HOMILY DELIVERED ON 21ST JULY, 2022. ON THE BURIAL OF VERY REV. FR. JOHN MARK CHEITNUM BY VERY REV. FR. JEGA DANIEL ROMANUS

HOMILY DELIVERED ON 21ST JULY, 2022. ON THE BURIAL OF VERY REV. FR. JOHN MARK CHEITNUM

                      BY

VERY REV. FR. JEGA DANIEL ROMANUS

Your Excellency, Most Rev Dr JULIUS YAKUBU KUNDI 

MONSIGNORI,

VERY REV & REV FRS,

DINSTINGUISHED LAITY,  

GOOD MORNING. 

It was saint Augustine of Hippo who at the close of his life said, “ in this  life we are all mortals, and the last of life shall be for every man on earth uncertain. But at infancy, there is the hope of reaching boyhood. At boyhood, there is the hope of reaching adulthood, at adulthood, there is the hope of reaching old age. But at old age, the individual must begin to think of returning to his maker.” However, there is no guarantee that the individual would reach the next stage of life. This is because every fulfillment of human history is a project reserved for God alone. {AUGUSTINIANUM HIPPOSENSEM 4} No wonder, this famous saying is credited to him, “ You have made us unto yourself O Lord and our hearts are restless, until tey find their rests in you. 

Dearly beloved, We are gathered today to bid farewell to a fallen hero. A priest of God ordained according to the order of Melchizedek. Someone who was anointed and set apart for the work of God. Someone who also is a bearer of the apostolic heritage. It is truly painful to see ourselves burying Fr John Mark today. This is because he has only attained three stages of life. The first is that of infancy, the second is that of boyhood and the last is the adulthood. As a vibrant adult, Fr Mark had a lot of dreams and aspirations set aside to be achieved in the future. He had dreams for his ministry. But fate brought all those dreams and aspirations to a dead end through the barrel of a gun. Possibly by those who never saw the four walls of a classroom. 

On 15th of July 2022, Fr Mark entered my house in the morning and asked, “ boy, are you not going to saminaka for the thanksgiving mass of your parish brothers?”, I simply told him I cannot because I would be graduating a set of students the following day. He said “ ok, in na dawo za mu yi gulma”. I wished him well and from there he proceeded. Little did I know that that was the end of my seeing him.  

Permit me to stress something very important about the personality of the priest in relation to his vocation. In ancient Israel, things consecrated and reserved for God are seen as holy objects. People who are consecrated also are seen as next to God. Prophets and priests were seen in the Old Testament as mouth-pieces of God. Because of their function, they are regarded as the most valuable persons within the community. Should there be serious problems in the community that defy human solutions, the priest{s} is approached to speak to God for answers or solutions to what they are facing. Since the priest is the only person within the community who speaks to God on their behalf, they see in him a representative of God {Flanders et al. 324}. To see the priest, is to see God in action. No wonder, we have this saying, “ touch not my anointed, and do my prohet no harm”. This tradition is what the church has improved on in defining the personality of her priest. He is the representative of God and therefore must not be played with. If you disrespect a priest or treat him in a way that undermines his personality and integrity, consider yourself disrespecting God too who ordained him to minister to you on his behalf. 

Today we are burying a priest who is a victim of a failed local government, a failed state and also a failed country. A country where animals are freer than human beings. A country where animals have high hope of reaching tomorrow than human beings. To ridicle me, I have a dog in my house that would always leave the house in the evening and would return in the morning. Any time am done with mass, I would see the dog returning. For me, the dog is trying to make me understand that, since we have decided to make life difficult for ourselves, they have taken over our freedom. Fr Mark died because the government of the day have decided to value the life of the criminal more than that of the good citizen.  

On the part of history, Fr mark died because he belonged to a religion that is seen by a group as an endangered Specie. For those of you who do not know, we are suffering the execution of a conspiracy unveiled on 12th October, 1960. It says, “The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Uthman Danfodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future” { Parrot NEWSPAPER, Oct 12th, 1960}. The oppression, the persecution and the humiliation is because we are Christians and we are a threat to the establishment of their dynasty. It may interest you to know that CAN was formed as a counter force to JMI{ Jam’iyar mutanen arewa}. Anytime there is a decision to be taken, it was done according to Islamic policies and principles. CAN was formed as a counter force to JMI. But what do we have today, a group of hungry people who parade themselves as Christian leaders whose life and spirit can be likened to that of Esau who sold his birthright for a pot of porridge. 

Today, the Christian religion has become an endangered species. Her leaders are now targets because they are seen as threats to the survival of their dynasty. What we are seeing is an execution of a project handed over from one generation to the other. What we are facing is a reminder that the name of Christ is more than any denomination. And if Christianity must survive in Nigeria and also in Africa, we must fight the evil of denominational discrimination. 

Fr John Mark Cheitnum was a fighter, a defender of social justice. One who stood for justice and was very passionate about the southern kaduna project. In him I saw the personality of a prophet in our modern times. He was there for the poor. He was also speaking truth to power. Fr died as a martyr. He gave himself for the service of the gospel. I would be happy if one day, the church in kafanchan and Nigeria would sponsor the process for his beatification as a saint. 

Fellow Christians, we all must know that if Christianity must survive, every Christian must be prepared to die. Every Christian must now stand for his/her faith. Every Christian must be ready to die because of his believe. The time of sleeping is over. Now its times to combine prayer with meaningful action. We have prayed enough and God is telling us now to work for our salvation. If we remain cold, posterity would accuse us for sending them to slavery. Those elders of ours who have the Judaic spirit, becareful.  God would demand an account of our lives from you 

May I also speak to our political leaders from southern kaduna. Enough of the sellout. Enough of the betrayal. There is never a political move in the state or in the country that you do not know. Sometimes you keep quiet and allow your people to be cheated because money is more important to you than the comfort of your people. I pray that, before God would demand an account of your decision, the people would speedily ask you on behalf of God. 

To you my brother priests, we have lost a brother and a friend. A fellow prophet has fallen. The death of a priest should remind us of our common unity. It should remind us of the need to hold our hands and walk together. Most times, we allow the lay faithful to know our common differences and weaknesses. These they use to their advantage. Now that we have become an endangered species, we must work towards strengthening our unity. We must manage the way we discuss and reveal the identity and projects of our brother priests before the lay faithful. The sheep that we cater for, have turned us into commodities they can sell to make money. We should be careful with the way we trust and believe in them. Some of them are informants to our enemies. They are the descendants of Judas who see in us commodities and not leaders. Let us return to the doctrine of unity that binds us. When we remain united, we shall succeed. But when we decide to put our differences into play, we would not achieve the result of our ministry. 

To you dear people of God, pray for us your priests that we may lead you well. We are your leaders and not animals that you can sell and make gains. Whatever differences you have with us, there are ways to settle that amicably other than what you do to us now. Those of you who hand us over to our enemies know this, when they are done with us, they would certainly turn to you.  

Finally, may I end with this quote from the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, “I spoke because I believed. In the same spirit of faith, we also speak because we believe. We know that God who raised Jesus from death to life, will also raise us up with Jesus and bring us, together with you, into his presence… for this reason, we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. This small and temporary trouble we suffer, will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory. 

Once again, may I register my sincere condolences to his lordship Most Rev. Dr. Julius Yakubu Kundi, the class of 2011{catholic diocese of kafanchan], the entire prebyterate of the diocese of kafanchan, the entire Christian faithful and the Christian faithful in southern kaduna. 

 

God bless you all.