to hold suspects? Do these religious leaders believe they can resolve political and administrative problems of law enforcement and justice? Or are they calling on their people to take the laws into their hands? When threatening text messages began circulating calling on Christians to run for their lives (incidentally, it was the Sultan who first forwarded his own text to me), I told my people we were not capable of defending ourselves but that the Lord was with us and we need not fear. We had a meeting with the Sultan and the Governor. By alerting them, I believe we had done our duty. We of the Catholic Church went on to celebrate our midnight Masses both on Christmas Eve and New Year’s night, both ending well after 1am, unhindered.

I appreciate that we religious leaders must speak out against every form of evil directed against our country and our people but we must also appreciate that we are not living in an alternative state. There are no Christian or Muslim Streets, Roads, Local Government Areas or States in Nigeria. Therefore, we religious leaders must appreciate our role as citizens and stop misleading our people. Our nation is weak today due to the predilection of our leaders with corruption which has created an environment for impunity to thrive. The first pillar of legitimacy of any state is the protection of its citizens but this pillar has been seriously unattended to by our leaders and as such is crumbling and bringing the nation down with it. Our leaders must be reminded of their duty to protect all citizens. As religious leaders, rooted in the faith we adhere to and which we profess to proclaim, we have to use our God-given Teaching Authority to speak loudly and ensure our moral voice is heard. We mustseek to promote structures of democracy and right.

Those who are offering to lead Christians or Muslims to battle are dubiously and fraudulently asking their followers to spend money on that which is not bread, and labour for that which does not satisfy (Is 52: 2), to work for food that spoils (Jn 6: 27), to sow wheat which in the end will give us thorns (Jer. 12: 13), to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8: 7) and to dig cisterns that hold no water (Jer. 2: 3).

The tragic killings that have persisted in our country represent one of the most sorrowful moments in our history since the civil war. The sadness is even more so when we discover that countries like Algeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia or Rwanda, which suffered civil wars, have rebuilt their lives and fastened national integration with greater speed. After fighting a war, should Nigerians still be talking about dying along tribal, ethnic or religious lines rather than as citizens? We need an effective leadership to address this drift.

Those who claim that these problems are evidence of an impending religious war totally misread even the clear and unambiguous writing on the wall. If those who were killed in our churches are evidence of a war against Christians, where do we place those who have been similarly grisly murdered while watching football, in media houses, in bars, in their homes and so on across the nation? I am convincedthat what we have is a state whose structural defects have been compounded by corruption and made ineffective and that what we are dealing with is not religion but the failure of law enforcement and of appointed leadership.

The Catholic Church teaches that there are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and these are; Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord. If we ponder on these gifts in these trying times, they will help us understand how we as believers should respond to the problems of our nation. We must remain in solidarity with one another, be one anothers’ keepers and neighbour. Time and time again, Jesus showed us how Christianity was a faith without boundaries. This is why, our actions must be guided by a higher ideal beyond the enclave mentality that creates the impression that good Christians are those who band together merely to protect or defend themselves against external aggression.

The story of the woman at the well (Jn4), the Good Samaritan(Lk. 10), Lazarus and Dives (Lk 16) the Ten virgins and the last judgment(Mt 25),  all show us that in the end, those of us who believe that Christianity is a club that merely looks after its members are mistaken. The Church is not a Town Union nor are our Bishops and Priests our paramount Chiefs. We are not the praying wing of the Party in power even if our brother, sister or mother is a leading member of that Party. We are called upon to be prophets. That is why, the Catholic Church is calling on all its members to undertake a Pilgrimage of prayerin Abuja on Friday June 1, 2012. Prayer,not threats or demagoguery, breaks down barricades.

We Christians are not weak and helpless. Jesus said: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and Trust in me (Jn 14: 1). St Paul would later remind us that with God, human weakness gains strength through the Holy Spirit. When we are weak, the spirit comes to help us (Rom 8: 26). St Paul calls this weakness a boast when he says: I will boast of my weakness that the strength of Christ may be mine. I rejoice when I suffer infirmities, humiliations and want, persecutions for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong(2Cor 12: 9).

In this Pentecost, let us recall what St Paul said to the Philippians: Brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise think about these things (Phil 4: 8). The Prophet Isaiah reminded us that God’s word will not return to Him empty without fulfilling that for which it was sent (Is 55: 11).

Jesus did not give us the name, Christians nor did the Apostles baptize themselves with that name. No, it was the pagans of Antioch who saw the good work of the followers of Jesus and called them, Christians. We must condemn murder and violence but we must seek to love the murderer as a human being and help to turn their hearts to truth. If we borrow the murderer’s sword of evil, we become like him/her. That is why God has sent us His Spirit, to make us strong in the face of persecution and enable us, through the gifts of that same Spirit, to renew the face of the earth. That task must be accomplished well beyond the debris of our collective existence. Our dear Nigeria is part of that renewal and God’s promises will come true only if we are willing and obedient (Is 1: 19). Let the spirit of Truth cleanse our dear and blessed land, grant us forgiveness and teach us to love.

Kukah is Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto